Business & Tech

Ermanno's Pizza Leading the Way for 'Green' Businesses

The locally owned pizza shop, with locations in Louisville and North Canton, was awarded a green business scholarship and participated in a green audit in late 2012

Editor's note: The following news release was provided by Stark State College. The North Canton Medical Foundation recently was featured in a North Canton Patch story, too, for its participation in the Green Business Roundtable. Find that story here.

Would you like green pizza? You will at Ermanno’s Legendary Pizza. Green as in environmentally friendly, not too like green eggs and ham.

Ermanno's has been participating in the Green Business Roundtable hosted by North Canton Area Chamber of Commerce and led by Stark State College and Kimberly Babcock of Inspiring Spaces Sustainable Design & Consulting.

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Ermanno's was one of three local businesses to receive scholarships to be part of a green business audit in late 2012.

Like the audit performed at the North Canton Medical Foundation, another scholarship winner, Babcock's green audit uses a methodology developed by Strategic Sustainability Consulting and data collected through surveys and on-site visits to provide carbon footprint data, benchmarking and recommendations in the final Green Audit Report. The scholarship includes additional consulting time for each company to advance green initiatives (or sustainable strategies).

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Ermanno's is already a sustainable leader in its field by purchasing local and fresh ingredients, recycling their cooking oil, using bleach-free boxes as well as their community focus.

Babcock's recommendations for the pizza shop included creating a Green Team with not only the owners but interested employees. She suggested that the shop always place a recycling bin next to every trash can and to invest in “smart strips” that power down unused equipment.

Additionally, restaurants can make a big impact on their carbon footprint through their purchasing. Some of the environmentally preferred suggestions were to switch to 100 percent recycled content paper and to consider establishing a standard Environmental Purchasing Plan (EPP). Also included in this category were things like promoting cutlery and dishware for the kitchen and investigating cleaning solutions and products that meet Green Seal or GREENBAURD certifications.

Lisa and Alan Frank, Owners of Ermanno’s Legendary Pizza, will be giving a presentation at the Greater Stark County Green Business Roundtable on March 12 about “Measuring Sustainability” with Bob Nappi, Director Human Resources and Facilities at the North Canton Medical Foundation. All Greater Stark County Green Business Roundtable meetings are held the second Tuesday of every month from 8-9 a.m. at the Jackson Belden Chamber of Commerce offices in Jackson Township.

Ermanno's Legendary Pizza not only has a passion for their award winning artisan dough but also the future of our planet.


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