Five fun facts about energy and ice cream

Who doesn’t love an ice cream treat in the height of summer, or over baked apple pie in winter?

It's been a hot, hot summer throughout much of North America, and many people choose to beat the heat with a cold bowl of ice cream. Here are a few interesting tidbits about one of today’s top treats:

1. An historic indulgence

For many generations of human history, icy desserts were an exotic extravagance enjoyed rarely and only by royalty or the upper class. But like many things that seem commonplace today, this delicious indulgence became mainstream through the significant technological advancement of the 1800s. Fast-forward a few hundred years and thousands more innovations, and today over 1.5 billion gallons of ice cream are consumed in the U.S. annually.

Read more.

2. That perfect temperature

Keeping ice cream at the exact right temperature is critical to its delicious taste and smooth consistency. We rely on the right electricity mix to maintain that perfect temperature. While wind and sun feed into the electricity grid, there’s no way to store that power during the times when their sources aren’t producing. High-efficiency natural gas, nuclear, hydro and coal-fired power are reliable electricity sources that continue to keep ice cream just right through dark, windless nights.

Learn more about storing and handling ice cream.

3. From cow to counter

Ice cream takes quite a journey after it leaves its source. How it’s produced is an interesting process, but from an energy-use perspective, that’s just the start of its adventure. Like most modern conveniences we’ve had all our lives, it’s hard to really visualize all the work that happened before you scooped those round dollops of ice cream into bowls across your kitchen counter. Consider the refrigerated trucks that transport towers of ice cream buckets at their perfect temperature to your store – oil, transported either by train, pipeline or tanker, is what keeps those on the road. And the plastic containers that many ice cream brands use? Also made using oil-based products. Let alone the energy it took to build the roads, tires, traffic signs…. Well, you get the picture.

From the cow to the cone

4. Shrinking the freezer treat footprint

Innovation toward reducing emissions continues every day, and Canada’s energy industry has worked hard to lead that trend. But the International Energy Agency forecasts also indicate we’ll continue to use fossil fuels, even as our reliance on emission-less energy increases as well. That’s again why the right energy mix, produced responsibly is so important as we move ahead to meet the global demand for a higher standard of living.

Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance

5. More than 65 years... of delivering ice cream

We are proud to be part of the North American pipeline network that has safely and reliably transported natural gas and oil from where they are abundant to where they’re needed to keep your ice cream cold and convenient. Learn more about how we’ve been responsibly and reliably delivering the energy you use for over 65 years.