Environmental Sustainability Statement

BIG CHEF is a socially responsible company committed to environmental sustainability.

BIG CHEF realizes that a firm commitment to environmental issues is essential to a lean, efficient and successful business. Therefore BIG CHEF endeavors to minimize our impact on the environment by:

• Complying with Statutory Environmental Regulations
• Recycling and using recycled products
• Minimizing the use of products that may be harmful to the environment
• Reducing energy consumption, waste and emissions
• Buy locally grown and organic products whenever possible
• Educate and train all staff, creating a sustainability consciousness for the workplace, home and community

BIG CHEF is a green conscious food company, which makes a difference in the quality of our healthy gourmet food products and benefits our planet with less impact on the environment. We buy local whenever possible, and participate in Fresh from Florida (www.florida-agriculture.com). We recycle cooking oil. Most of our packaging boxes are made with 100% recycled paperboard and our shipping department uses reusable temperature control insulated packages.

As a priority, we buy concentrated cleaning products and refillable containers to reduce packaging, and we reuse and recycle paper as well as our printer cartridges. Most of our staff carpool – sharing rides, socializing and saving money. Some of our employees ride a bicycle to work and exercise while saving gas. We pay our bills online, saving time, paper, fuel and stamps. The thermostat in BIG CHEF ‘s office is set at an energy saving temperature, and we have installed a water filter system in our building rather than buying bottled water. We use reusable plates and flatware eliminating disposable plastic cutlery and plates and use CFL bulbs. Most importantly, our products are made with no preservatives, no additives and not saturated fat; in addition, whenever possible we buy natural and organic ingredients for our products. 

BIG CHEF is Green Business certified at the Platinum level by the Green Business Bureau (www.gbb.org).

We are still working on:

• Unplugging electronics when not in use
• Turning off lights when not in use
• Water conservation, which is our greatest challenge since, as a food company, our main concern is food safety and we must constantly clean our kitchen and processing areas.
• A program that allows our customers to return control insulated packaging to us for reuse using pre-paid postage included in their delivery.
• We are aware of our carbon footprint: we understand the impact on the climate and the environment based on how much carbon dioxide is produced to support our business operations. Our goal is to eventually become a carbon neutral company.