Restaurants
Increasing environmental sustainability in your restaurant is not only good for the environment, it can also translate into savings to your bottom line. Many restaurants lose a great deal of money each year to water, energy and food waste. The good news is that it can be simple to avoid these losses by making a few small improvements throughout your restaurant.
Save Water
Due to the nature of their industry, restaurants require a lot of water use for their daily operations. While much of this water use can’t be avoided, there are many areas where water waste can be evaded. A leaking faucet, for instance, is easy to overlook but can cost hundreds of dollars in wasted water annually if left unchecked.
In the dining room, consider refraining from serving guests water unless they request it. When glasses of water are automatically served to a table, many times it will go to waste. The waste comes not only in the water and ice in the glass but in the water that will be used to wash the glass later.
Cut Down Your Power Bill
Hot water is a necessity in a commercial kitchen, however, heating water requires a great deal of energy. Some ways to reduce your water heating costs include insulating hot water pipes and making sure refrigeration coils are kept clean. Additionally, make sure that your kitchen staff is trained to refrain from turning on any equipment until they are open for orders. It is not uncommon for fryers, ovens, and other equipment to be turned on hours before meal service.
Switching to LED light bulbs throughout your restaurant can translate to huge savings on your energy bill. These light bulbs are more expensive up front, but they last upwards of 15 years, which will save even more money in the long run.
Recycle
Have a recycling program in place to limit the amount of trash your restaurant contributes to the landfill. Recycling cardboard, for example, is incredibly simple yet accounts for much of the trash generated by most restaurants. If possible, it is also a good idea to make an effort to strategically source recyclable take-out containers to cut back on post-consumer waste.
Compost
Hopefully, your kitchen has systems in place to cut down on food waste, but when waste happens, look to compost if possible. This may seem like a large task, but your restaurant doesn’t necessarily have to compost on-site. There are a number of haul-away services that will come and pick up your compostable food scraps, meaning you simply have to have a system for storing them apart from non-compostable trash.
Increasing environmental sustainability in restaurants doesn’t have to be difficult and can go a long way in helping you cut down on costs. Take your next step toward greater profit with the Source1 Purchasing Solution.
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