It looked as if 2010 were shaping up to be The Year of the Italian Restaurant in New York. But this fall it seems to be Thai food that’s in play. For a while, much of the food and restaurant buzz in the Big Apple was about Italian food.

Michael White’s Italian seafood restaurant Marea won the James Beard Foundation Award for the best new restaurant, and Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich’s Del Posto won a rarified four-star review in The New York Times — the first Italian restaurant to do so in decades.

This is the first story of a four-part series about how restaurants can improve sustainability practices.

Going green isn’t exactly an easy process for restaurants, but those that make the investment – from finding ways to reduce energy use to sourcing local or organic produce – can reap significant rewards with customers and in cost savings.