Food (Photo credits: www.campgroundsigns.com)
Businesses in the USA waste about $60 billion dollars in energy each year; $10 billion of that is wasted by restaurants with inefficient cooking methods. Local utilities and city departments can offer advice to substantially lower these costs. The easiest way to save money is by installing energy efficient light bulbs and even motion sensitive lights in seldom used areas light bathrooms and storage areas.
Maintaining kitchen equipment and upgrading to more energy efficient models can pay for themselves in savings. An energy efficient dishwasher can easily save a $1000 a year. Food is another area of energy waste seldom thought of but cooking oil has been used as vehicle fuel for many years. Food leftover/excess waste can also be anaerobically broken down in newly engineered models of sewage plants and turned into methane to power the plant in a green manner.
The EPA theorizes that utilizing 50% of restaurant food wastes for methane production could energize 2.5 million homes. The $10 billion energy loss by restaurants could be reduced substantially in relatively easy and painless, cost-saving ways. Hopefully, the word will spread and be adopted on a wide scale. Everyone could feel a lot better eating out just knowing restaurants are striving to be green. Restaurants could be a shining example to the other $50 billion in energy wastes.
Building Energy Efficiency: Restaurants Waste Energy In Different Ways
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