When Michael Oshman started the Green Restaurant Association (GRA) in 1990, hardly anybody in the food service industry thought much about sustainability. “The green business movement wasn’t something that really existed,” he says. “We were one of the first organizations that wanted to help businesses. We asked: ‘What if we …
Read More »Your Restaurant’s Guide To Commercial Composting
Every to go container, every disposable cup, and every plastic fork your restaurant uses ends up in a landfill somewhere. Over the course of a year that adds up to millions of tons of trash from all the restaurants in the United States. For most restaurants, these disposable items are …
Read More »Ten Cheap Ways To Increase Restaurant Efficiency (AND Profits!)
1. Start-up, Shutdown Schedules Not everything needs to be turned on right away when the first cook arrives. Equipment start-up schedules similar to just-in-time ordering saves energy with no investment. 2. Low flow aerators These are potentially one of the lowest priced efficiency measures a restaurant can buy. Aerators range …
Read More »The EndoTherm Thermometer: Does It Really Help You Save Energy and Improve Food Safety?
To be honest, there has been a lot of skepticism among the people I have talked to in the restaurant supply business when they first encounter the EndoTherm Thermometer. Maybe it’s the appearance: the oversized outer plastic shell, which houses a normal alcohol thermometer immersed in a special silicone gel, …
Read More »Green Restaurant Tips: Recycling Feels Good
Unlike the tips previously offered in this series, recycling probably won’t save your restaurant or commercial kitchen money. And recycling will probably add work to your schedule and headaches to your day. So why recycle? Well, there are a few very compelling reasons, and not all of them altruistic, for …
Read More »10 Tips For Commercial Water Conservation
Restaurants use a lot of water. Between cooking, washing dishes, cleaning up, and serving guests, your water bill takes a good chunk out of your monthly budget on a consistent basis. Commercial water conservation is also a big concern of a majority of your customers, especially if you operate in …
Read More »How to be a Green Restaurant and Cut Costs
Through constant research as well as attending many industry programs, I have learned a great deal on what can be done in the “greening” of new restaurants. Here’s a list of top ways your restaurant can go green: The most obvious is to use high efficiency refrigeration, but there are …
Read More »How To Become A LEED Certified Restaurant and Why You Should
Every year, your restaurant’s green credentials on the street gets more important. According to the National Restaurant Association (NRA), it’s one of the hottest trends this year. Companies across the board, in and out of the food service industry, have scrambled in recent years to label their brands as green, …
Read More »Efficient Water Heating in Restaurants
Restaurants and commercial kitchens use A LOT of hot water. In fact, it’s probably one of your larger energy expenses in a given month. Tips to Cut Costs Set water temperature to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Your dishwashing unit should have a built in booster heater that heats water to the …
Read More »How Hybrid Water Heating Can Make Your Restaurant As Cool As A Prius
Every restaurant needs hot water, and most of that water usually ends up being used to clean dirty cookware and cooking equipment. More than likely you get your hot water from a conventional gas-fired water heater with a 100 gallon or larger tank. For years the standard strategy for hot …
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