Often overlooked in today's marketplace when using green products, is how to reduce your carbon footprint. Maybe a story about the use of CFL (Compact Florescent Lamp) bulbs will help illustrate the point. I was having breakfast at a local restaurant when my father (who was visiting from out of town) observed that only forks and knives were used in the place setting. It seems that customers no longer need spoons.
When my server came over and asked what I wanted to eat, I asked about the spoons. I was informed that the chain's "corporate" office had informed all the restaurants that the busboy, when putting down place setting, was not allowed to put a spoon on the setting. Now I must say this does look pretty odd, mostly since I grew up with a spoon included with the setting. I checked with someone who still teaches etiquette classes, and yep, it is still required.
I asked if she knew why this change had occurred and why no green products like CFL bulbs. I was told that in order to conserve energy that spoons were only given to customers that would use them. It appears they believe that it costs a lot to clean an unused spoon. So the possibility of cleaning an unused spoon was removed. And yet how odd, no investment in green products that could save money such as CFL bulbs.
I find it hard to believe that the amount of money saved would be significant as opposed to using CFL bulbs to save money. I seem to remember, just after high school, I worked in fast-paced restaurant chain. Everyday practice was to wash the plates, pot, pans and miscellaneous items in one or two baskets, followed by the glassware, and then wash the silverware in the last basket. So, where would the energy savings be if dishes are washed this way?
While pondering this, I happened to look up. Having written a few articles on energy savings, I noticed that they were still using incandescent bulbs. From where I sat I could count more than fifty bulbs burning energy as I waited for my order, and no green products like CFL bulbs in sight. Everywhere I looked and in every room that a customer had access, there were no green products in use. If they were trying to save money, you would think some green products like energy saving CFL bulbs would be used.
It looked like each incandescent light bulb was running around 75 watts. I inquired as to the hours of this store and was told they were open 138 hours a week.
Now I know that CFL bulbs, one of the great green products, will save near 75% on an energy bill. I did a little math to see how many pennies this store would save. If I multiple the 50 bulbs times 75 watts I get 3750 watt hours. So if I multiple the 3750 watt hours, times the number of hours the store is open we get 51700 watt hours per week or 26,910,000 (27 megawatt hours rounded) for this store per year without using any green products.
From the Internet I was able to learn that they have 88 stores in their chain. So if we assume this is an average store we can multiply the 27 megawatts times the 88 stores and we see that this chain is using around 2368 megawatts per year just on lighting.
Now, if one of the newer green products like CFL bulbs were installed instead, with a known savings of 75% percent over incandescent light bulbs, this chain would save 1,800 megawatt hours. I would think by using some new green products like CFL bulbs it would be a wiser investment than a few pennies saved on spoons, don't you?
When my server came over and asked what I wanted to eat, I asked about the spoons. I was informed that the chain's "corporate" office had informed all the restaurants that the busboy, when putting down place setting, was not allowed to put a spoon on the setting. Now I must say this does look pretty odd, mostly since I grew up with a spoon included with the setting. I checked with someone who still teaches etiquette classes, and yep, it is still required.
I asked if she knew why this change had occurred and why no green products like CFL bulbs. I was told that in order to conserve energy that spoons were only given to customers that would use them. It appears they believe that it costs a lot to clean an unused spoon. So the possibility of cleaning an unused spoon was removed. And yet how odd, no investment in green products that could save money such as CFL bulbs.
I find it hard to believe that the amount of money saved would be significant as opposed to using CFL bulbs to save money. I seem to remember, just after high school, I worked in fast-paced restaurant chain. Everyday practice was to wash the plates, pot, pans and miscellaneous items in one or two baskets, followed by the glassware, and then wash the silverware in the last basket. So, where would the energy savings be if dishes are washed this way?
While pondering this, I happened to look up. Having written a few articles on energy savings, I noticed that they were still using incandescent bulbs. From where I sat I could count more than fifty bulbs burning energy as I waited for my order, and no green products like CFL bulbs in sight. Everywhere I looked and in every room that a customer had access, there were no green products in use. If they were trying to save money, you would think some green products like energy saving CFL bulbs would be used.
It looked like each incandescent light bulb was running around 75 watts. I inquired as to the hours of this store and was told they were open 138 hours a week.
Now I know that CFL bulbs, one of the great green products, will save near 75% on an energy bill. I did a little math to see how many pennies this store would save. If I multiple the 50 bulbs times 75 watts I get 3750 watt hours. So if I multiple the 3750 watt hours, times the number of hours the store is open we get 51700 watt hours per week or 26,910,000 (27 megawatt hours rounded) for this store per year without using any green products.
From the Internet I was able to learn that they have 88 stores in their chain. So if we assume this is an average store we can multiply the 27 megawatts times the 88 stores and we see that this chain is using around 2368 megawatts per year just on lighting.
Now, if one of the newer green products like CFL bulbs were installed instead, with a known savings of 75% percent over incandescent light bulbs, this chain would save 1,800 megawatt hours. I would think by using some new green products like CFL bulbs it would be a wiser investment than a few pennies saved on spoons, don't you?
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