Question: OK, I’m ready to jump on the mobile food trend—but I’d like to sell ice cream, not hot stuff. Is there a way to make my ice cream truck energy efficient and eco-friendly?

Answer: That’s a good question. Ice cream trucks—especially the ones that serve treats on cones—eat a lot of energy, requiring a generator or a system that runs off the truck’s engine to keep things cool. (Although, to be honest, it’s surprisingly hard to find exactly what the energy use is, or how much it costs.)

Anyway, there are a few things you can do to make sure your ice cream truck is as eco-friendly as possible.

  • Cut down your size. One of the best-known frozen treat vendors in the States, Feverish Ice Cream, sells its home-made, natural ice pops out of small vans, rather than full-sized, conventional ice cream trucks. You could also follow Michael Lyons’ example: his My Cowboy Ice Cream trailer is completely solar powered. Of course, you can’t fit a soft-serve machine in a mini van, so that brings us to the next point.
  • Sell pre-packaged or pre-made treats. Stand-alone freezers require far less energy than on-the-spot soft-serve machines. Most can be plugged in overnight and retain their cool for up to 12 hours (although that might vary if the weather’s super hot). For smaller batches of treats, you can pack them in dry ice and be reasonably sure they’ll stay frozen.
  • Save the environment in other ways. If you are going to run a conventional ice cream truck, then investigate other eco-friendly options, like local or organic ingredients and biodegradable packaging. Gourmet ice cream sandwich superstars Coolhaus go so far as to offer their sammies in edible wrappers, and are looking at developing edible cutlery as well.
  • Think about your fuel. Rather than use gasoline, retrofit your truck so it runs on biodiesel. It’s not a difficult conversion, and will help reduce your carbon footprint, at least a little.
  • Abandon the truck altogether. Bicycle or tricycle-powered ice cream carts require no combustion at all—and you’ll be able to burn off all the ice cream while you pedal around town.

What do you think? Is an eco-friendly ice cream truck in your future?

Image credit: stevendepolo