Going green is a hot topic for both consumers and retailers. Explore eco-friendly options that contribute to the planet and your bottom line.
Going green is a hot topic for both consumers and retailers. Explore eco-friendly options that contribute to the planet and your bottom line.
No one has ever claimed that it was easy to be green. Quite the opposite, in fact. Even if you're not a green frog in love with a whiny pig, being green (in this case, environmentally friendly) has many challenges, especially as a bakery operator. With growing consumer concern about the environment, bakery owners are adopting more green practices, which can be as simple as changing incandescent bulbs to CFL (compact florescent light) or as advanced as switching delivery vehicles to CNG (compressed natural gas). The key is to make customers aware of your efforts.
Mintel research from December 2007 found that 36 percent of adults claim to regularly buy green products compared to just 12 percent who made the same claim 16 months previously. “We're seeing the green movement rapidly transition from niche to mainstream,” said Colleen Ryan, Mintel's senior analyst, in a company release. “Major companies have jumped on board, promotional messages have changed, and the American public is increasingly looking at green products as a normal part of everyday life.”
While bakeries have plenty of opportunities to offer “green” products, consumers also appreciate efforts to limit carbon footprints, or the amount of carbon dioxide emitted through the combustion of fossil fuels as part of the everyday operations of the business. Retailers are beginning to focus on sustainability to reduce energy costs and protect the environment.
The Food Marketing Institute's Facts About Store Development 2007 report found that 34 percent of supermarket respondents are pursuing sustainability initiatives in new buildings and remodels, and another 40 percent plan to do so in the next five years. Two in 10 retailers are using recycled building materials, such as concrete and steel, and refurbished equipment in remodels and new construction. The report also found that retailers recognize that by designing and constructing stores that promote the well being of the environment, they can improve customer and community relations and reduce energy costs.
In March, Modern Baking's Healthy Baking Seminar West featured a panel discussion, Designing a Green Bakery, that addressed different ways bakeries could become more environmentally friendly. Panelists included Darryl Wernimont, director, The Haskell Co.; Charles Feder, owner of Rossmoor Pastries and David Krishock, BNEF instructor at Kansas State University.
The most extensive move bakers can make is constructing an environmentally friendly building, and Wernimont addressed how to go about such a venture. The current rating standard is based on the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environment Design) Green Building Rating System, developed and administered by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC).
The system awards points for six different areas: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environment quality, and innovation and design process. Up to 69 points can be awarded and certification is divided into four levels: certified (26 to 32 points), silver (33 to 38 points), gold (39 to 51 points) and platinum (52 to 69 points).
In 2001, when Haskell became a member of USGBC, about one in 1,000 companies had any knowledge of or interest in LEED buildings, Wernimont estimated. Now, almost 95 percent of companies are interested or evaluating aspects of LEED. “It's coming extremely rapidly, and it's going to continue at this pace as the costs of LEED construction become almost on par with traditional construction,” Wernimont said.
An example of a company building to LEED specifications is Acme Markets, a division of Supervalu, which opened an environmentally friendly supermarket in Glen Mill, Pa., the first in the Philadelphia area, the company claims. The store has more than 30 skylights, energy-efficient lighting in its refrigerated cases, and regulates overall store lighting to save 64 percent of its energy consumption. The store also uses water-saving fixtures to conserve about 112,000 gallons of potable water per year. Plaques are strategically placed throughout the store to educate customers on the green initiatives the company has undertaken. “We want to use this building to demonstrate the environmental innovations that are possible with today's technology,” said Judy Spires, president of Acme, in a company release.
Building a bakery from the ground up is rarely an option, but some green principles can be applied to your current bakery. “One of the fastest growing areas is LEED for existing buildings,” Wernimont said. “Many of the same components can be implemented into an existing facility. The only difference is when you do LEED for an existing building, it is a continual process.”
Birdbath Neighborhood Green Bakery, which retrofitted existing space, takes environmentally friendly bakeries to the extreme. The walls are made of wheat board and Dakota burl (a material composed of sunflower seed and husks); the countertop display and shelves are made from 100 percent recycled paper, bamboo and denim; the floor is reclaimed wood from Pennsylvania; the stains and sealers for the wood are water based; the paint is milk based and non-toxic, and the bakery is wind powered.
Birdbath has two locations in Manhattan with a third set to open this year in a condominium building that is solar powered, has twice filtered air and a wastewater treatment plant. Maury Rubin, who also owns City Bakery in New York and Los Angeles, opened the first Birdbath in late 2005. It is small, only 235 sq. ft., which was a conscious decision on Rubin's part.
Rubin and his staff researched the materials and built the original Birdbath in three weeks. The design was not prohibitively expensive for Rubin, who estimates his costs were about 15 percent higher than traditional building materials. By going with wind power, Rubin spends about 10 percent more on his energy bill than if he used traditional energy sources. He says this amounts to about $500 more per year, but it is more beneficial to the environment. It also has the added bonus of making the staff more conscientious about not wasting energy.
To help reduce energy costs in his bakeries, Rubin uses long-lasting, energy-saving light bulbs; an old-fashioned cash register from 1936 that is manual, not electric; and has eliminated refrigeration as much as possible. Refrigeration is the largest energy consumer in a bakery, according to Rubin. Birdbath now has small, under-counter refrigerators and uses low-power beverage machines. The bakery also monitors its use of ice, which helps limit energy and water use.
All baking is done in the original City Bakery location, and the products are delivered to Birdbath by bicycle-powered rickshaw, eliminating fuel use by delivery vehicles. The rickshaw makes three to four trips a day, about 10 miles daily, which over the course of the year saves 3,650 miles in gasoline.
Rossmoor Pastries' Charles Feder also eliminated his bakery's dependence on gasoline. Two years ago, he purchased a CNG van at auction for $4,500. “It had a blue sticker on the back that said ‘CNG,’ and I didn't know anything about CNG. I had no idea what it took to even fuel it or where you got it,” Feder said. At the worst, he knew he could retrofit the van with a gas tank.
Now, he can fuel his delivery vehicles for 75 cents a gallon. With average gas prices at more than $4 a gallon (even more in California), Feder estimates that he saves between $6,000 and $7,000 a month on fuel costs. His vehicles need 70 gallons of CNG per day for deliveries and run six days a week. The vehicles can go about 180 to 200 miles before needing to refuel. “You do lose about 10 percent horsepower, but you don't really notice,” Feder said.
Nearly 87 percent of the natural gas used in the United States is produced domestically, and it has 60 to 90 percent less smog-producing pollutants than traditional fossil fuel, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. It also emits 30 to 40 less greenhouse gasses and is less expensive. The drawback to CNG is that fueling stations can be hard to find.
Feder installed his own compressor with six fueling stations to fill his vehicles behind his bakery. (In an ironic twist, his bakery is next to a gasoline tanker filling station.) The compressor receives the gas from the same gas main that operates the ovens in his bakery, and he runs the compressor for 10 hours a day.
All of the different green initiatives can leave bakers wondering where to begin. The HBS panelist suggested starting small, such as changing light bulbs to CFL. “I think a lot times when you think about the sustainability issue, people just become overwhelmed. They stop when they see what a gigantic issue it is and think where do they start? Changing light bulbs is one simple thing you can do without a lot of cost,” Krishock said.