Jason's going green at Isaac's Way
Spring is truly a time of greater connection with nature and our environment. The rebirth of plants, the cleansing of the spring freshet, and quick rise in temperature all remind me of our deep connection to “Mother Nature”.
It was about this time in 2008 when I was able to create a “carbon neutral” environmentally-sensitive menu for David Suzuki‘s visit to Fredericton. The kind folks at Wilmot United Church were hosting a conference at which David Suzuki would be speaking, and we were asked to create a special menu in honour of his visit. What an honour it was, and what an education I received.
When it came down to making the menu, I really had a lot of research to do, to ensure that I was making the “greenest” choices. ”Organic” may or may not be “green” depending on transportation costs. Beef or fish, paper or plastic, cooking times, refrigeration energy, all had to be evaluated and measured. In the end, we concluded that local, natural, organic products, with low transportation and cooking costs, best fit the theme.
Going through the thought process allowed me to think of our everyday business and how we could do better at Isaac’s Way. Over the last year, we have converted our incandescent accent lighting to LED lighting, switched our chemical products to more natural and environmentally friendly cleaners, and have chosen a fully recyclable and compostable take-home container for your use. We also undertook two much larger projects: 1. We installed a storage building and now save our cardboard, plastic, and metal waste. We take it to the recycling facility ourselves once per week as the municipality does not support commercial recycling. It’s a lot of work but we divert approximately 5000 cubic feet from the landfill annually; 2. We installed a modern “air to air” heat exchanger to supply air conditioning and heating to our dining room. Our new system is much more efficient and has allowed us to decommission the old energy hogs we used to run.
While we have yet to save the planet, we sure feel we are doing our part. It has become part of our thought process when we make business decisions and we make better choices because of it. It costs little more to make the “greener” choices and we feel great about doing it. We sure hope you appreciate it too!
Cheers…..Jason
