Don Fisher


In this kitchen, the backline appliances were turned off midafternoon, but the hood is still operating at full speed. The installation of a demand-ventilation control system on the exhaust hood saved $20,000 annually by reducing the ventilation rate when appliances were not being used. This retrofit investment was returned within a year. Variable speed control of exhaust hoods is a slam-dunk for most hotel kitchens with their large exhaust volumes and long operating hours.

Green is the new buzzword in hospitality. If energy efficiency had a color, it would be green. It saves the environment and cash. Not surprisingly, the motivating force for sustainability in the hotel market is the potential energy savings. Innovators have laid sufficient groundwork to suggest there is a sound business case for greening at least a piece of the hospitality industry. The hotel is an energy hog—and the hotel kitchen feeds its appetite. Per square foot, foodservice consumes more energy than any other commercial operation. But when it comes to end-use efficiency, the hotel kitchen is challenged.

It is difficult to rank the utility cost of one foodservice operation against another within the same hotel or casino complex. The range in energy intensity can be dramatic. One kitchen might consume $125,000 in energy, while another may devour $250,000, both generating similar revenue. Benchmarking the energy performance of foodservice operations is a management tool in its infancy. Even the chain restaurant gurus, despite their advantage of cookie-cutter design and corporate muscle, have yet to get a good handle on energy benchmarking and control.

The hotel kitchen operates in its own world. Facility engineering tries hard to stay out of the kitchen, and budgets for new equipment are often on the cutting board. What would be your response if the GM suggested there should be some energy savings coming from the kitchen? And if you could, would saving energy help your business case? Even if you operate an upscale restaurant, you probably don’t know how much is being spent on utilities and neither does your GM. Unlike the freestanding restaurant, you won’t find individual electric, gas, and water meters for the hotel kitchen. If saving energy is the goal, positive feedback (in the form of documented energy reductions) can sustain your initiative. Sub-metering foodservice operations may become a viable strategy.

In spite of the challenge, one can trim the water and energy consumption of a commercial kitchen by specifying efficient equipment. Once you replace an inefficient piece of equipment with its efficient counterpart, the green savings start immediately and compound for the life of the appliance. The fuel economy of an automobile is a perfect analogy. If you replace a 15 mpg delivery van with a 30 mpg vehicle, your gas bill will be halved. If you purchase an Energy Star fryer, the outcome will be the same.

The energy in a hotel kitchen is consumed by dozens of pieces of equipment or systems. Load reduction will be derived from an appliance-by-appliance approach. A multitude of individual strategies or equipment replacements must be considered, placing an ongoing demand on somebody’s time, not to mention your operating budget. The question is not where will you be six months from now, but where will you be in six years? The life-cycle cost of equipment must become embedded within the purchasing process.

THE UPSHOT
Energy and water efficiency is a huge ingredient for a green kitchen. But is it cost effective to significantly reduce consumption within the current paradigm? Some say “yes”—but time will tell. Only a few operators out there have the mindset of actively seeking energy-efficient equipment, yet the foodservice industry is energy intensive and the technology exists for dramatic savings.

Look to organizations and programs like EPA’s Energy Star [www.energystar.gov], the Consortium for Energy Efficiency [www.CEE1.org], the U.S. Green Building Council [www.usgbc.org], the PG&E Food Service Technology Center [www.fishnick.com], along with a host of manufacturers now offering energy efficient equipment and controls. The rules of the game are changing now that published performance data can be used to differentiate equipment efficiency and operating cost.

Don Fisher, president/CEO of Fisher-Nickel, Inc., manages the Food Service Technology Center in San Ramon, California. This center collaborates with the Commercial Kitchen Ventilation Laboratory in Wood Dale, Illinois, to develop and apply standard test methods for evaluating the performance of food service equipment. The program is funded by California utility customers and administered by the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) under the auspices of the California Public Utilities Commission.