Green Business Efforts

Kristen Chef is conscientiously making the effort to go Green in every aspect of our business - both online and in our retail store, offices and warehouses. We at Kristen Chef understand the importance of being an environmentally friendly company, both to ourselves, and to you our customer. We have taken several steps to insure that we are doing our utmost for the environment.

United States Shipments

Kristen Chef uses FedEx for the majority of our shipping and receiving. FedEx uses boxes containing a minimum of 40 percent recycle content and are recyclable. All other packing and packaging materials purchased for our shipping needs are made of recyclable (collected locally throughout the country), recycled, reused or reusable materials. Any boxes not needed for shipments are used for overflow inventory or inventory for our Buffalo, NY store location. For small packages, we ship with FedEx legal-sized reusable envelopes that use dual tear strips to extend the usefulness of the product while cutting waste.

International Shipments

For shipping to our International customers, we use the United States Postal Service(USPS). The Postal Service is the first shipping company to achieve Cradle to CradleSM certification for their packaging. It’s recyclable, of course. But it's much more. This is environmental "big picture" certification. It starts at the design stage, considers energy and water use through manufacturing, and ends with a product that can be safely recycled. Cradle to CradleSM certification comes from McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry. Kristen Chef also orders all of it's USPS supplies online which saves fuel.

Returned Merchandise

In some instances, we receive uniforms and shoe returns from customers. In most cases, these items are in new condition with tags attached and we either send them out as new orders or separate them according to manufacturer and return the item(s) to the manufacturer. In many cases we are able to add the item(s) to our physical store in Buffalo, NY. In many instances, items with very slight flaws or imperfections and cannot be resold are donated to charities and organizations who provide them to people that work in the healthcare and other professional services industries who could not otherwise afford them.

Equipment

Kristen Chef's equipment for shelving, storage, etc. is bought previously used. When Kristen Chef replaces its equipment, whether it’s a shelving unit or electronic equipment (computers, phones copiers, etc.) it is resold, traded in or recycled. Our lighting is completely LED.

Internal Operations

In our warehouse and Buffalo, NY retail location and offices we use all green supplies to clean and sanitize. We seek to utilize recycled printing and writing paper when feasible. We also box up outdated files, and important and confidential papers that are no longer needed. Once a year the all this is picked up by a company that shreds them on the spot. They combine the box shreds and our shredding and recycle them.

Kristen Chef is always seeking ways to further our efforts to do our part in saving the environment and making the world a "greener" and safer place for generations to come. We welcome your comments and suggestions to help us achieve this goal.