One tradition reigns supreme each summer: the outdoor cookout. Although few agree on what constitutes real barbeque, most concede a great cookout requires a sturdy grill, fresh food and friends to share it with. Yet beyond a basic awareness that throwing away disposable plates and cans can be wasteful, many are unclear of the hidden ecological impacts of our backyard celebrations. As environmentally concerned consumers, it’s time to make “green” part of our grilling tradition, one veggie burger at time.

Grilling Green

The great green grill debate is on: which is more eco-friendly — using a charcoal, gas or electric grill? While gas grills are touted for their relative greenhouse gas (GHG) neutrality, looking at each product from a lifecycle perspective including how the fuel is created and distributed leads to questions about the relative environmental merits and drawbacks of each cooking option.

According to Tristam West of the Department of Energy’s Natural Laboratory, a charcoal grill releases twice as much carbon as a gas grill. Additionally charcoal grills and lighter fluid are proven contributors to ground-level ozone according to the EPA. Charcoal grills also release particulate matter into the air, which means that prolonged exposure can have a negative impact on human health. However, looking at the entire carbon cycle from a longer-term perspective, grills using lump charcoal are closer to carbon net neutral because lump charcoal is produced from wood and trees take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

By West’s estimation, electric grills have the highest emissions per hour when including the production and transmission of energy. These impacts can be mitigated when electricity is made from renewable sources. Your best bet is to match your expectations for flavor, portability and convenience to the type of grill you select, and then do what you can to minimize the impacts of your chosen cooking instrument.

Choosing Among Grills

• Gas Grills — Gas grills are fueled from petroleum or natural gas, both non-renewable fossil fuels. Advantages of these grills include quick start times, year-round usability, temperature consistency, and minimal cleanup. Gas grills also emit less smoke and particulate matter directly onto the cook site. If you’re going with gas, invest in a high-quality, energy efficient model and make sure the gas tanks are refillable.
• Charcoal/Wood Grills — Many are willing to trade the convenience of a gas or electric grill for the taste from a charcoal or wood grill. You can lessen the GHG footprint of a charcoal grill by using only natural lump rather than charcoal briquettes, and a charcoal chimney rather than lighter fluid. Lump charcoal burns hotter than briquettes, so choose a grill that allows you to easily regulate airflow so that you can better control the temperature. Also, try to minimize the time you spend at the grill in order to prevent prolonged exposure to particulate matter emitted when you’re burning charcoal.
• Electric Grills — Only choose an electric grill if your home power is from green rather than traditional sources, as these grills may otherwise have the highest GHG footprint (depending on the origin of electricity in your location). Electric grills plug directly in to an outlet and are similar to gas grills in terms of temperature control, cook time, and flavor.
• Other Grills — Newer and potentially greener grills continue to emerge, including pellet grills and hybrid grills, which optimize electricity but accommodate small amounts of charcoal and wood for flavoring purposes. These grills are harder to come by, as they’re not available everywhere grills are sold, but they are rapidly emerging as the newest green grilling trend.

Charcoal/Wood Varieties

Cooking charcoal comes in two main forms, briquette and lump. While these products seem similar, there are vast differences from an environmental perspective.

• Charcoal Briquettes — For coal-cooked chow, the flavor comes from a combination of sources: the food itself, the rub or marinade, and the coals or wood. This means that whatever materials and additives your fuel source contains will permeate your food. The charcoal briquette commonly contains additives such as sodium nitrate. Self-igniting forms also use petroleum solvents as accelerants, which can be harmful to one’s health if not fully burned off prior to cooking. Briquettes, however, are easy to come by and usually burn cooler and more consistently than lump.
• Natural Lump — Lump charcoal, commonly made from natural sources (i.e., from trees) or from processed wood (such as wood scrap), contains few or zero additives. Seek out brands certified by the Rainforest Alliance’s SmartWood program or find ones that are created from sustainably managed sources, invasive tree species, and rapidly renewable sources like bamboo.
• Charcoal Ignition — Whether opting for briquettes or lump, get the fire going by using a charcoal chimney rather than lighter fluid, further eschewing chemicals present in the fluid.

Meal Planning

Hamburgers or veggie patties? Potato salad or veggies and dip? When weighing these quandaries against health and environmental factors, deciding what to serve can be a tricky task. Before planning a trip to the grocery store, consider reducing the environmental impact of your meal by downplaying beef and opting for chicken or vegetarian options, serving more generous portions of vegetarian fare as the entrée rather than as side dishes, and by making a multi-purpose meal.

Better yet, make a vegetarian version of your favorite meal. “Where’s the Meat?” is exactly the question that your guests should be asking the next time you host a cookout (or at least, “Why isn’t there more of it?”). Many people, as they get more devoted to eco-friendly ways, say goodbye to the notion of the jumbo-sized grill overflowing with succulent T-bones and burgers and hello to serving modest portions of grass-fed beef and non-overfished seafood accompanied by large helpings of seasonal vegetables. The livestock industry creates more greenhouse gas emissions than global transit and is likely the largest sectoral source of water pollution according to the UN.

Additional impacts include water consumption and land use for pastureland and feed crops. Choosing grass-fed meat helps to mitigate some of these impacts by reducing the amount of water, nitrogen and petroleum used to feed cattle. However, two of the largest impacts from the cattle industry remain: methane produced through bovine digestion and land-use changes from the expansion of land for feed crops.

If you do choose to keep some beef on your grill, consider downsizing this offering from entrée to side dish and ask your guests instead if they feel like chicken tonight.

Sustainable Shopping Solutions

Lovers of Kashi products are well acquainted with sites to source healthy, seasonal, and specialty foods. For those still scoping out the scene, the Eat Well Guide allows you to search for local grocers, farmers markets, CSAs, and restaurants that offer local, sustainable, and organic products.

Be sure to understand labels when buying natural, organic, and pasture-raised products. To help you with this task, Sustainable Table has produced a useful pocket-sized glossary reference of meat production terms. to accompany your guide to sustainable seafood and seasonal produce calendar.

Still confused about the differences between grass-fed and grain-fed? Consult the comprehensive Sustainable Dictionary available from Sustainable Table.

Cooking Lean and Green

Before firing up the grill, learn what other Kashi community members have to say about grilling responsibly and prep your grill the natural way by using heat to sear off grill remnants and brushing the grate with olive oil to prevent food from sticking.

Take special care when cooking grass-fed beef, as it is leaner and more sensitive to overcooking than grain-fed alternatives. Sear the beef first over more direct heat, and then complete the cooking process by grilling at a lower temperature. (In other words, move the beef farther away from the flame.) Cook smaller veggies on skewers or on a baking cooling rack placed on top of the grill — it’s still hot enough on top.

Cleanup

The coals are cooling, the guests have gone home and its time to gather the garbage and call it a day. As a knowledgeable green consumer, you likely have minimized the use of disposable plates, napkins, cups, and single serving packages in favor of washable utensils and bulk-sized beverages containers. (Punch anyone?) The reward for this responsible behavior is minimal trash, a fridge filled with wanted leftovers, and the promise of a fantastic BBQ sandwich and grilled vegetable lunch tomorrow.