Hospitality Sustainability Resources 2026

Together Hospitality Chicago hosted our 2nd Annual Sustainability Panel at The Plant, a former meatpacking facility in Back of the Yards reimagined as a closed-loop food business incubator. The event brought together farmers, restaurateurs, and food-systems leaders for a conversation on what sustainable sourcing actually looks like in practice, tracing the full supply chain from farmland access and direct farm relationships to menu strategy and closing the waste loop. The panel put a real emphasis on concrete steps restaurants can take starting Monday, and attendees left with practical resources and a renewed sense of how much impact individual sourcing decisions can have. Our panel featured:

1. Carolee Kokola, Director of Operations at The Plant
2. Adam Pollack, Founder of Closed Loop Farms
3. Jason Hammel, Chef & Co-Owner of Lula Cafe
4. Kelly Larsen, Chicago Metro Farms Fund Manager at The Conservation Fund