By Mark Whalen, President, Victory Refrigeration
As a recipient two years running of an ENERGY STAR® Manufacturing Partner of the Year award, our company has demonstrated our commitment to promoting the socially responsible transition to greener foodservice operations nationwide. We expend resources and publicize our dedication to the ENERGY STAR program and values because we feel the certifications and recognition extended by ENERGY STAR reflect objectively measured energy and cost savings that are significant to our customers, business partners and the industry as a whole. For this reason, we encourage both further participation in the ENERGY STAR program by all eligible foodservice equipment manufacturers and expansion of the program's certification categories. We believe these steps will further reduce the water and energy consumed by foodservices and restaurants, while making more industry members aware of these available benefits.
For our part, we are once again conveying the ENERGY STAR message this year to customers, restaurant designers, distribution channel partners and employees through participation in professional forums including conferences, training sessions, trade shows and educational presentations. At such meetings, our personnel communicate to hundreds of industry colleagues the benefits of owning ENERGY STAR-certified products. Victory Refrigeration, Eloma combi ovens and Stellar Steam also devote significant space in all marketing and sales communications to advancing the ENERGY STAR message of defending our environment from further degradation by reducing resource consumption and energy use in foodservice environments.
An outstanding way for members of the foodservice equipment industry to disseminate the ENERGY STAR message is to include links to ENERGY STAR's web site Home page, Rebate Finder and Savings Calculator. We also could all do more with our limited marketing budgets to raise foodservice industry awareness of ENERGY STAR-related benefits through such internet-based communications as monthly e-mail newsletters that promote the use of energy-efficient foodservice equipment and the posting of mini-sites that contains links to all ENERGY STAR-related resources.
Our industry would benefit financially and in reputation from an expansion of ENERGY STAR-certified equipment categories. Manufacturers would be encouraged to develop additional ENERGY STAR-approved models and operators would achieve further power and resource reductions. Utility companies would be given further reasons to expand and promote their kitchen equipment rebate programs, and ENERGY STAR's objective certifications would receive greater acknowledgement and validation.
Those of us who manufacture both cold and hot side kitchen equipment have the most numerous opportunities to build environmental responsibility and energy efficiency into our products. Combi ovens from Eloma that cook foods faster at lower temperatures and boilerless steamers from Stellar that feature water consumption of merely two gallons per hour are just a couple of examples of hot side technology that can complement the advances we've made recently in refrigeration energy use. Our commitment to energy efficiency goes beyond the leadership position we have in building energy efficient equipment. For example, Victory Refrigeration recently invested in replacing all lighting in its factory with CFL technology, drastically reducing our consumption of electricity. In the months ahead, we will take several other steps to continue to reduce the carbon footprint of our manufacturing operations.
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