On a warm June day, Head Chef Annemette Bock sits down on a bench in the canteen in building 202 at DTU Lyngby Campus. It is 2 p.m. and Annemette Bock and her kitchen staff of five have managed to serve more than 600 portions of lobscouse to DTU's students and staff.
"We've been working flat out," says Annemette Bock when describing the previous 14 days, in which energy consultant Martin Armand Nielsen from the firm Ken Storkøkken has monitored the commercial kitchen's energy consumption in detail.
Martin Armand Nielsen sits opposite Annemette Bock with his laptop on the table, ready to reveal how much energy the head chef and her kitchen staff have saved after a measurement period in which humorous black and red stickers on the kitchen appliances displaying the texts 'washing waste', 'heating waste', or 'cooling waste' have reminded them to use energy with care.
Highlighting energy wasters
Annemette Bock does not have high expectations. Even before the energy savings project, the kitchen was focusing on minimizing its energy consumption.
"Last year, we got an email informing us that there was going to be a huge round of energy savings this year, that we had to save almost DKK 300 million, and that everyone had to act on it. So we took all the measures we possibly could. We don't run the blast cooler, which freezes food in a few minutes. We turn off the lights in all rooms when we leave them. We turn off the light in the cold store every day when we go home. We have lowered the lighting here in the canteen, and we turn off the exhaust when we go home every day. Before, it has, in fact, just been running 24/7. So we've already done all these things," Annemette Bock tells Martin Armand Nielsen when she was presented with the project for the first time.
Nevertheless, the first measurement, which analyses the behaviour in the kitchen, documents that there is room for improvement. The energy report shows that the kitchen uses 125,000 kWh of electricity per year, which is equal to 17 tonnes of CO2. The energy consultant shows a pie chart of the power distribution in the kitchen.
One of the dishwashers, the ovens, and cold and freezer stores account for the worst energy waste.
"We must try to find solutions which are easy for you to implement, but which will still save energy," Martin Armand Nielsen assures her before listing the focus areas where Annemette Bock and her kitchen staff can reduce their energy consumption and achieve savings.
Annemette Bock nods and writes everything down on a notepad.
