Environmental Performance
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Regarding the heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipments
(AVAC, Aquecimento, Ventilação e Ar Condicionado), the unit ma-
nagers received some training to raise their awareness as to the
comfort average temperature for most people during the winter,
so that the setting of the heaters has the least impact possible in
energy consumption of the system (each degree increased implies
an increase in energy consumption of approx. 7%). In this scope, we
gave priority to the selection of appliances of the inverter type (a
system that allows the compressor to slowdown instead of stopping
completely, reducing the number of times the appliances are stopped/
started, which increases the consumption of energy), because these
reduce the consumption of electricity by 20 to 30%.
Gas
Whenever possible, contracted gas consumption levelswere reduced.
In this context, several electric applianceswere replacedwith natural
gas ones (for instance, fry pans and broilers in Burger King units),
leading to a decrease in energy consumption. Gas inspections also
had an impact in the reduction of these consumptions by eliminating
micro leaks in the gas network, which represented a waste of gas.