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At Sam’s, we’re committed to the environment and ecological systems from where our food is sourced and grown – and we’re working hard to meet today’s needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
Rooftop Solar Panels
at Sam's Chowder House
Bar Manager Leslie Martin
on her fuel-efficient "Mojito"
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Our newest addition is a solar electric system, which covers our rooftop. It adds about 13.8 mega watt hours of electricity annually for the restaurant, saving lots of energy!
For to-go items, we use 100% biodegradable and compostable boxes made from sugarcane. After the sugarcane stems are crushed and the juice is removed, the dry fibrous material leftover is called bagasse – and that’s used to create the durable, disposable to-go boxes.
We recycle all of our rice-based, trans fat-free vegetable oil from our fryers. Given that we are an East Coast-style seafood house with many fried seafood items on the menu, this represents about 300 gallons a week. The oil is picked up weekly by Dave Eck of Half Moon Bay Auto Repair (recently featured on CBS news – check it out at http://cbs13.com/topstories/
local_story_150001403.html. He filters and heats the oil, to produce “diesel” fuel for up to 10 of his vehicles.
Even Sam’s employees are getting into the act. Bar Manager Leslie Martin now rides a fuel-efficient “Mojito” to work everyday – we think that’s awfully fitting!
We have replaced all of our incandescent lights with fluorescent, which are known to outlast up to 13 incandescent bulbs, consuming far less energy.
The problem today is:
- Over two-thirds of the nations fisheries are overfished.
- Billions of pounds of fish each year are wasted as unwanted “bycatch,” and hundreds of thousands of seabirds, marine mammals, sea turtles and other marine life are killed through destructive fishing practices.
- Fish are oftem caught or farmed with heavy trawl nets dragged behind fishing boats – these bulldoze the ocean floor, crushing and destroying sea life in their path.
- Some fish farms discharge pollution into surrounding waters, requiring more wild fish to be used as feed and may supplant vital fish shelter and breeding grounds.
- Many fish are now contaminated with heavy metals like mercury, industrial pollutants like PCBs and pesticides like DDT.
At Sam’s, we choose seafood to eat or sell that is caught or farmed in an environmentally sensitive manner, which protects the long-term health of individual fisheries and our ocean ecosystems as a whole.
Whenever possible and practical, we source fish using the Seafood Watch recommendations published by the Monterey Bay Aquarium (http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp).
The good news is that seafood that is harvested or raised more carefully often has superior taste, freshness, and purity. And better managed fish farming operations use few if any antibiotics and other chemicals.
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