Punahou student Whitney Sia explains, "LEAF stands for Leaving Earth a Future and it's a student driven organization mentored by a couple of adults and our goal is to encourage and promote green practices in restaurants."

Kakaako Kitchen Operations Manager Billy Bal had started down the green road some time back...trying to re-cycle when possible, using environmentally cleaning agents. 

He was glad to make the switch when the students from LEAF approached him.

"And in order for us to be around for a sustained period of time, we really have to take care of it and it's nice that the kids are just there and they're really pro-active in this whole arena,” said Bal.

The students are aware the change over may take some time.

Punahou student Jeff Li says, "The basic idea behind LEAF is that because we understand that a lot of these switches to being sustainable - like switching from styrofoam to a more environmentally friendly container - it costs them more money than what they could be paying if they were using styrofoam."

With that in mind, LEAF wants to get the word out about those restaurants making the green conversion.

"So the main goal of LEAF is - in exchange for them becoming more environmentally friendly, we're helping to promote their business in a number of different ways,” said Li.

"One of our mentors is putting all the advertising in Twitter and we have about 300 followers or so,” added Sia.

Word is guaranteed to spread fast among the generation that has perfected social networking.  Other restaurants taking part include Town, Red Ginger, Wedding café and Mocha Java.

As for Billy Bal, he says his customers heartily endorse the green move. "It's made a good impact and I feel like - it's just going to be a great thing for everybody to see that people in general care about the land and the kids you know."