As consumers grow more conscious of the impact their purchases have on the environment, businesses, including those in the bakery industry, must adapt to meet their changing demands. By making your bakery more environmentally friendly, you can reduce your carbon footprint, appeal to a broader customer base, and save on operating costs. Reading Bakery Systems explores practical ways below to make your commercial bakery more sustainable.
Reading Bakery Systems (RBS), headquartered in Robesonia, Pennsylvania, designs, engineers, and manufactures the world's most innovative equipment for the production of pretzels, crackers, cookies, biscuits, baked potato chips, bread snacks, baked crisps, pet treats and more, and can help you reduce labor and operational costs, and produce consistent, high-quality products.
Our equipment portfolio is built on responsible business practices and sustainable principles that make us the industry leader in sustainable baking solutions. They include:
- Lean Manufacturing
- Energy efficient design, build, components, and materials
- Intelligent purchasing and sourcing practices
- Office and manufacturing recycling
Invest in Energy-Efficient Equipment
Investing in energy-efficient equipment is a great way to reduce the environmental impact of your bakery. Our newest oven designs, for example, conserve energy, cut costs, and reduce emissions.
With better oven insulation, the conductive heat paths from the inside to the outside of the oven are minimized. Lighter-weight oven belting helps to conserve energy. And we offer items like heat reclaim systems that can re-heat the oven make-up air.
Use Renewable Energy Sources
Hydrogen and electric ovens from RBS will help our customers reduce their carbon footprint, now and in the future. While hydrogen is clean energy as an end-user solution, electric oven power is likely the best long-term solution. Green electric power is readily available, and the infrastructure already exists to supply power to existing factories.
Electric Convection Ovens
We offer an electric version penthouse for our convection style and emithermic ovens to accomplish full electric baking. Customers can exchange the gas penthouse with an electric penthouse on their existing RBS ovens. This involves only a new penthouse and electrical control panel and can be tested in the RBS Science & Innovation Center. We also offer electric radiant elements that can be added to any style of our ovens. The radiant elements are used mainly in applying toast points or coloration to products before exiting the oven.
Electric Cracker Ovens / DGF Replacement Ovens
Our electric cracker oven has been designed to replace DGF ovens. This involves adding electric heat elements to our Emithermic Oven Zone, enabling this zone to impart the higher heat required by crackers without a lot of air currents which would dry the product before the texture and flavor develop.
Implement a Sustainable Procurement Policy
Another way to make your bakery more environmentally friendly is by purchasing ingredients and supplies from suppliers committed to sustainability. For example, you could:
- Purchase locally grown ingredients to reduce the carbon footprint of transportation;
- Purchase organic ingredients to reduce the use of harmful pesticides and chemicals;
- Choose suppliers who use sustainable packaging materials.
Final Thoughts
Making your commercial bakery more environmentally friendly has many benefits for your business. By investing in energy-efficient ovens and other equipment from Reading Bakery Systems, you can have a positive impact on the environment. Contact us today at (01) 610-693-5816 to find out how we can help with bakery sustainability.