How Can You Make Your Restaurant More Sustainable?

Many consumers are anxious to support restaurants that promote more sustainable practices, but identifying these more responsible establishments is easier said than done. This creates an excellent opportunity for sustainable eateries to educate the public through their marketing tactics, on-site collateral and customer-relations initiatives.

With this in mind, restaurateurs would be wise to first look for ways to operate their establishment more sustainably, and then find ways to communicate their efforts to interested consumers. Efforts like this can make a major bottom-line difference for the restaurant.

What’s more, sustainable practices are often more cost-effective to run than less-sustainable ones. These restaurants end up using less fuel, electricity, water and other resources, cutting down on overheads while attracting a more enthusiastic customer base in the process. It’s a win-win situation for everyone involved.

Read on to learn more about some of the specific steps you can take to make your restaurant more sustainable.

Specific Steps to Take in Your Restaurant

If you follow the blog here at Johnsons Stalbridge at all, then you know how committed we are to ‘fresh thinking’. We work hard to ensure that this concept shines through all of our practices - and that includes the way in which we interact with the environment.

We also share our knowhow with others whenever possible. We understand that our clients are serious about reducing their environmental impact, which is why we occasionally offer tips relevant to our industry on how to accomplish this. We understand that when both we and our clients are operating in a more responsible manner, the entire world benefits.

With that in mind, we’re going to dedicate this post to looking at a few concrete ways that you make your restaurant more sustainable. Here are a few ideas worth implementing.

Reduce water consumption

It has never been more important for restaurants to use water as responsibly as possible. There are several ways to accomplish this - from returning sanitary grey water for use in other non-food-related applications, such as flushing toilets, to installing aerators in your faucets.

Another key way to conserve water is to outsource the laundry requirements for your kitchen linens to a commercial laundry service, such as that we offer here at Johnsons Stalbridge. We’ve streamlined the process to ensure that as little water is wasted as possible; with our groundbreaking water technology, we've discovered a way to recycle a staggering 95% of water used in our laundry processes.

Use local ingredients

There are so many compelling reasons to use local ingredients in your restaurant’s creations. To begin with, locally sourced ingredients don’t have to travel as far to arrive at your kitchen. That means that it takes less fuel to transport them, thus releasing less emissions - not to mention they’ll be even fresher to cook with when you get our hands on them.

Similar to working with local ingredients is cooking what is in season. In one sense, this is necessary when you’re sourcing local ingredients - especially if your restaurant is located in a geographical region with four distinct seasons. But, there are other issues at play here. Cooking what’s in season gives nature a chance to regenerate, and this is especially important for seafood and other protein sources that are harvested from the wild.

Streamline your restaurant’s logistics

This is a sustainability issue that has a direct effect on your bottom line, as a more efficient restaurant costs less to operate. In this case, it’s all about consolidating tasks. This is an area in which we are prepared to offer a helping hand.

When you take advantage of our restaurant linen hire service, you can rest assured that the linens you use will be collected, washed and returned in the most sustainable way possible. We pick up your linens as a part of a sweeping pick-up and drop-off run, and we operate several depots across the UK - so we’re never too far away.

This means less fuel is wasted transporting linens between the restaurant and the depot. Speaking of fuel, we’ve introduced Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) as one of our primary fuel sources alongside Electric vehicles into our fleet, further increasing the sustainability of our delivery service.

Use energy-efficient appliances

There have been major breakthroughs in recent years in terms of energy efficiency. Today’s washing machines, cookers, grills and other kitchen appliances consume less gas and electricity than ever before. That means that, if your kitchen is operating outdated equipment, then it’s probably consuming quite a bit more energy than it needs to.

Overhauling your behind-the-scenes infrastructure requires some up-front investment, but you’ll start seeing the returns as the next power bill arrives. This is a concept that we have fully embraced at our own facilities, as we strive to consume as little energy as possible in washing, packing and distributing linens and towels across our service area.

With that in mind, working with us is one more way to reduce your restaurant’s ecological footprint.

Reliable Linen Hire by Stalbridge

At Stalbridge Linen, we’re always eager to connect and speak with restaurateurs who are as passionate about reducing their ecological footprint as we are. If you’d like to utilise our linen hire and laundry services to support your restaurant, then please get in touch.

Whether you require restaurant linen or kitchen linen for hire, we’re the experts you can rely on.