ARLINGTON, Va. — Ted Turner struts into one of his busiest restaurants at lunch hour and is ogled by startled customers. One overeager diner leaps in front of Turner for a handshake, then gushes, "Love your food, Ted. What's next?"

The short answer: green grub.

Turner, the media mogul turned philanthropist, now wants to be known as something of a different color: a green restaurant owner. In other words, a guy whose restaurants leave a smaller carbon footprint on the environment.

Which is why you won't find a plastic straw or cup in any of Ted's Montana Grills 55 casual-dining restaurants. The straws are made from biodegradable paper. The menus are printed on 100 percent recycled paper. Even the cups are cornstarch.

Turner is helping to fund a "green" restaurant initiative that the powerful National Restaurant Association will unveil tomorrow at its annual convention in Chicago. The purpose: to nudge owners of the nation's 945,000 restaurants to think about controlling energy use and waste creation.

"Imagine the implications for global warming if we get the whole restaurant industry to go green," says Turner.

If the restaurant industry can dial down the enormous environmental damage it does daily even slightly, it would be huge. Restaurants are the retail world's largest energy user. They use five times more energy per square foot than any other type of commercial building, says Pacific Gas & Electric's Food Service Technology Center.

Nearly 80 percent of the $10 billion dollars that the commercial food service sector spends annually for its energy use is lost in inefficient food cooking, holding and storage, says PG&E's tech division.

The average restaurant annually consumes roughly 500,000 kilowatt hours of electricity, 20,000 therms of natural gas and 800,000 gallons of water. Using the latest EPA carbon equivalents, this amounts to 490 tons of carbon dioxide produced per year per restaurant, estimates PG&E.

Then there's all that trash. Restaurants produce far more garbage on a daily basis than most other retail businesses. A typical restaurant generates 100,000 pounds per location of garbage per year, estimates the Green Restaurant Association.

There couldn't be a tougher time for the $558 billion restaurant industry to put on a green face. Fewer consumers are eating out due to the tough economy, and those who do are spending less. The industry outlook, as measured by the NRA, fell in March to its lowest level on record. Some 55 percent reported a same-store sales decline.

But just six months into her job as the NRA's new president, Dawn Sweeney is pushing the green button hard. "It's huge to me professionally and personally," she says. "We can do more, and we will."

The NRA has created a Web site, www.conserve.restaurant.org, that offers tips on how restaurants can conserve water, energy and construct "greener" buildings, and gives restaurant owners a place to share ideas.

The industry didn't suddenly get a green heart. Chipotle has lived and breathed green since its founding 15 years ago. Starbucks has been an industry leader. But for the most part, the industry is responding to criticism and to new awareness that restaurants can save serious money by taking small steps.

Industry actions, not words, need to be watched, says Michael Oshman, founder of the Green Restaurant Association, which certifies green restaurants.

"It's great that everyone is hopping aboard the green bandwagon," says Oshman, who's lobbied for green restaurants since 1990. "But they need to hop on board more than the marketing."

The industry is late to the game. "The restaurant industry tends to follow, not lead," says Chris Muller, restaurant management professor at University of Central Florida.

But some chains are making genuine efforts: