I t was while cooking in some of London's energy-guzzling restaurants that Arthur Potts Dawson started to gain a reputation as something of a "green" chef.

A chef since the age of 16, Potts Dawson trained under the Roux brothers and went on to work at a number of Michelin-starred establishments, including River Cafe and La Tante Claire.

But it wasn't until he created London restaurants Acorn House and Water House that he was finally able to demonstrate his passion for sustainability and reducing the carbon impact and waste in his kitchens.

With kitchens accounting for more than a third of the average household's electricity consumption, using "green" electricity produced from renewable energy sources is more sustainable.

In an attempt to show people how they can reduce energy and waste in their kitchen, Potts Dawson has teamed up with Wiltshire-based electricity supplier Good Energy, which supports 2,000 independent renewable generators, many of them owned by small local businesses.

As well as a cookbook of recipes, and tips on how to buy, store and prepare food in a more energy efficient way, the celebrity chef is also appearing at next month's Organic Food Festival in Bristol, cooking "low powered" dishes such as mackerel ceviche and sweetcorn, chilli and coriander griddle cakes.

After working for more than 20 years in restaurant kitchens, which are notorious for using lots of energy and producing lots of waste, Potts Dawson says he is approaching cooking in a different way these days.

"When I think back to when I started in kitchens, I remember bins full of waste, whether it was coffee grounds, trimmings from vegetables or carcasses – nothing was recycled or used for things like compost, but you didn't ask questions. I only started asking questions when I started running my own restaurants.

"I look back at my apprenticeship with the Roux brothers and it was very much to do with the economics of the kitchen, which was more about turning off the taps, turning off the gas when you're not using it – all these things were to save money, more than anything else.

"When I started managing my waste a bit better, all of a sudden I was regarded as an accidental green entrepreneur.

"I didn't have to change anything myself but suddenly people started coming to me for answers which I didn't realise I had.

"Slowly but surely I started to realise we should look at energy and sustainability."

Potts Dawson was something of a trailblazer when it came to reducing his carbon footprint in the kitchen.

When he launched his London restaurant Acorn House six years ago he changed to green electricity. His commitment to sustainability and using local food has recently extended to The People's Supermarket, a community food co-operative in central London that was the subject of a Channel Four series.

Potts Dawson recently bought a house in Somerset and has spent a lot of time in Bristol, where he has been talking to a number of people about the possibilities of opening something similar to The People's Supermarket in the South West.

He is particularly attracted to Bristol because of its food scene but also because of its close proximity to growers, farms and smallholdings.

"Bristol would be perfect for something like this. The impact of any business is how far the food has travelled because that helps to reduce the energy used.

"At my house in Somerset, I've created an electric kitchen using induction energy and what I'm doing is cooking with much more localised produce."

As well as supporting green electricity produced by wind, water or sun, Potts Dawson is committed to local food and he thinks food co-operatives have an increasing role to play, despite the grip of the supermarkets.

"Food co-ops have a solution for part of the community but when you think that 98 per cent of food sold in this country is sold through supermarkets, we have a long way to go.

"There is a social change and a shift in the way people look at food. The big supermarkets should start to recognise that the general public are starting to ask questions about where the products are coming from and listen to those who would really like to buy produce grown by local farmers."

Although he supports the organic movement, he agrees that it also needs to appeal to a wider audience.

"I think the supermarkets have been partly to blame for the perception that organic food is expensive because organic products are often twice the price of any other products.

"Organic tends to be directed more at the middle class, high-end purchasers and it has left behind 95 per cent of the population. It has become more synonymous with people wearing Hunter wellies driving Range Rovers.

"The majority of the population can grasp words like 'local', 'British' and 'seasonal' more than they can 'organic'.

"We need to support local agriculture 100 per cent because our farms are falling apart and our farmers are getting old.

"The organic movement is strong but I think it needs to grow up and open its doors to everybody."

But despite the need to shake off its middle-class image, Potts Dawson still believes organic is the way forward.

"I still think organic has a huge part to play. With the prices of fertilisers, chemicals and composts rising all the time, organic farming will be giving 'normal' farming quite a challenge.

"I think organic will still play a big role in the future of food, it just needs to grow up and involve everyone rather than be elitist.

"I think Britain can be more self-sustainable and more local and that's why I like Good Energy because the energy is being created from landowners and businesses all over the country. In a way, local energy is as important as local food.

"There are lots of different ways of supporting different businesses and some of that is by cutting out the middlemen.

"For me, fair trade begins at home, and if you can give somebody a fair price for their potatoes or their energy, you're going a long way to keeping yourself sustainable in this country."

Arthur Potts Dawson will be appearing at the Organic Food Festival in Bristol on Saturday, September 3. For details go to www.organic foodfestival.co.uk. For a free copy of his Good Energy Good Kitchen cookbook, email customeradmin@ goodenergy.co.uk.