Resourcefulness and commitment help a founder live the vision of building a sustainable community

Sustainable practices implemented from resourcefulness and creativity can enable lower-cost practices. A vision focused on sustainability and community service, rather than food service, fosters opportunities for greater positive impact. Use social media, videos, and other online resources for self-directed learning without local industry mentors. Finally, ask for forgiveness, not permission, when trying new sustainable practices.

Wooden Boat is a small Vietnamese take-out restaurant specializing in cooking with locally sourced sustainable products. It is housed inside a local brewery and is a 99% saran wrap/aluminum foil and parchment-free kitchen, where BYOC (Bring Your Own Container) is encouraged, and biodegradable utensils and takeout containers are a must. Sustainability is a driving force behind the operations of the restaurant. Executive Chef and Owner Thompson Tran applied lessons about the use of local proteins from his time working at other restaurants in Vancouver and began to focus on local products, suppliers, and farmers. The Chef sits on the Board of Directors for the CTA (Culinary Tourism Alliance) and is an advisor for the Food System Roundtable of Waterloo Region. He strives to promote equitable access to food the sustainability in food systems and considers food literacy, food education, and food security as central to his work.

From the beginning of his business, he first approached sustainability to increase financial gains. First, he was motivated to reduce waste and increase financial gains. He began working with his sous-chef, who was interested in and knowledgeable about fermentation, and they began saving peelings and other food scraps to reuse. Instead of throwing away scraps, he reused them for other purposes. For example, bones that were used for broth were then smoked and sold as dog treats: his decision to be sustainable was both based on financials and waste reduction. Additionally, he began incrementally phasing out unsustainable packaging, saran wrap, tinfoil, then no parchment paper. Thompson uses his business’ sustainability practices both as a cost-reduction mechanism and as an advertising method, using sustainable storytelling to invite consumers and suppliers to the business. 

Many of Thompson’s sustainability practices come from his own research and initiative. For example, he heard about a technology called CoolBot on his own, purchased it, and used it to build his own walk-in cooler, which saved him money. Thompson credits his Sous-Chef with helping him start the business’ sustainability story, as his Sous-Chef was involved with fermentation processes and brought those into the kitchen. 

Practices began as ‘chit-chat’ between the two and, eventually, they began fermenting food waste to use in recipes. Thompson also uses Youtube and Instagram to research sustainability and zero waste methods. Financially, Thompson uses his own capital to invest in sustainable resources, as well as grants from three of the Green Spaces programs and the Waterloo Region Tourism Adaptation and Recovery Program (TARP 2) grant. Thompson also used his partnerships with Fescon, the Culinary Tourism Alliance, Explore Region Waterloo, and Ocean Wise to bolster his sustainability practices. 

He also uses his community connections with consumers to support free sustainability practices, for example, he received mulch for free and customers helped shovel it into his compost beds. In addition, to procure high quality local proteins, Thompson reached out to a friend who is an organic farmer for supplier recommendations. Once Thompson advertised that he was selling a specific farmer’s meat, other local, high quality farmers began to reach out for him to use their meat.

Thompson has hosted a chef-to-chef talk called “Sustainability in Every Kitchen” and provided sustainability information to the Chase Hospitality Group, which owns around ten restaurants. Their Executive Chef reached out to Thompson and Thompson provided information of his sustainability practices, which he believes were implemented in some restaurants. Thompson also uses social media to educate consumers and competitors on sustainability initiatives and to support local programs and other businesses. Thompson doesn’t consider his business to be just a sustainable restaurant, but a business of food education, food literacy, and sustainability in business.

Local farmers: Provide regular supplies and alternatives on the ingredients locally produced, which support the restaurant’s goal of local sustainable farm to table products.

Food certification alliance: Helps inform the restaurant on the types of validations necessary to establish  sustainable food standards. It has a strict membership base which is important for networking and learning about practices in the region.

National sustainable protein association: