|
FROM THE FIELD
April 2008
Before 'Green' Was A Buzzword
A few months back—maybe a year, actually—somebody at an industry meeting came up and, between nibbles of those little cheese cubes at a cocktail reception, suggested we should "do a green story." The emphasis was on the word green, as if it were a pearl freshly pried from an oyster. The suggestion struck me a little odd. Back before green was the buzzword, we'd been running stories about energy efficiency and resource management—sustainability in broad terms—as practical business matters ever since our launch in 1996. And then when green did finally hit the public lexicon a few years back, we didn't make liberal use of the term because frankly it smacked of trendiness. To us, green was just common sense, not a new development. Was there ever any sense in burning up resources needlessly?
In fact, some kind of utility/resource conservation story has run in about eight or nine out of every 12 issues, year in and year out.
 |
|
|
"To us, green was just common sense, not a new development."
|
|
In our very first issue, October '96, we wrote about the rise in standardized ASTM test protocols, measuring utility consumption, etc. And ever since, we've been covering efficiency testing at PG&E's Food Service Technology Center, comparing energy and water consumption, productivity rates, etc.
August '97, the cover story was about the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers jumping into the ventilation arena and the groundbreaking efficiency work being done at the Commercial Kitchen Ventilation Lab in Wood Dale, Ill.
Then in 2000, everybody saw the light—or more accurately, the dark. That's when the lights in California flickered, and suddenly EVERYbody was into energy conservation. Chains that had never cared before suddenly had to put conservation plans in place. In a period of just a couple months, the whole industry's attitude shifted. Amid that first blast of the energy scramble, I recall Don Fisher at the FSTC warning, "Water's going to be the next problem."
In the September '01 issue, we rolled with five major features under the heading of "Suiting Up For The Energy Battle," a total of 14 pages, covering everything from performance testing to deregulation, fine-tuning equipment and the then-new Energy Star equipment program. On the cover, Burger King's Mark Finck was seen testing broiler and hood utility efficiency.
In '02, the patterns continued, and we added our biennial Multiunit Foodservice Equipment Symposium events. MUFES meetings, live-action equivalents to the magazine, are intense technical sessions that are nothing if not green, and they continue that way to this day. In fact, MUFES '08, just this past February, might have been the best and most intense yet, according to what attendees said.
In more recent years we've covered LED lighting, compact fluorescents, water-efficient equipment, the rising shortage of water, and more, along with our usual energy-conservation beats.
And through it all, many of you have been leading your own charge on green, or parts thereof. Finck, who's been hammering at utility efficiency since long before his '02 cover appearance, has recently unveiled a breakthrough new broiler that's the kitchen equivalent of landing on the moon. It's such a leap that BK has made major appearances even on morning TV news-magazine shows.
And others green leaders, too, leap to mind. Pete Goodman, back when he was with Domino's, was relentless in his pursuit of optimizing oven/hood performance. At McDonald's the culture of green goes all the way back to the '70s when it built its early test labs. And at Eat'n Park, Andy Dunmire and company have been using passive heat-recovery technology for more than 15 years and all along experimenting with all kinds of innovations we'd now call green. The list goes on
So here's to green—even before that's what it was called. Long live green, and the pursuit of it, and the operating savings that often come from it.
Brian Ward
Chief Editor
|
