With the reality of climate change affecting many of us around the world, ‘Environmentally friendly’ is not simply a buzzword – it represents a sensible and important series of procedures designed to help protect our environment for us and future generations.

Your kitchen should be no different. We know that agriculture and transportation has a significant effect on our planet’s emissions, and therefore many business owners and kitchen planners are turning to the most environmentally efficient means of delivering a quality product – without sacrificing that quality.

It’s important to note that Carbon Footprint began as a fossil fuel industry term, but with its proliferation it has become a useful metric for reducing our emissions at home and in a business environment.

Here are some steps you can take to reduce the carbon footprint of a commercial kitchen:

Refrigeration

Sustainable refrigeration has been an important part of protecting our environment since the phasing out of CFCs began in 1989, but there are other, simpler steps that go beyond changing how our refrigerators work.

• Keeping refrigerators at the minimum temperature they can safely operate at will reduce the amount of energy used by your appliance.

• It’s also important to make sure your refrigerators are in well ventilated areas that won’t be exposed to the sun, for similar reasons.

Cooking

• Large pans are often used in commercial environments, and are excellent at trapping the heat from your burners so that your cookware comes to temperature faster and requires less energy to do so.

•Dividing your cooking between two smaller appliances may be more costly, but will reduce energy use on quiet periods, where larger appliances are not required.

• You should also seek out long lasting cookware, avoiding plastic and Teflon.

Those are just two factors that will make your kitchen more efficient and subsequently, better for our planet. If you’re in the market for ecologically friendly appliances – PCD is a UK based company with a wealth of experience in fitting sustainable, economical commercial kitchens.