Pizza Fusion’s Web site is powered by renewable energy. Its toilet paper and towels are 100 percent post-consumer. Countertops were once plastic detergent bottles. The insulation inside the walls used to be blue jeans. There are brands that talk commitment to the environment—and then there is Pizza Fusion. The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Standards) certification that each store holds is just one part of what the chain is doing to “save the Earth.”

What began as one store run by two friends in Deerfield, Florida, in 2006 has since grown into a 24-unit chain, complete with a seasoned franchising veteran on board. See, Pizza Fusion founders Michael Gordon and Vaughan Lazar intend to make their brand and its operating model a national movement. And Vice President of Franchise Development Randy Romano is along for the ride.

QSR talked to the trio about the challenges of growing a brand like Pizza Fusion, with its higher construction costs and stringent construction standards, in an industry more accustomed to blue jeans on its customers than in its walls.

Quite a few concepts are going the organic menu route, but most aren’t focused on green building. How did that strategy become part of the Pizza Fusion model?

Michael Gordon: It was more like a challenge of what more could we do. I read something about it, and we were doing a couple things already. We were using environmentally friendly materials, different recycled-content materials.

Once I read about it, I was like, “This is the way we should do everything.” I realized there was so much more, especially in the water efficiency and actual cost-saving tasks that we could complete that really cut down on the everyday cost of running a restaurant.

I come from real estate, doing houses, so there are different things I picked up. Then it was a matter of putting the whole puzzle together—low-flow toilets, low-flow this, low-flow that, different materials, different paint. As you gain more and more information, you see what changes you can make.

Are your homes green?

Gordon: I am so energy efficient I don’t even have a refrigerator.

Vaughan Lazar: At home, the way it works for me is like in our restaurants—we have to be as practical as possible. If you’re going into a store that’s already built, a retrofit, a $120,000 solar-panel system isn’t really practical.

So at home, when it comes time to change out a toilet, I’ll be sure to change it to a low-flow toilet, but I’m not in the financial position right now to go in and retrofit my house just to be a “green” house. But as each opportunity presents itself, I would certainly choose that option over a traditional option.

Which brings up an interesting point: What percentage of new Pizza Fusion stores are retrofits versus new construction?

Gordon: All are brand-new.

Does retrofitting fit into your model?

Lazar: It’s possible, but, for the most part, the concept is so unique and in order to build to LEED specifications, it’s got to be done from the ground up.