"Greening" your restaurant

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Saul Teplitsky on February 7, 2008 at 6:50pm

Today's Tip

Energy Efficiency & Conservation
Energy efficient technologies and conservation practices exist for lighting, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, foodservice appliances, office equipment, and transportation.

Permalink Reply by Dan Richesn on March 14, 2008 at 6:59am

Saul,
What types of green products are in your bag?
My company offers all things related to ventilation, including several energy saving scenarios.

Will be happy to answer any questions I can on kitchen ventilation.

Permalink Reply by susan holaday on August 18, 2008 at 5:24pm

I'm interested in knowing more about your products - I have a northeast business publication- Foodservice East - and website with content that changes continually - www.foodserviceeast.com - and I'm working on a story about operators in the Northeast getting involved in greening - Frankly, I'm astounded there've been so few responses to this discussion group -

Permalink Reply by susan holaday on August 20, 2008 at 7:08am

Saul-
Curious to know why you haven't posted ways to make restaurants more environmentally friendly yet? Is it the lack of response? I know there are operators here in the Northeast who would like to know how to get started, how to do it economically (there's been a lot of press about how expensive it is), what kind of payback they can expect, etc.

Permalink Reply by Cindy Railing on March 12, 2009 at 10:04am

This is an area of particular interest to me. I represent Kendall College School of Culinary Arts in Chicago. They embarked on their sustainability journey in 2005 and we launched a sustainability education outreach program to foodservice professionals in 2008. It has been quite successful and Kendall has just been named an official educational partner with the National Restaurant Association's Conserve: Solutions for Sustainability initiative. Dean Chris Koetke and I also serve on the board of their Conserve Action Council.

One item that might be of particular interest to this group is a DVD we put together with some background on sustainability and some simple tips to help foodservice pros "go green and save green." You can find that link on the sustainability page of our website at http://culinary.kendall.edu/about/sustainability/. If you scroll to the bottom of the page, you can click to view the actual DVD.

I will continue to post to this site as I have a number of things that might be of interest. Please understand that ours is an educational campaign only. We are not selling products and only seek for further the sustainability mission. In that vein, Dean Koetke has spoken at a number of industry conferences over the past year and I would be interested in hearing from anyone who would have an interest in booking him for a conference.

Members might also like to check out the Conserve website, which has a number of invaluable resources. The address is www.conserve.restaurant.org.

Best regards,
Cindy

Permalink Reply by Tammy Pearce on April 11, 2009 at 1:40pm

Is there anyone out there who works in Washington State? We are opening a new microbrewery in 2010 and I'd love to get connected with a company who can guide us in being "green".

Thanks!

Permalink Reply by Ashley Howard on June 23, 2009 at 9:21am

Hi Tammy,
I helped develop a program called the Certified Green Commercial Kitchen program. It's a free certification program that takes restaurants/bars through the process of going green. It is verified by a council of third party experts (with representatives from Eco-Logo, Edison Electric, IFC International, and the Food Service Technology Center). I am also a LEED-AP, so if you ever have any questions about going green, I would be more than happy to help!

Permalink Reply by Bryon Romstadt on July 7, 2009 at 10:40am

I'm with Certified Energy Consultants we have two great products to reduce energy consumption. One product Ecubes; is a Temperature Mimicking Sensor designed to measure the product temperature be it (beer, soda, milk, seafood, poultry, ice cream) in refrigerated equipment. eCube® has been proven to work in all types of refrigeration equipment including walk in freezers, walk in coolers, open air display cases, and food storage facilities of all sizes. eCube® has also been found to reduce fuel consumption and increase gas mileage in refrigerated vehicles. I know here in Ohio that is a big concern because we are 2nd in the Nation when it comes to co2 emisions

2nd product is Kvar (Kilo Volt Amp Reduction Unit) In USA not to many people know about it yet. Whats your power Factor we like to say, It basically saves in wasted elecricity This phase shift is commonly seen with induction devices such as AC motors like those used in common consumer home products such as refrigerators, freezers, washing machines, and air conditioners (by far the greatest users of power in the home).

Permalink Reply by Gary Markowitz on July 11, 2009 at 8:35am

Greening your restaurant should start with improving energy efficiency and cutting the waste. Most restaurants waste at least 10 percent of their energy spend due to staff training issues and lack of knowledge of energy waste. In most situations, the cost of energy waste is belittled by the focus on sales, but energy waste is hurting your sales, big-time! It takes $20-$25 of sales to offset every $1 of energy waste!

These are some of the initial questions you need to be asking....

"How much waste do we have? How inefficient are we?"
"What's energy waste costing me? How is energy waste counteracting my sustainability efforts?"

If you're trying to figure out how efficient or inefficient you are, you need to benchmark to what drives your energy costs. Think in terms of what drives energy consumption in restaurants... The number of covers you turn, the quantity of transactions or toatal sales. The more food you make, the greater the number of customers, the higher energy costs go. So it's important to figure out your fuel economy year over year in terms of thousands of British Thermal Units per $Sales/Quarter or Year... MBTU/$SALES/Qtr. This is the first step in cutting energy waste...identifying how much.

If you'd like to learn more about benchmarking and you're looking for a cost-effective way to eradicate waste and get going on your organization's sustainability program, please visit our web site at http://kilojolts.com/toolkits/restaurant-managers-energy-toolkit.php.