Restaurant Social Media
NY Times Article...."Discounts Have Restaurants Eating Own Lunch"
I found this article of interest because most restaurant management teams often overlook the obvious in cost reduction. Let's face it... Cost reduction that reduces the quality of the dining experience is... distasteful! Right now, in your restaurant, in the BOH, energy is wasting away... Up to 10 percent of the energy used in restaurants is due to what we call human factor energy waste. It happens right under your nose every hour of every operational day. And unless you look at your restaurant 'with a fresh set of eyes,' you'll never see it happening. Capturing energy waste and sustaining the cost avoidance is simple if you have the right set of tools at your disposal. It's important to train your operations team in how to find waste, how to prevent it and what effect waste has on your operations. Think about this.... one dollar of cost in the typical restaurant environment is worth over twenty dollars of equivalent sales! The typical casual dining restaurant uses $75,000 to $125,000 worth of energy per location! Doing some simple math, your efforts to capture energy waste can have real impact on sales and your restaurant's green initiative... Imagine cutting $7,500 to $12,500 out of your operating expense... think about the equivalent sales that you need to offset this...$150,000 to $250,000 (based on the assumption of $1 Cost = $20 Equivalent Sales).
Want more? Energy conservation measures can further add to the cost avoidance! In fact, it's possible to enhance the aesthetic aspects of your restaurant and improve customer comfort all the while (possibly) getting utility incentives and tax credits from the government to buy down the initial cost of any investments you make. In fact, in Massachusetts, restaurants are getting incentives from utilities of up 70 percent of the cost of their energy conservation investment, and they're getting the remaining 40 percent financed at zero-percent interest! Not a bad deal.
So capturing cost avoidance from the utilities cost center can help you from "Eating Your Own Lunch."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/business/24casual.html?_r=1
Tags: Conservation, Cost, Costs, Cutting, Energy, Management, Savings, Sustainability, Utilities
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by susan holaday on -
It makes so much sense to find these areas to cut costs - not to mention the various incentives available for doing this. I just did a freelance story on Union Oyster House in Boston which took a lot of energy-saving steps from a new warewasher to fryers that save both energy and fryer oil and produce a better tasting end result.
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Permalink Reply by Patrick O on -
There are so many ways to reduce costs in a restaurant.
The use of energy saving light bulbs (compact fluorescents) can save you, over the long term, hundreds of dollars a year. Using energy star rated appliances (microwaves, warewashers, convection ovens, etc) can add to this savings.
Recycling efforts should be increased everywhere, not just from your home. Set up bins around the restaurant (I know most times space is limited, but make the effort) not only for recycling, but for food scraps for composting. This ultimately will cut down on the amount of trash being put into the landfills.
It's just a matter of everyone doing their part.
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Permalink Reply by Gary Markowitz on -
Patrick's point is quite valid...But in the fast paced environment of the BOH, it's not always possible to concentrate on every aspect of being environmentally responsible and sustainable. Having worked in the quick-convenient food sector I know this to be true with first hand experience. The concentration on quality, service, safety and customer always comes first. There are many good ideas in Patrick's response, but there are two distinct categories of actions that a restaurant can take: One of our clients calls it "back-stage" and "in the foxholes". Back stage is all about what actions management can implement that doesn't detract from the customer experience. This can involve some capital investment and may even qualify for utility company and tax incentives...things like improved refrigeration controls, ECM fans for the condensers, more accurate thermostats, demand ventilation controls for rooftop units, variable speed drives on hoods, LED illumination systems that focus on maintaining the aesthetics of the restaurant, and even high efficiency cooking equipment.
About compact fluorescent sources....While I like Patrick's idea for compact fluorescent sources, I find that customers shun their harsh light and often complain about the color rendition and poor dimming performance. There are expensive ballast/lamp combination packages that get around the issue, but the economics make these hard to justify in many cases. We're starting to work with LED's and have seen vast improvements in performance (both color rendition and dimming performance). LED's are the new compact fluorescent without the drawbacks of mercury content and last up to five time longer, meaning that there are fewer contaminants to put into landfills.
Now about the foxholes... The point of my post was to illustrate that while management can make strides in improving the energy efficiency of their establishments using appropriate technology, they can do little to cut the human behavioral energy waste we see in every establishment we visit. Technology cannot combat and defeat this issue. With the high turnover rate in the restaurant business, restaurant operators will need to rely on training to teach their operations teams about energy waste and sustainability.
The supply chain experts can discuss their ability to inject sustainable materials into the restaurant environment to gain LEED points, but the effort can add cost. Surely recycling and using sustainable materials are the right things to do, but in a time when many restaurants are floundering, the business of going green needs to start with baby steps. With momentum teaching employees how to stop energy waste and measuring their progress is a great way to hop aboard on the sustainability train.
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