Restaurants use a lot of water. Between cooking, washing dishes, cleaning up, and serving guests, your water bill takes a good chunk out of your monthly budget on a consistent basis. Water conservation is also a big concern of a majority of your customers, especially if you operate in dry western states like California, Arizona, or Colorado.
Effective water conservation in your restaurant is a lot easier than you might think. It’s also a pretty easy way to gain serious street cred with your customers while also adding green to your bottom line. The nice thing about water conservation is that it takes minimal investment to realize some pretty serious savings.
Train employees. In the end, all the best water-saving equipment in the world doesn’t do you a bit of good if your staff doesn’t take conservation seriously. Make it an ongoing issue in staff meetings and during employee training. More than likely, you will find enthusiasm and a willingness to participate in your water conservation programs. Getting good buy-in from your staff will make the job of policing water conservation much, much easier.
Use a foot valve for handwashing sinks. Foot and knee valves serve two purposes: they allow your staff to turn water on and off without contaminating their freshly washed hands, and they shut off automatically, which can save an astounding amount of water over the course of a year. This little plumbing part is pretty inexpensive to buy and not that hard to install, making it a virtual must for your kitchen’s hand sinks. Even better, your health inspector will love it!
Compost food waste. Instigating a compost program in your restaurant means staff must scrape food bits into your compost bin instead of washing them into the garbage disposal. That can translate into significant water savings. A compost program has the added benefit of giving you additional green credentials with your customers as well. Get a story going in the local paper about your composting efforts and you’ve just killed a marketing and a money-saving bird with one stone.
Landscape with conservation in mind. Many restaurants not only use water inside the restaurant but outside as well. If you have any landscaping going on outside the restaurant, follow water conservation best practices to keep water usage down, such as:
Sweep and mop instead of spray. It may seem easier to just spray down kitchen floors and outside areas to keep them clean, but it’s certainly not cheaper. Investing in some good old fashioned janitorial supplies like mops and brooms means some major water savings. It might be a little more work for your staff, but those savings on the water bill will also help you pay their salary.
Finally, after you’ve put all the time into using the above tips to make your restaurant one lean, green, water-saving machine, make sure you tell your customers all about it! You’ve worked hard to cut water usage, and perhaps the biggest reward you deserve is appreciation and increased loyalty from your customers. Incorporate your efforts into your marketing campaigns. It’ll surprise you just how effective a green message is in improving your name in the eyes of customers.