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SUNDAY NIGHT in the North End. There's a queue in front of almost every restaurant, the cars are honking to get the valet's attention, and Jose Duarte, the redwood-sized chef and owner of the immensely successful Peruvian-Italian restaurant, Taranta, is standing in the middle of Hanover Street. Why isn't he in his kitchen, pounding pork chops or juggling pans of gnocchi? Because this is the moment that the guys from Green Grease Monkey (www .greengreasemonkey.com) are delivering his new pick-up, with a diesel engine that's just been retrofitted to run on waste vegetable oil. And Duarte, who says he's "taking the North End ‘green,' " can't wait to jump in his new truck and ride it around the block.

Duarte is a good example of how green consciousness creeps into the restaurant industry. He's a small-business owner, a busy guy, with two young daughters and a restaurant to run. Successful, yes, but there's not a lot of extra cash in his business or in his life. Still, he was committed to doing his "bit to keep the earth clean" for his kids, and their kids. "How hard, how easy, how expensive would it be for a small guy like me to make a difference?", he wondered. Sustainable food sources were the first thing: he was already working with local farmers and fishermen. Then he heard about the Green Grease Monkey guys. Surprisingly, he didn't have enough used vegetable oil to "grease" his own wheels, so he took up a collection from neighboring North End restaurants, whose menus had more fried items, to get enough fuel for his pick-up. It's a win-win for all: typically, a restaurant has to pay to have their old grease taken away; now, Duarte simply drives it away. It's a do-good, feel-good situation. But what to do next?

Duarte's research led him to Green Restaurant Association (www.dinegreen.com), a Boston-based nonprofit that provides consulting and certification for restaurants that want to go for the green. We're not talking about the kind of green that comes from buying organic zucchini (although buying locally-grown and produced food is definitely part of the equation). This is the not-so-sexy stuff: the things that have to do with reducing pollution, cutting back on toxic cleaning chemicals, using less electricity and water - modifications that restaurants can make without compromising service, operating costs, or flavor. Because while you are what you eat, you're also what you don't consume. Who knew that restaurants account for 30 percent of all retail electricity consumption in the country? Or that they're responsible for more than 10 percent of all trash collections?

With the GRA's help, Duarte is on his way to becoming one of Boston's certified green restaurants, which means that he must do three things immediately: use a comprehensive recycling system for all products that are accepted by local recycling companies; renounce Styrofoam containers (doggie bags are now brown bags); and most important, commit to completing four environmental steps per year of membership.

Michael Oshman, who launched the GRA in 1990, is ecstatic that his green certification program is starting to make some real inroads in the restaurant industry. The GRA helps restaurants figure out how to be more environmentally responsible and ultimately secure their green certification. Among the steps it encourages: using energy-saving light bulbs, and using napkins made from unbleached paper. It insists that its certified restaurants do not use any polystyrene foam, and it scouts for products and solutions: finding the right light fixtures, setting up the recycling program, sourcing non-toxic cleaning supplies, and providing training and consulting. By next spring, Oshman's group will have certified almost 400 restaurants. "A lot of restaurant owners are seeing that this is good, cost-effective business, but also that there is now a strong consumer base that values this," Oshman says. "Diners are very interested in knowing who's gone green."

In Boston, a host of restaurants are already certified, including Grille Zone, the Fireplace, Oleana, the State Room, Johnny D's, the Langham Hotel, and Lumiere. Several others, includingUpStairs on the Square, Veronique, and Taranta, are on the path to certification. Oshman says it takes three months on average for a restaurant to make the necessary changes to start on the path - four steps are required. Oshman, who's been working on this movement for more than 15 years, thinks that going green is actually cost-neutral, even cost-positive, for restaurants. "Some of the changes, like reducing linen rentals by going to chlorine-free paper table tops, changing to low-energy use bulbs, and more efficient water use," he notes, "start paying back the investment right away."

Back at Taranta, Duarte is on GRA's step four. He loves his solar-powered candle lights on the tables and the restaurant's new dimmable lights; he's banned Styrofoam, and installed super-efficient hand dryers in the bathrooms. He's tightened gaskets, and added a high-pressure accelerator to wash dishes with less water. "I'm already saving money on my electricity bill, with 80 to 90 percent of the bulbs switched to photovoltaic," Duarte says. By setting up his own recycling system within the restaurant for glass, plastics, paper, and composting, he's drastically reduced his "regular trash." When he looks out at the yards of recyclable materials that he previously "just threw away," he thinks it's a crime that Boston doesn't require or provide recycling for businesses. ("How difficult would it be to pass a recycling ordinance in the city of Boston?", he wonders.)

As Sunday-night dinner at Taranta winds down, as diners spear the last gnocchi on their plate and spoon up the last bit of silken flan, they're unaware that they're eating dinner in the middle of a major revolution. @

To find out if your favorite restaurant is certified green, check for the certification seal on the menu, look for a sign in the window, or visit http://www.dinegreen.com/.

[Photo by Kelly Davidson]