Sustainability is not a checkbox. It's a competitive edge.
Jamil Bouchareb is the founder and CEO of Restaurantware, a leading supplier of eco-friendly foodservice products. Raised in his parents' restaurant, he has spent his career at the intersection of hospitality, design, and sustainability — and has spent it arguing that doing this well is an advantage, not an obligation.
What drives the work
Sustainable foodservice
Restaurantware, founded in 2010, supplies eco-friendly foodservice products to restaurants and hospitality operators worldwide. Jamil has led it as CEO from the first order to today.
Design and materials
Sustainability decisions are material decisions. Jamil stays close to product development, sales, and marketing — leading from inside the work rather than above it.
Purpose-driven community
Through the Green Hero Foundation and “Power Lunch for a Purpose,” business becomes a vehicle for giving back.
Latest writing
Why We Sell Twenty Thousand Things
Most suppliers go long and deep on one product and win on volume. I built Restaurantware the other way: a catalog of about twenty thousand items, built for small orders. Here's the logic, what it costs, and why I'd do it again.
Compostable Is a System You Join, Not a Product You Buy
About one in five Americans have a composting program that accepts packaging at all. A packaging CEO on what the access data and the composters actually say, and four questions to ask before you switch.
Paper, PLA, or Wheat: What the Straw Actually Costs You
Paper, PLA, and wheat straws priced from one public distributor catalog, plus what the lab research on paper and PLA actually shows. A packaging CEO on when the cheap straw is the right call and when it isn't.
