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Water waste & the power of conservation

Water waste and dysfunction in the water cycle shape health, agriculture, economics, education, and sanitation across the globe, but it equally impacts your restaurant.

Photo: TundraFMP

March 30, 2023

Our first blog covered food waste its contribution to restaurant losses nationwide, but there is an even more precious resource wasted in our kitchens — water.

Water waste and dysfunction in the water cycle shape health, agriculture, economics, education, and sanitation across the globe, but it equally impacts your restaurant. According to the EPA, the costs of water and utilities increased significantly above the consumer price index rate over the past decade, and these prices impact your bottom line all the more when water is wasted.

But how do you know if you're wasting water? It's not as easy as you might think.

There is no one button you can press to easily limit water waste while keeping up production in your kitchen, but upgrading your equipment and planning around more stainable alternatives to wasteful habits in your kitchen can make the difference between a profit and a loss.

To that end, we sat down with Server and examined water waste, dipper wells, and one way to significantly impact water waste and conservation in your kitchen.

Every day, restaurants rely on water to fuel their operations. From cooking to cleaning, water is the most abundant resource in a kitchen. Dipper wells are a big part of that daily use.

Traditional dipper wells use thousands of gallons of water per day. You offer a new type of well that only uses 600 gallons of water per year. How does your ConserveWell^® (Utensil Holder) save so much water?

Server: Traditional dipper wells use a continuous flow of water to keep utensils safe to use throughout the day. The ConserveWell^® uses heat. Water in the well is heated to 140 degrees to create an environment where bacteria cannot grow, so an operator can leave utensils in there as long as they'd like without switching out the water. Operators can decide when to change out the water whenever they wish, all while knowing their utensils are food safe in the utensil holder.

How much money and water is saved by switching from a traditional dipper to a ConserveWell^®?

Every restaurant is different, so we developed a tool for managers to calculate their savings. But let's break it down in general for your readers.

A traditional dipper well uses about 30 gallons an hour. Stores are open for about 16 hours a day. For this example, let's say a restaurant has 5 dipper wells, which is approximately 2,400 gallons of water a day.

At a single location, that equates to just over 875,000 gallons used each year on dipper wells alone. In one year, the ConserveWell^® only uses 600 gallons a year. If you multiply that out by the number of restaurants a chain or franchisee owns, the amount of water saved compounds quickly.

Beyond saving money, what are some other advantages of saving water?

The food industry uses 70% of the world's water supply. By working more sustainably, we can chip away at that. By the time we get to 2050, it is projected that worldwide water demand will increase by 20-30%. Global sustainability is important, and we can directly impact that with the right equipment.

When you look at a chain that holds about 100 units, they use 87 million gallons of water annually to run a continuous flow dipper well. That isn't in total operations — just the dipper well.

And that's only 100 restaurants. Think about how many restaurants are within a 30-mile radius of where you live. It's impactful — not just for today, but for the future. We do our part now by developing equipment that conserves water and saves operators money.

Eventually, the water in a ConserveWell^® will need to be replaced. How often does that have to happen?

That is dependent upon the individual process of the restaurant and what service utensils are being placed in the unit. The count-down timer can be easily modified for operators to meet their unique needs.

How does replacing the water work?

Thanks to the simplicity of the design, which is a basin and a pan that holds the water, replacing the water only requires removing the pan, dumping the old water into the sink, and filling it back up again.

Over the last 73 years, we have produced products designed to improve operations in four key ways:

Easy to use and clean.
Drive operational efficiency.
Offer consistent and accurate results.
Increase speed of service.

The ConserveWell^® is no exception. Waste is something our customers are keenly aware of, and water conservation drives efficiency.

Is there a known capacity for the number of utensils that fit in the ConserveWell^®?

It depends — how big are the utensils? It fits 4 typical knives, spoons, ladles, or tongs fairly comfortably.

What is the difference between the 120v and 230v models?

That has to do with international voltage requirements. Some international markets run the 230v option instead of the traditional domestic 120v model. There's no practical difference in how much one can handle vs. the other.

Wall-mounted vs. drop-in models — what are the advantages of each?

We designed each model to be easily adaptable regardless of how an operational line is set up. Drop-in models accommodate customers who already have counters cutouts. It's not always cost-effective to cut into counter space, so our wall-mounted option helps restaurants save water without having to adjust their existing layout.

Dipper wells are just a small part of a restaurant's total water usage, but just like everything in business, the little things add up.

As a planet, waste is not a sustainable model for survivability. It can be discomforting to discuss, but responsible resource management is a key metric in the health of any environment. The same goes for your restaurant.

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TundraFMP

TundraFMP helps foodservice operators do what they do best – by providing fast, flexible and complete kitchen solutions. We offer the most complete selection of restaurant equipment, apparel, smallwares, parts, and accessories in the industry.

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