Sustainability & Sub-Zero | Using less energy than a 75-watt light bulb

Along with many others, and thanks to David Attenborough in particular, we’ve been looking into sustainability and one company blazing a trail in this area is the inimitable Sub-Zero & Wolf.

Having started producing and selling refrigeration equipment in 1945, they have consistently strived to develop the most energy efficient luxury appliances possible. With this, they are constantly looking for ways to build appliances that minimise the environmental impact from both the materials and the processes used.

Their products are manufactured in their own facilities in the US, with 50% of the plastic used (though this in fact represents a tiny amount) and over 75% of the stainless steel coming from recycled materials.

Other than this, here are few of the things they have done in the past year alone:

• Installing new LED lighting in the Wolf manufacturing plant which saves over a thousand kilowatt hours of electricity per year;
• Developing a water recycling program in the test labs, this saves almost 200,000 gallons per year (there is also no wastewater produced in the manufacturing process);
• Recycling over 566 tons of scrap that would otherwise go to landfill;
• Drastically reducing paper consumption and computer-related energy usage in both US and Europe; and
• Moving the UK fleet of vehicles from petrol / diesel to electric or hybrid vehicles where possible.

Sub-Zero & Wolf now make over 30 appliances with the Energy Star rating for outstanding energy efficiency with the average Sub-Zero product using less energy than a 75-watt bulb!

Many of Sub-Zero’s refrigerators also come with an anti-microbial air-purification system (based on technology developed by NASA) that scrubs the air every 20 minutes of the ethylene emitted from certain fresh foods, as well as mould, viruses and bacteria. This is essential to keeping food fresh for longer and therefore the owners now throw away less food each year due to spoilage.

As one of our trusted appliance partners, we are delighted to see the efforts Sub-Zero & Wolf have gone to in order to make their appliances more sustainable. For more information about their products please take a look here.