Sustainable Kitchen

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What does sustainability mean?
When it comes to the latest buzz-words, “sustainable” has to be one of them. But how do we make our kitchens more so? Firstly, a look at what is meant by sustainability… a good definition is given by the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, which says, “Sustainability is a characteristic of a process or state that can be maintained at a certain level indefinitely.” Your Kitchen.

Processes certainly have a lot to do with cooking so we could start out by looking at how sustainable is our kitchen, the equipment we use and how we power it, the food that we work with and what we do with the waste we create in the process of cooking.

How can we achieve sustainability?
woodfirecooking Our society still depends largely on non-renewable resources to create the power supply to our homes and kitchens, but there are a few companies now that offer electricity from sustainable, renewable energy sources such as wind, water and to a lesser extent in this country, solar. A couple of companies who supply electricity from renewable sources are Good Energy¹ and ecotricity², or if you really want to go all the way, you could generate your own electricity with an array of photovoltaic panels designed to meet your electricity needs. See companies such as the Alternative-energy.co.uk³, solarcentury⁴.

What about the appliances we have in the kitchen right now?
Unfortunately, with natural gas, oil or coal-fired appliances, we know the resource is limited and non-sustainable. However, there are other ways to generate heat and burning some form of biomass, like wood, is a common way of firing cookers around the world. A biomass fired cooker (which could also supply hot water) would naturally be fed by a renewable source such as a managed woodland, designed to sustain our energy demand. Wood fired cooking can also have the benefit of taste as we know from those authentic pizzas and barbeques we’ve eaten! But there is a major emissions drawback in using anything that burns: it is important to stress the balance required between putting carbon into the atmosphere from whatever we burn, and sequesting, or taking it out – if we want a carbon neutral outcome. In today’s environment we should be aiming to reduce our emissions of carbon if we are to avoid further global warming and increase our sustainability.
After we have considered the source of our energy, we move on to what we are doing with it in the kitchen. The buzzword here is conservation – not a major consideration in the average kitchen of the past. This concept should come naturally to cooks however, as good cooks don’t waste the raw materials they are working with. Nowadays we should be applying the same principle to the energy and water we use in the kitchen, and the materials from which our kitchen is constructed. sustainable_kitchen

1 Good Energy: www.good-energy.co.uk/renewable_energy
2 ecotricity: www.ecotricity.co.uk
3 Alternative-energy.co.uk: \n // --> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
4 solarcentury: www.solarcentury.com

We can start with the construction of the kitchen itself. Are the materials in our worktops, cupboards and so forth of a genuinely renewable source? Or are they from forests where the wood is not sustainably farmed? Kitchen worktops can be sourced these days from re-cycled wood for example, which saves a living tree from being sacrificed for your kitchen. In general wood isn’t the only material one can use to build within a kitchen, there is also bamboo, re-cycled aluminium, re-cycled glass and paper for example, but if you do choose wood, try and assure it is made from wood approved by the Forest Stewardship Council⁵, FSC. You will find many sources of sustainably sourced wooden kitchen furniture by Googling these words on the internet. Try FSC kitchen furniture. Maybe we can simply give our existing kitchen a face-lift and re-cycle our own units, if we are generally happy with its layout.

So we have looked at some of the ingredients for a sustainable kitchen but one obvious place to turn our attention to next are the appliances we use. Maybe the first question to ask is, ‘can I do this by hand’? Do we really need all the paraphernalia on offer in a modern kitchen? Often more pleasure and a better result can be attained from the satisfaction of knowing we made something by our own hands. I believe the same applies in the kitchen environment. And there are many who don’t have the option of an electric mixer, knife or dishwasher!

The energy saving trust⁶ website is a good read for anyone concerned with reducing their carbon footprint - a measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide. It also covers in detail ‘energy saving products’ and the best ones to buy to save energy, and ultimately increase your level of sustainability. While you are there, why not check out the recommended low energy lighting and window systems which are also a consideration in creating our sustainable kitchen.

We h

ave now looked at some issues concerning the materials and resources we consume in creating a sustainable kitchen, but how about the food and waste we create? What is sustainable food and what are the issues surrounding it? A useful resource for addressing these questions is the sustainable table⁷ organisation’s website, based in the USA. It looks at a large number of issues around the sustainability of food, ranging from the kind of food we eat – meat, vegetarian, slow, fast, distance sourced or local, factory farmed or organic – to giving recipe and dietary advice. This is a more personal resource to that offered by the UK’s DEFRA⁸ which looks at the sustainable farming and food strategy from a governmental windmills

perspective.

5 Forest Stewardship Council: www.fsc.org.
6 energy saving trust: www.energysavingtrust.org.uk
7 sustainable table: www.sustainabletable.org
8 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: www.defra.gov.uk/farm/policy/sustain/index.htm

Sustainable food is a huge subject which is faced with rapidly changing challenges in modern times, but common sense can often usefully apply. Think global and act local! If you grow your own or buy locally produced foods, use organic techniques, eat slow instead of fast food, seek vegetable instead of meat resources, avoid excessively processed and packaged goods, re-cycle your shopping bags and what you throw in the kitchen bin as well as composting the organic matter, then you will definitely be going someway to creating a sustainable kitchen. A sustainable kitchen will naturally be an anchor within the home but also leads to greater sustainability in the community at large.

About the writer

nigel Nigel Hargreaves is an ex-aircraft engineer who gave up a lucrative profession in the airline industry to work alongside people grappling with the realities of a low-carbon economy. In Bangladesh he discovered the power of community in surviving climatic and economic challenges, while developing appropriate technology to meet the growing needs of his hosts. In Sudan he worked with the water authorities to raise drinking water from 100m below the desert using solar energy. He later discovered holistic health was the only way to address his own needs after physically suffering the demands of his assignments, and went on to spend 11 years training in homeopathy and Buddhism while traveling the countries of Asia. After a few years in practice as a homeopath, specialising in treating substance misuse, he emigrated to the east coast of Australia to enter the permaculture revolution taking place there. Now he is back in the UK and anticipating further study in the field of climate change impact, sustainability and renewable energy.

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