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A new online service has entered beta phase in New York City, as reported by Forbes. SWITCH, a crowd-sourced online database, rates the city's restaurants based on their sustainability. The website's founder, Gerald Mitchell, wanted to create an easy way for consumers to identify restaurants that exercise sustainable practices. The ratings are not limited to the establishments' environmental friendliness. Rather, it covers everything from the business's recycling practices to how well the treat their employees. In a world of Yelp!, Foursquare, Google listings, and a host of other online resources, does SWITCH have a place, or is it just more noise?  SWITCH (yes, it appears they capitalize the entire world), whose motto is "Buy Better", has a goal of helping consumers to make more responsible choices when it comes to spending their money. The idea is that as more restaurant-goers recognize the importance of sustainable practices, they can speak with their wallets, theoretically leaving less sustainability-minded establishments with no choice but to adopt new practices or lose customers. The website rates restaurants based on five categories, "Health", "Environment", "Local", "Workers" and "Community", and each business receives an overall rating between minus and 5 (-5 to +5). The information for the scores comes from a variety of sources, with Mitchell hoping to draw most information directly from consumer surveys. Other sources include information from the Green Restaurant Association, which scores businesses based on their environmental friendliness. Consumers who visit the website can search based on category, restaurant or neighborhood. Currently, the website only covers about 8,000 restaurants (of approximately 25,000) in New York City. Expansion plans are unclear, there is a possibility that the website could branch out to other states, or they may first focus on incorporating ratings for non-restaurant businesses in NYC. So what do you think? Is SWITCH filling a gap, and helping consumers to make better choices, or is this just another online aggregation of restaurant reviews? Let us know what you think via Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter. Source: Forbes, Image Credit (SWITCH)