Modern kitchens have equipment and systems, which use little energy. But in order to become certified as a “Green Kitchen” they have to fulfill additional requirements. By Dieter Mailander.
It is not possible to cook climate-neutral, because almost every business action by people pollutes the environment – and of course cooking too. This has always been this way and will also remain. What does “to pollute the environment” mean? What has changed in comparison to earlier times? Long ago, the burdens to the environment and the environment’s ability to regenerate itself maintained the balance considerably better than nowadays. Today, we humans are polluting our eco systems and Earth’s atmosphere considerably more than in the past. That’s why both need more and more time to regenerate themselves. Some can’t recover under the current given conditions any more. Glaciers, which are melting away in Greenland as well as on the Andes, are examples for this. Only totally obstinate ignoramuses deny the change in climate, which has been unleashed by humans and are blinded to the awareness that we have to counteract. We not only need climate-sensitive production processes, low-emission cars, which use less fuel, more efficient insulated buildings et cetera. We also need professional kitchens, in which cooks cook climate-sensitive and resource-efficient.
A Long Way
Cooks all across Europe are facing this responsibility with more and more determination and are paying attention to, for instance, equipment, which not only uses the least possible energy, but also less water. In Southern Europe, there are gaps in supplying industrial water time and again in the hot summer months. But in other countries kitchen professionals are dealing with water too, especially with wash water from cooking, dish washing, facility cleaning etc. In many cities in Germany, the waste water system is in a conceivably bad condition due to wash water channeled away from kitchens. In order to limit its pollution, the authorities have ordered strict limit values, for example, for fatty or cleaning substances. They are keeping a close watch on the wash water fed into the system so that they can conform to these requirements. Those, who exceed the limit values even only short-term, are punished with high penalties. Being that the authorities know all of the operations, which use the waste water system, and that means even all of the kitchens. Their chefs watch out that fat, chemicals for dishwashing equipment/systems and cleaning the rooms as well as remains from food preparation contaminate their waste water only up to the limit values.
More information is available in our print magazine, January-February 2018.
