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Welcome back to the restaurant technology guys podcast I think everyone out there for joining us as I say each and every time you guys have lots of choices So we appreciate you guys hanging out with us eat this each week when we post one of these today.
We are joined by a Organization that has been partnering with the show for a while now And I just got the privilege to meet Diana this morning other than via email But I'm gonna let her kind of go into who she is before we jump into kind of The cool story and where she gets to work. But Diana, why don't you introduce yourself? What do you, what do you do? where did you come from? And then, we can talk about what you get to do for a living.
Oh, geez, where I came from. I came from New Jersey and that's a whole other story. We could do a whole podcast just about New Jersey.
love it. I love it. I happen to be from Jersey too. And, and
oh, we could go on a tangent. We could
we could go on for a while. and are you a Taylor ham or a pork roll person?
So I am actually a no meat person, but if I was, it would be pork roll
Okay. Perfect. It's South Jersey then. South, South Jersey. Then I was born in freehold. So I get it. Sorry, I'll let you keep going.
Like I said, we could go on for days, but I don't live there anymore. It's been many years. I now live in Minnesota. That is where my company restaurant technologies is headquartered. I have been with the company for about five years and I am the general counsel. And then a few years ago, I had the privilege to start working on all of our ESG environmental social governance work, including all of our sustainability work that we do.
And that the partnerships that we have with our customers and how we help achieve their sustainability goals as well.
I love it. And I'm excited to share with our audience, the incredible impact that you guys have made. for those that either didn't listen to the show with one of your coworkers, David, David Eha, probably, I don't know, 18 months ago, a year, 18 months ago, he was on. for those that aren't familiar with what Restaurant Technologies Inc. You're listening to the Restaurant Technology Guys podcast, but they're not the same thing.
and oftentimes, and I was telling David this, when I go search for my own blog, oftentimes your guys' name will show up. So whoever's doing SEO, great job there. so from that perspective, that's a good thing. But for those that are less familiar with who Restaurant Technologies Inc is and what you guys do and how, what the impact that you guys have in the world is, talk to me a little bit about kind of the product and how you guys go to market.
Sure. We do not have a podcast, so we are not the same. I was thinking the exact same thing. Every time I say rational technologies, they're going to think I'm just plugging the podcast over and over again. So no, we are restaurant technologies, Inc, and we have two main products. The first is our total oil management system. So we. We do the dirty work that people in the back house of kitchens really don't want to do.
We eliminate those dirty jobs, make it easier for our customers and their employees to just focus on making really great food and serving their own customers and our total oil management system. So we will deliver fresh cooking oil to a restaurant. We have our tanks on site. We automate it. It's no longer that manual process of pouring a jug into the fryer. It is a touch of a button. We fill your fryer with good, fresh oil. We will monitor it, too, so it takes that kind of guesswork out.
Maybe I have a busy day. I don't know how much my fryer has been used. And the oil, is it dirty? Is it clean? We monitor it. We take the guesswork out of it. And then we also will come and collect all of that used cooking oil. So no more hauling hot oil. Trying to get it out the back door, throwing it into the trash or a ditch or wherever it may go. All of that is completely automated. We handle it. It's scheduled. Nobody needs to worry about it. Nobody needs to order extra.
It really takes that guesswork out of the back of the house aspect of that oil management. We also have a second product. It is the automist system. It's an automated hood and flu cleaning system. Again, we're all about automation. We're all about making things easier and safer for our customers and their employees. And again, it eliminates the need to have those hood cleaners come in every quarter and shut down your business. It cleans it every single day. It's automated.
You don't have to think about it. Don't have to worry about it. And it really helps reduce that grease buildup that can cause. Restaurant fires and things like that.
if, if you're not careful, they're going to move you off the general council and move you into the sales team. So thank you for that. I still, every time I think about what you guys do, it's, it's such a, having worked in restaurants growing up, it's like it was such a pain to deal with all of that stuff. So I'm grateful for companies like yours that, that do that. You talked a little bit about kind of your guys's sustainability, efforts and what you guys have done.
One of the things that, that I'd love for you to share is what is current state or what is current state as of five years ago, prior to recycling oil and, or even really what are people that aren't partner with you guys, what are they doing with that? The cooking oil that they use within their restaurants. Because it is again, a larger and larger portion of, of humans consumption in the United States.
It's, it's more of that more than them cooking at home, definitely eating out as a huge piece of it. And so what does life look like before they partner with you guys as it relates to sustainability and repurposing oil and that kind of thing,
Sure. So really to your point, you're right. When I started with this business, I thought, okay, cooking oil. Yeah. French fries, chicken nuggets. Okay. QSR, right? Quick service restaurants, but it's way more than that. It's grocery stores. It's You go to your gas station now and they're serving fried chicken, right? It's college campuses. It's hospitals. It's Mexican restaurants when they fry up the chips. So it is ubiquitous.
Almost every restaurant out there, maybe not a sushi restaurant, although unless they fry tempura. So I
For a tempura. Yeah. So
fry tempura. So I can't even say not a sushi, maybe just a pure salad restaurant, a pure salad restaurant would not have cooking oil. But What we do is we come in and I mentioned and we automate it what they were doing before us. And this comes into the sustainability aspect of it is you get that oil in jibs. You get it in plastic containers. That's packaged in cardboard.
And if you ever think about it, whenever you're trying to You know, pour something out of a shampoo bottle or something like that. There's always a little bit left. You never get all of it out. So that same thing happened with the jibs, with the oil. Sure, you have an employee who's dumping the jib and the oil into the fryer, but there's always a little bit left. And you know where that goes? That goes Into a landfill. Maybe it gets recycled. Maybe.
That cardboard, that waste, those jibs, into a landfill, along with the excess oil. And then, of course, you have the waste oil. Once you have cooked all the yummy food, and the, no longer need that fresh cooking oil, it's no longer fresh, it goes and it's waste oil. You're hauling it, it's hot, you're dumping it, potentially, into a garbage can. I was recently in Florida, and I'm not gonna name names, I was in a parking lot, and I saw these two guys, Carrying between the two of them.
Yep. the tank, the big, metal container knew what it was and they just dumped it right into one of those big trash bins out back. So again, when you have our systems. We come in, fresh oil in, yuko out, used cooking oil, we shorten it and call it yuko. And what's great about ours is 100 percent of all the used cooking oil that we collect is converted into biodiesel or renewable diesel.
Yeah. and the impact, talk about the impact. If you're just dumping it into that waste bin, talk to me a little bit about what that does for, that waste product and all of that. because again, I know you guys have measured it and I'm excited for you to share the, just the numbers that you guys, I was blown away when you guys sent me the flyer.
And so I want to get to that, but really what happens with that oil or what even happens with that jib that, that has that oil in that, The, the process of it going into the landfill and just the contamination that it has talked to me a little bit about what, what happens there if they don't recycle it or they don't deal with it properly in that restaurant in Florida that you were talking about. at the end of the day, that's not good for all of the rest of that product that's in there.
Sure, it is, and honestly it just goes and it sits in lanthals, and it just, it creates space. And it stays there forever. It doesn't, it's not a food, it's not biodegradable. It doesn't break down. And so it's the same thing. It just sits there. It can, the thing about the waste oil too, is it can leak into the ground. The fresh oil too, that's spilling out of those jibs. That's not going to use that leaks into the ground, into the environment. there's just, it's not great.
Let's put it that way.
then talk to me a little bit about you guys have taken on the idea of, it's obviously, it's good for the environment. It's good for the world. Talk to me a little bit about kind of your guys's philosophy and why you guys even started taking this on, because it costs you guys money to invest in the things that you guys are doing to repurpose this, I'm guessing it's not a huge profit margin item for you guys, but it is a better, it is a better for the world type of environment.
So talk to me a little bit about, talk to me a little bit about Your guys process as you guys have gone on this journey of, of trying to figure out the sustainability pieces because it's huge.
Sure. It actually really came about organically. And I say that, and we're talking about sustainability and organics, but it didn't do that on purpose, but so honestly over for over 20 years, we have been partnering with third parties like Chevron, REG back when they were just REG. At Renewable Energy Group, and we've always had someone to take our used cooking oil. It wasn't always a money making thing. It wasn't valuable forever, but we've done it for over 20 years.
We just didn't really know that all of the sustainability benefits, the emission reductions and things that come from that. So we've had this great story. We've had this great thing that we've done, but we just. We didn't really talk about it. We didn't really realize that the impact it could have. And the fact that when you recycle over 314 million pounds of used cooking oil, it's a crazy amount. And when I say all of it, a hundred percent that we collect gets converted into renewable fuel.
That then is fuel helping fuel our trucks as well, which is something that we're really focused on too. It's not just, Hey, We're taking this used cooking oil and somebody else can go use that biodiesel or that renewable diesel. But we're trying to use it actually in our trucks so that when we transport the fresh cooking oil and haul away the used cooking oil, we're also practicing what we preach and that's using that biodiesel and renewable diesel.
Yeah. And I think it's amazing. and so you talked about some statistics. Let's just, let's wrap through them. So you talk about 314 pound, 14 million pounds. That's just astronomical numbers. you guys talk about landfill space, trash savings, brag on your guys's company here, Diana, just share a little bit about some of the, as you guys started to measure these things, what impact it has? Because again, I think it's huge. And I think that.
It's something that for so many years, one, I'm proud of a proud to be represented with a company that has been doing that for 20 years. And at the same time, I think until you guys actually wrote down all of what it was doing, you didn't even realize the impact that you were having. So can you talk me through a little bit of kind of what 2023 sustainability numbers look like, and brag a little bit on your company and kind of what you guys are doing.
Sure. It is. When you think about it and you try to, you could say, Oh, okay, that's great. 314 million pounds of waste oil recycled. Cool. But what does that look like? What does that mean? It's you look at, you think about it in the terms of emissions avoided. Or, landfill space savings. it's eight million cubic feet of landfill space. And then you have, just trash and that, that kind of stuff that you're avoiding as well by using our systems.
And it was over two hundred, over twenty six million pounds of trash that was avoided, right? Because, you think about it, it comes in jugs and cardboard boxes. And it was over seventeen million jugs that just, That, that plastic and that trash that wasn't put into the environment, which is awesome. And then you think about, okay, what about stuff that, that we use on a regular basis, like our cars, right? It's the equivalent of taking over a hundred thousand cars off the road.
And then we think about coffee, right? And our
A hundred thousand, hang on a hundred thousand cars off the road. That's insane. when you're looking at the population of the U S and what's there, 325 million people, a hundred thousand cars, like it's just astronomical. Sorry, I'll let you keep going, but it's just, it blows me away. When I saw these, I was like, come on, are you serious? Is this really how much of an impact you guys have had? So sorry, I'll let you keep going.
Yes. The other one I really like is the coffee cups. Cause we all get our coffee or our tea, whatever it may be. But it, what it was. Almost a billion. So 912 million coffee cups that are just as they weren't used.
And so how do you, how are you guys going about doing this thing? And you guys obviously have figured out, is it primarily because you're no longer distributing it through these jibs and through these cardboard boxes, and I guess, how were those even getting to the properties prior to you guys having this system with the total oil management?
Yeah, they were getting there, typically through the normal delivery of other goods, the same companies that provide us with our bulk oil that we provide to our customers. They're providing that as well. And there's no knock on that, right? We can't reach everybody. We can't be everywhere. There are certain places that you have to use it. And I don't want people to feel bad because they don't have another option. But when you do have another option, you should be using us.
However, it really, it comes down to these also aren't benefits that are necessarily. For us, right? we talk about, and I can get into the nitty gritty of scope, one scope, two scope, three emissions, but these savings and these emissions avoidance savings are really for our customers. So our customers are individually, and we can calculate it down to a store level. How many emissions you are avoiding?
By using our systems, and it's based on their oil that they use, and that will tell us how many jibs in the plastic and the trash that they avoided, and then the yuko that gets recycled into that biodiesel and renewable diesel. So again, it's actually, Has no benefit on or no impact on our scope one and scope two or scope three emissions data. We still have to take measures on our own internally to reduce those.
This is the benefit that is for our customers when they want to achieve their sustainability goals and then just generally for the planet, which is a good thing.
Yeah. cause, without it, we're in trouble, as humans, I think that kind of, and in general, I think it's, I think there's tons of benefits and, David was able to talk about it as I was teasing you about being on the sales team beginning, across the board, what it is that you guys are doing is helping automate so much of what is done manually.
So not only is there an operational benefit and getting people to do this work is harder and harder to do the fact that you guys are doing it, you guys are also making the world a better place by doing this and That whole triple bottle bottom line deal. And I know you guys are big on those pieces. talk me through even the growth of where you guys are at on this.
Because, the other statistics that you guys had shared with me is just where you guys were at in 2022 and kind of year end and really even the growth and how much. More, you guys were able to enhance your guys's, sustainability projects as it relates to 22, 22 numbers. And really, kind of part of what, why you're on the show is to share all of the great things you guys did in 2023.
We're going to take a pause in the show for just a second to talk about something that everybody in the restaurant space should be considering. It's the National Restaurant Association Show 2024 in the McCormick Place in Chicago. It happens May 18th through the 21st, and having been to the show multiple years, it's been a great experience. I always walk away with some incredible tools, tips, and connections that you won't find anywhere else.
There's over 55, 000 people planning on attending the, um, showcase floor has over 900 product categories to choose from. If you are in the restaurant space, restaurant tech space, or anything related to restaurants and haven't been to the national restaurant association show in Chicago, you should check it out. The listeners of the show do get 55 off the current registration. Um, If they go to the National Restaurant Association show, nationalrestaurantshow.
com and put in the offer code podcast24.
Yeah. So we are a growth company and that is reflective also in our sustainability numbers in 2022. We. we, we keep breaking records year over year and we want to keep doing that. That is our goal. We definitely want to continue to break our records. We were at 290 million pounds of recycled cooking oil, use cooking oil in 2022. And like I said before, we surpassed that over 314 million. So I want to see, let's get to three 50, right? Let's get to 400. And Through the growth with our customers.
That's how we do that.
I, I appreciate, you sharing that. And again, a hundred thousand cars off the road. the emissions from a hundred thousand cars still just blows me away. And, because it's just a lot, it's a lot that, that goes into this, what I guess, what does the future look like, for your guys as brand? is it just the continued growth? Is it the continued innovation? One of the things that I have found with working with you guys over the last couple of years is just, you guys are constantly innovating.
You guys are constantly looking to. Turn the dial up on the things that you guys can do to make things better, not just for the restaurants, but for your own business, for the, even the trucks, you talked about the biodiesel that you guys are using for the trucks. these are things that you guys are doing because you guys are constantly looking to grow. Where's the future at? is it, is it.
To a place where you guys are going to try and get to zero emissions, which, is, it'd be really hard in the business that you guys are at, but, one can dream, talk to me a little bit about your guys internal conversations and where you guys think those things are going.
Sure. One can dream for sure. Our overall goal, especially for our customers, is just like it says in our tagline, right? Control the kitchen chaos. What can we do to improve the everyday lives of our customers to automate further, to have much less touch points, to make it easier for the customers to see and receive the data, right? One of the things that we are talking about innovations is how can we have it so that it's on your customers, everybody's on their phones, right?
So what can we do to make sure that they can get all their data? Live, real time reporting on how your filtration is going with your oil, what your levels are at. Same thing with auto mist, the schedule of your hood cleaning, to update it, change it, do something different with a touch of a button. So all of that innovation really helps us with our goal of controlling that kitchen chaos. Also making it safer to use.
Making it smarter, making it easier for our customers alongside with helping them achieve their sustainability goals. And we will continue to do that by them installing our systems, creating that safer environment, helping them save on their insurance premiums. All of that is so great. And then us as a company, sure, we have goals. Can I say zero emissions? I don't, I'm a lawyer.
I'm not going to put out, I'm not going to put out there anything that can be recorded and played back for me in the future. And so it's something that is core to who we are. Russian technologies is a sustainability company. We are, we. Have plans in place. Like I said, we're trying to increase our use of biodiesel renewables because we have a fleet. We have a huge fleet 600 vehicles all across the U. S. With our 41 depots and servicing all of our almost 40, 000 customers.
So that's a lot of fuel. And it's our number one part of our scope, one scope, two emissions. And we're looking at ways to reduce that all the time. And it's dedicated. We're looking at ways to innovate and bring sustainability into our product development. So can we use recycled. Materials to build our tanks to use in the piping to use in our systems. What can we do?
So the teams are engineers and our build and product development teams are looking at things through a lens of sustainability as well. So it's not just the end. It's not just the recycling of the cooking oil. it's all of its supply chain. We partner with our oil suppliers to say, Hey, what are you doing? What are the regenerative growth practices that you're doing around soybeans? And And how can we pass those benefits through?
How can we support the efforts that you're doing and the oil that we provide to our customers that is also on that sustainability journey? Sure.
that's awesome. I love that story. And, just today we dropped a show and we're recording this in, early April. just today we dropped a show about a coffee company that ultimately was looking at sustainable coffee because they had gone and bought coffee from places all over the world and realized that, they don't necessarily take care of the earth, nearly as well as we'd like them to.
And so it's so much fun that I'm watching for profit businesses that are out to go try and change the way that, consumers in the United States and elsewhere are consuming the products that, that, that. We are in the ways that we are ultimately to what you point out earlier to make the planet a better place. And to, to help do that, if I'm a restaurant and I'm sitting and listening to this and I'm not on your guys platform, how do they learn more?
And if I am on the platform, because if I am on the platform, how do I, how do I. Enhance what it is that you guys are doing. give her audience some takeaways for, you guys are doing fantastic work. I love all the effort and thank you for sharing some of the stories that you guys had. And at the same time, it takes everyone. It takes the guy that's in the restaurant, cooking the French fries or cooking the, the chicken nuggets or the fish or whatever it is that they're doing. It takes you guys.
It takes the people that are producing the oil. All of that. Everybody needs to be pulling together. So if I'm out there and I want to learn more, tell our audience a little bit more about how they can engage. and if they're already on your guys platform, how can they, enhance, enhance and learn more about what you guys are doing on a regular basis to help make their world a better place.
So obviously I would tell them ready to go to our website, rti inc. com that it's a wealth of information. We have videos, we have. We have testimonials. We have step by step instructions. We have a whole section that talks about our sustainability efforts as well. We, later this year, are going to be publishing our next, corporate impact report, kind of an ESG report, and talks through all the awesome things that we've been doing, this year and last year, because our last one was in 2022.
We publish newsletters regularly. These are all resources that people can access and see across our website. If you're already a part of our network, raise your hand further and respond to an email. we have regular publications, F FAQs, tips and tricks on, how to fry really well and how to get that best flavor out of the oil that you're using, how to help control costs.
it's a great tool to help you keep costs in your restaurant and keep costs down, especially with the rising costs of all different kinds of things from chicken to potatoes to I heard chocolate is now going to get more expensive recently. So we have so much information available on just our website and through contacting our customer service team as well. That it's really a self help place, a self help place there.
Yeah. And I, I know that, you alluded to your guys report coming out later. we'll give a little bit of a preview that we may have one of their customers. That's, that's realized a lot of these savings, these savings and really just not savings cost wise, but savings to the planet. we're preparing to have one of those, one of those episodes recorded later in the year, and, we'll share that with you guys. Diana, thank you very much for sharing. I'm.
I, like I said earlier, I'm proud to be partnered with you guys on this journey. I'm glad that, we're able to get the word out. I know when I first met with, with some of your coworkers, I was like, I had no idea how much tech, how much innovation, and really how much you guys are investing in making the world a better place for the workers that are in the kitchen and making a, the world a better place for those that consume the oil and do the things that they do.
So thank you for spending time with us, today. Yeah,
it's really, this partnership, it was meant to be. I don't know how we didn't do it sooner,
yeah, no, for sure. For sure. To our listeners, guys, I know that you guys have lots of choices. So thank you guys for spending time. If you haven't already subscribed to the newsletter, please do so once a month, you'll get an email on the first of the month with all of the episodes. Diana, thank you so much. And to our listeners, make it a great day.
Awesome, thank you so much for having me.
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