Congratulations to our selected Foodservice Energy Challenge participants
Restaurants are among the most energy-intensive commercial spaces, this makes utilities one of the highest costs facing restaurateurs. With low-profit margins, any monetary savings from increased energy efficiency significantly benefit their bottom line. Restaurants Canada, along with Save on Energy, ENERGY STAR, Enbridge, LEAF, Russell Hendrix, Silver Chef and NewSpring Energy have selected four foodservice operators to participate in the Foodservice Energy Challenge:
The goals of the Foodservice Energy Challenge are to demonstrate the savings and associated benefits that energy conservation can make in the foodservice industry.
“I am not always informed of what options are available to save money on my energy consumption,” says Jack Ponte of LeChaim Catering, “this would be a great way to receive and implement any energy saving options.”
Each participating operator will have their baseline energy consumption established through an on-site energy audit. Then will be provided recommendations on measures they can take. Over the next several months, participants will implement various electricity, gas and water efficiency measures.
Serving more than 135,000 customers annually, the Stong College Cafeteria at York University “represents a major opportunity to achieve energy savings, improve the work environment for our kitchen staff and better serve our students, while reducing our impact on the environment,” says Janet Walls of York University.
Their year-long energy saving journey will be documented and written case studies will be created, along with a full report of the findings. This journey will be highlighted at the RC Show 2020 with the case studies published shortly after the show.
“We plan to implement these changes in all future renovations. Our goal going forward is to become more energy efficient across all our restaurant brands,” says Sartaj Bajwa, Facilities Manager, at Service Inspired Restaurants (Jack Astor’s). Over at the Manitoulin Hotel & Conference Centre, Corey Stacinski says “the winter months are slow and challenging, we would like to know where to invest and become more efficient to become profitable”.
Those who were not selected for the case study will have opportunity to take advantage of partner incentives so they too can learn how to make their foodservice business more energy efficient. You can also follow along as we document the experiences of each participants in upcoming issues of MENU and on our website, menumag.ca.
Read more about their experiences so far by clicking through on the links below:
- LeChaim Caterers Joined the Foodservice Energy Challenge Seeking Big Savings
- Nobody Entered the Foodservice Energy Challenge with a Résumé Like York University
- Jack Astor’s is Serious About Food – and the Foodservice Energy Challenge!
- Manitoulin Hotel & Conference Centre Takes on the Foodservice Energy Challenge
