Description: White Dog Cafe (WDC), located at 3420 Sansom St, Philadelphia, was founded in 1983 by Judy Wicks, who continues to own and operate the business. With a mission to serve fully in four areas - serving customers, employees, community, and the environment, the White Dog models "doing well by doing good," and is known internationally as an exemplary triple bottom line business, measuring success by environmental and social impact, as well as by profit.
Sustainability Narrative: For over 24 years, WDC has strived to be a model sustainable business. In many areas, we have emerged as an innovator in sustainable practices, and many of our ideas have been duplicated by other business - locally, nationally, and even globally. The following is an overview of key elements of our business practices:
Sustainable Food - WDC buys 100% of its meat, poultry and eggs from small family farms where the animals are raised humanely and sustainably on pasture. Support of such farms provides an alternative to the corporate factory farm system, which pollutes soil, air, and especially the water system from the concentration of manure, and endangers consumer health with their use of anti-biotics and hormones. In season, WDC purchases fruits and vegetables from local organic farms, and in winter many purchases come from organic farms elsewhere and local organic greenhouses. All fish and seafood comes from sustainable fisheries. In 2001, we started the Fair Food Project of the White Dog Cafe Foundation (our non-profit affiliate) in order to teach these practices to other restaurants, because we realized that being one sustainable business was not enough - we needed to help build a whole sustainable local economy. WDC continues to support Fair Food, which provides services to local farmers, publishes consumer and wholesale guides to local farms, runs a farm stand in the Reading Terminal and links farmers to the urban marketplace. When products are not available locally, WDC purchases fair-trade products, such as organic coffee from an indigenous cooperative in Mexico (to whom WDC made two loans of $20,000 to start the coffee exporting business and provided grants for organic certification and shade trees), Choice organic tea, organic cane sugar through Equal Exchange, organic vanilla from a cooperative in Papua New Guinea, and organic chocolate from coops in the Dominican Republic, Peru and Costa Rica. Additionally, WDC's gift shop, the Black Cat, sells fair trade organic coffee and chocolate, as well as fair trade crafts, and products made from recycled materials.
Green Energy/Recyclinq/Pollution Prevention - In 2001, WDC became the first business in PA to buy 100% wind-generated electricity, up from 40% begun in 1999. Our kitchen was retrofitted to use energy-efficient light bulbs. In addition to the purchase of sustainable food products, WDC works to minimize pollution and reduce waste through the use of eco-friendly all-purpose cleaner and bathroom hand soap, and the use of recycled bleach-free paper products (including office paper, napkins, paper towels, coffee filters and to-go containers and bags). Our trash bags are made from recycled resin, and the paper plates for off-site events are produced from recycled sugar cane stalks. All of our paper, glass and metal waste is commercially recycled through a cooperative center WDC helped start, and we have just begun a project to compost our food waste into fertilizer that's used for landscaping by the University of PA. Used fryer oil is recycled into bio-fuel to heat greenhouses by one of our farmers. Additionally, WDC encourages public transportation by participating in the Transit Check program, allowing employees to purchase SEPTA passes from before tax wages. We provide discounts for customers who have a SEPTA trans/trail pass, or who use Philly Car share, and encourage bicycle transportation through our bicycling events for customers.
Social Justice/Equity - WDC believes in paying a living wage to all employees; our entry-level positions pay $9/hour. Additionally, we provide a wide range of benefits (including to tipped employees - unheard of in the restaurant industry), such as a contribution towards heath insurance, a matched IRA, and paid holidays and vacations. We have a mentoring program for high school students interested in the restaurant industry. WDC contributes 20% of profits to local non-profits including White Dog Cafe Foundation, which works to build a just and sustainable local economy in the Philadelphia region.
Cultural/Community Engagement/Partnership Building/Education - WDC hosts numerous educational events such as talks, services days and community tours on sustainable agriculture, alternative energy, green building, and many other issues of public concern. As SustainLane's website states: "The White Dog Cafe, featuring Judy Wicks' locally procured organic food, is the cultural center for urban-rural linkages statewide, with its breakfast talks, movies, and weekly community gatherings." WDC builds many partnerships with non-profits including the Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY) for our "Childwatch Reality Tours," the Mural Arts Program for our mural tours, Pennsylvania Horticultural Society for our community garden tours, and numerous environmental organizations for various eco-tours and talks throughout the year.
Leadership/Impact (locally, nationally, globally') - WDC believes that our innovations are not just for our advantage, but also for serving the greater good. We've shared our practices and experience with our competitors through our Fair Food Project, and with many different local businesses through the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia (SBN), which was also started as a project of White Dog Cafe Foundation (WDCF). During its early years WDC provided the office, staff, equipment, supplies and financial support for SBN, which recently was spun off from WDCF to become its own independent non-profit with over 400 members. SBN is a founding member of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, a national organization co-founded by Judy Wicks in 2001, and also financially supported as a start-up by WDC. Nationally, WDC is viewed as a model enterprise in the local living economy movement, and helps teach the concept that "buying local" reduces global transport, a major factor in global warming. Through its newsletter, WDC has taken leadership positions on many important issues of the day, and through educational programs, WDC has cultivated a generation of activists who are committed to environmental and social issues. Our impact is both at home and abroad. "Table for Six Billion, Please," WDC's international sister restaurant project, builds relationships between WDC customers and staff, and citizens of countries where there is poor dialogue with the U.S. Wicks has traveled extensively to speak on the WDC model and its role in the local living economy movement, including speaking trips to Canada, Cuba and India and numerous domestic engagements at business schools, conferences and community gatherings across the US. WDC has been featured in many magazine and newspaper articles, and books by such prominent authors as David Korten, Peter Singer, Mark Albion, and Frances Moore Lappe.
Results: In the 24 years since Judy Wicks first opened WDC as a takeout coffee and muffin shop on the first floor of her house, we have grown into an internationally known model of how a values-based business can be economically viable, while sustainable and just. Our impact can be measured socially, environmentally and economically. Dollars spent at the White Dog are spent by the White Dog to buy from other local independent businesses, buy environmentally responsible food and products (including over $300,000/yr on local farm products), pay a fair price to our suppliers and a living wage to our staff, and provide charitable dollars of up to $60,000/annually. Few businesses can claim this kind of long-term commitment and success. Our values are not a marketing device, but rather the guiding principles of our operation. And we continue to ask ourselves what we can do better, year after year.
