If you want to transform your food services facility into a green building, you can make a lot of changes to the building itself. You can modify how much water and energy you use, and you can control which building resources you use. However, you can also increase your sustainability by managing your food waste differently or even by buying environmentally friendly food. Even small changes like installing oil traps or commercial grease interceptors can have a positive impact on the environment.

Building from Scratch

If you are designing a food services facility, you will need to work closely with the architects and the engineers to create a green facility. Your efforts can include everything from using efficient building materials to installing passive solar heating or energy-saving appliances. Even the landscaping that you use outside of the facility can have an impact on how green your result is. Every building decision that you make from the toilets that you install to the lighting that you hang will affect how much energy your building ultimately consumes.

Modifying Existing Structures to Make Them Green

If your structure is already in place, you can still take some steps to make it more sustainable. When retrofitting an older building, you should look closely at its current systems. If its systems are working at optimum levels, you may not need to replace anything. However, in most cases, you will need to make some changes.

You can examine the building for leaks, clogged ducts, and other physical issues, but then, you also need to look at how the building’s equipment is being operated. For instance, installing energy saving windows can be a great idea, but you should also look at how the heating is operating. By ensuring that the thermostat is lowered as needed, you may be able to control just as much energy consumption as you can by installing new windows. Similarly, if you want to increase the water efficiency of your building, you may want to install low-flow toilets or other water-savings devices, but you should also take steps to prevent clogs by installing grease or oil traps. These also prevent your waste from leaching into the ground.

Environmentally Friendly Food Choices

To make your food facility greener, you should carefully consider the products you use. Buying local and sustainable food can greatly reduce your carbon impact. When food has to travel a long way to reach you, it can have a negative impact on the environment. This is true regardless of how organic or healthy the food is. Some food service facilities including several college cafeterias around the country have even made their food super local by growing their own organic gardens. Finding innovative ways to deal with food waste can also influence how green your facility is. Food that is still edible can be donated to a local food bank, and if possible, you may want to compost the rest of your food scraps.

Small Changes Can Yield Big Results

A variety of big and small choices can help your building to become greener. If you cannot make a huge change all at once, you should not get discouraged. A series of small changes can be a great way to start your project.