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CASE STUDY: FOOD SERVICE ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Bon Appetit! Eureka Recycling’s Food ServiceEnergy Leadership ProgramWritten by Ryan Sparrow • July 2012

For over four years, the city of Minneapolis hasworked with residents, nonprofits, communityorganizations, schools, and businesses to reducegreenhouse gas emissions at the local level with theClimate Change Innovation Grants. The grantsallowed participants to implement their own sus-tainability initiatives, and are funded throughEnergy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant dol-lars from the U.S. Department of Energy.

As one of the Climate Change Innovation Grants’eight recipients in 2010-2011, the Food ServiceLeadership Program (housed at Eureka Recycling)was able to provide small locally-ownedMinneapolis-based restaurants, grocery and conven-ience stores energy efficiency services, such as visits,reports and recommendations. The program initiallystarted working in the city of White Bear Lake withfunding from the an Energy Efficiency andConservation Block Grant through the state ofMinnesota, then expanded its work into Minneapoliswith both the Minnesota Department of CommerceDivision of Energy Resources Conservation AppliedResearch and Development grant and the ClimateChange Innovation Grant. The Food Service EnergyLeadership Program focuses on improving energyconservation efforts in the traditionally underservedand highly energy intensive restaurant business.Under the auspices of the Minneapolis 2010-2011Climate Change Innovations Grant, the Food ServiceEnergy Leadership Program collaborated with thesebusinesses and contractors to demonstrate the finan-cial benefits of energy efficiency retrofit technologies.

The Food Service Energy Leadership Program held atraining workshop for both business owners andcontractors. An impressive number of workshopparticipants- eighty-five in total- learned about theopportunities for energy efficiency upgrades alongwith the range of financial and technical resourcesavailable to small businesses in Minneapolis. Theworkshop also provided guidance to businessesabout available rebates and incentives, including the

Minneapolis Energy Efficiency Business LoanProgram. This low-interest loan program was estab-lished to help finance Minneapolis-based businesses’actions in reducing energy consumption. MetroCERT also contributed to those resources by offeringbusiness owners a bulk purchase program for high

Project Snapshot

Project: Eureka’s grant project aimed to educate localrestaurants, grocery stores and conveniencestores about the economic benefit of energy effi-ciency retrofits and assist them in completingupgrades to their businesses.

Energy Saved: An estimated 472,337 kBTUs of energy and199,421 pounds of CO2 emissions

Benefits: Improving energy efficiency in the restaurantbusiness

Grant:$10,00 City of Minneaapolis 2010-2011 ClimateChange Innovation Grant

Total Cost:$10,000

A local restaurant owner who participated in the program

CERTs PARTNERS

University of MinnesotaExtension and RegionalSustainableDevelopmentPartnerships

Eureka Recycling

Southwest RegionalDevelopmentCommission

The Minnesota Project

Minnesota Departmentof Commerce, Division of Energy Resources

FUNDING

This project was madepossible by a grant fromthe U.S. Department ofEnergy and theMinnesota Departmentof Commerce throughthe American Recoveryand Reinvestment Act of2009 (ARRA).

efficiency pre-rinse spray valves and faucet aerators; a few examples of low-cost retrofit technologies that can result in signifi-cant energy and cost savings.

At the workshops, restaurant, grocery and convenience stores owners worked together with contractors to learn about waysthey can reduce their energy use through the replacement and/or retrofitting of refrigeration, lighting, HVAC, and food serv-ice equipment systems. The broader work of the Food Service Energy Leadership Program, in part supported by the City ofMinneapolis Climate Change Innovation Grant, helped over twenty-five businesses take retrofit actions that resulted in anestimated 472,337 kBtu’s of energy saved and 199,421 pounds of carbon emissions prevented! The table to the right showssome of the rebates business owners used to improve energy efficiency in their establishments.

Nancy Kelly, Director of the Food Service Energy Leadership Program at Eureka Recycling, found that restaurant owners weresurprised about the fiscal viability of energy retrofit projects, “Businesses in the program received up to twenty percent sav-ings and a number of tax credits for Energy Star appliances,” said Kelly.

Carl Samuelson, Energy Efficiency Program Coordinator with the program, noticed that rebates and loans gave business own-ers more momentum to start an energy efficiency project, “A grant or loan can help convince a business to do a project theymight have otherwise put off.”.” The mindset of businesses towards energy use can be a barrier to convincing them to pursueenergy efficiency. “They all see energy use as inevitable, explained Samuelson.

But when it comes to making larger investments, “nearly all established businesses will choose to invest in a businessimprovement that pays for itself even without external support.” Samuelson remarked.

The program was quite successful in helping the businesses achieve energy savings by providing technical assistance to popu-lar venues such as East Side Co-op, which installed LED lighting in all refrigerated cases. East Side Co-op’s retrofit actionshave reduced energy as a percentage of sales from 1.7% in 2006 to 1.3% in 2010!

Although the grant period is now over, Nancy Kelly, Carl Samuelson and the rest of the Food Service Energy LeadershipProgram team at Eureka Recycling are continuing to build the relationships with contractors and businesses and their workimproving food service energy efficiency in Minneapolis and White Bear Lake.

To learn more about the Workshops held by the Food Service Energy Leadership Program, go here http://www.cleanener-gyresourceteams.org/publication/cutting-energy-costs-and-saving-big-foodservice-business

For more information, contact Carl Samuelson by email at carls@eurekarecycling.org

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