Guest Author | February 1, 2011
By: Levon Kurkjian, Vice President of Marketing, Kettle Cuisine
Since our company was founded 25 years ago, Kettle Cuisine has been conscious of our impact on the environment. Environmental sustainability is a significant part of our Corporate Social Responsibility objectives, and we have made meaningful strides to capture the "low hanging fruit" of energy efficiency. However, we also realize there is still plenty of work to be done.
In that vein, Kettle Cuisine has decided to participate in the EDF Climate Corps program for 2011. We have seen the results that the Climate Corps fellows have delivered to some of the most recognizable companies in the country, and we feel extraordinarily privileged for the opportunity to become one of the next great EDF Climate Corps case studies.
We strongly believe that EDF Climate Corps will enhance our environmental sustainability strategy. Having a Climate Corps fellow bring the additional focus and experience necessary to identify more potential energy savings and help develop a clear path to further minimize our impact on the environment.
We were immediately captivated from the first moment we learned about the opportunities for energy savings through the EDF Climate Corps program. After sharing details about the program with our company's executives and representatives, we had instant buy-in across all of our functional departments. Investing in sustainability is a critical component of our CSR strategy and our corporate DNA and, more tangibly, is a source of meaningful ongoing cost savings and efficiencies.
As a relatively small, entrepreneurial company, we do not have the luxury of partnering with expensive consulting firms or hiring dedicated internal staff. The EDF Climate Corps program provides a practical solution and resource that will help us identify a path forward, while also teaching us how each employee can take a small piece of ownership in each initiative that would otherwise be unavailable to us. We hope the Climate Corps fellow will help us reduce our overall energy consumption, as well as mitigate our water consumption and refine our waste management processes.
We have three primary motivations for participating in EDF Climate Corps:
1) Find cost savings;
2) Address many of our CSR objectives; and
3) Build an organization for which every employee is proud to work.
Also, many of our restaurateur and supermarket customers recognize the importance of environmental sustainability. Our customers now demand environmental impact metrics in applications for new partnership opportunities, and many believe these metrics are as important as traditional considerations such as product quality and price.
We are thrilled that EDF offers a program that makes it easy for companies to reduce energy and financial costs, and we can't wait to get started.
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