Now you’re cooking with(out) gas
What looks like a small win may make a big difference. Replacing gas in commercial kitchens is the next fruit up.
When we talk about solving climate change, we tend to focus on the big items — coal fired power plants, transportation, industry. The real horror of climate change research is that the everyday tools around us are leading us down the same path. You might drive an electric car and use an electric heat pump at home, but when you go out for dinner, there’s a gas burner in the kitchen running all day long to serve you. The ubiquity of these climate contributions is staggering.
93.86% of commercial kitchens use natural gas. I couldn’t find the statistics for how many gas ranges that means around the world, but here in New Zealand, there are 8,776 cafes and restaurants, while in the US there are 155,448 full-service restaurants. Imagine that hot, blue flame burning in millions of burners around the world, all day long, every day. That’s a lot of CO2e we don’t talk about.
And that’s just in the kitchen. Now that most homes eschew gas-fired hot water cylinders for more economical heat pumps, and most if not all commercial buildings have done the same, kitchens remain one of the few places we use gas outside of industrial centres. Removing gas hobs means…