I’ve written about sustainability and its impacts for and on big business and large organizations in the past. I’ve tried to keep the topics focused on how sustainability can help them adjust or modify their policies, practices and procedures.

So, indulge me for a minute here. Too often we get caught up in the “Big Picture” of corporate activities and lose sight of the millions of little companies that are out there working every day to help us keep this economy turning.

On a recent business trip I stumbled on one such company, and it made me stop and think about the importance that these guys have on helping to create truly sustainable local communities and economies.

Gallo Blanco, located inside the swanky Clarendon Hotel in Phoenix, AZ, is just such a place. The owner of the cafe, Doug Robson, a native of Mexico City, is one of those great people you meet unexpectedly that “gets it.”

Doug talked with me about the planning that he put into the cafe, how the furnishings he used were re-claimed. He told me about a friend that had a family member that owned a cabinet shop saved the scraps and created his great-looking tables and how that the main cabinet top in the center of the cafe had come from a fallen mesquite tree that was laying in a field.

Doug also talked about the importance of buying his produce, meat and breads from local suppliers. He had stories about how he had reduced his waste volumes by making operational changes within his kitchen and moving from disposable dinnerware. Doug is active in local sustainability initiatives and is planning to open another establishment in Phoenix later this year.

I’m not a restaurant critic, but if you are in the Phoenix area and are looking for a great place to eat that also is working to help bring sustainability to the table, stop by and visit with Doug.