MELISA MARKS SoCal Gas CAROL KRALICEK TurboChef, FCSI

As CEE’s Commercial Kitchens Initiative continues to grow, new partners are coming on board and new strategies are evolving. At the Industry Partners Meeting, the Commercial Kitchens Committee met face-to-face with some key stakeholders for the first time.

“We made some important strides in building relationships,” said CEE Program Manager Afroz Khan, who is managing the initiative.

“We met some trade associations, manufacturers and end-user groups that we hadn’t worked with before. It’s valuable to get their perspective and they learned quite a bit about how our initiative works.”

One of the objectives of the breakout sessions was to develop a common understanding of local, regional and national distribution channels for commercial food service equipment and clarify how high-efficiency equipment is identified, selected and installed, especially within the restaurant sector.

From this discussion, the group will identify opportunities for energy-efficiency programs.

Newcomers included representatives from the Supply and Equipment Foodservice Alliance, a network of equipment distributors and manufacturers; the National Restaurant Association; Foodservice Consultants Society International (FCSI); and Brinker International, a corporation that owns, operates and franchises a number of restaurant chains across through country.

Clifton Geisler of Brinker International reinforced the initiative strategy of targeting large restaurant chains.

Address the needs of the large chains, he said, and the small independent restaurants will follow. Geisler noted that large restaurant chains have the money and motivation to work with energy-efficiency program administrators.

CEE is continuing to work closely with ENERGY STAR^® in the Commercial Kitchens Initiative. ENERGY STAR has helped establish industry contacts and has contributed research and overall guidance for this sector based on its commercial food service program.

Carol Kralicek, representing TurboChef and FCSI, explained some of the major issues facing the commercial kitchens sector during the main session of the Industry Partners Meeting.

“The greatest challenge is recruiting and retaining employees,” she said. “The industry is also under a great deal of pressure, from the public and the regulatory community, to provide healthy foods.

“But energy and environmental issues are moving up the priority list. We need to develop solutions that save energy and labor. We’re also looking to ENERGY STAR to broaden its list of eligible equipment. Education about life-cycle costing is very important.”

At the breakout session, Kralicek encouraged the Commercial Kitchens Committee to engage food service consultants through their trade association, FCSI. “It will provide an opportunity to educate consultants about ways that efficiency programs can better serve the end-user,” she said.

Member programs
The number of CEE members implementing commercial kitchen programs has doubled (to 15) since the inception of the initiative. In addition to products addressed by the initiative (refrigerators, freezers, ice-makers, fryers and pre-rinse spray valves), products qualified by ENERGY STAR and the Food Service Technology Center are under consideration for inclusion into the initiative.

Several CEE members shared information about their programs. Melisa Marks of Southern California Gas stressed that “making it easy for customers to participate” was a high priority. SoCal Gas has made a strong effort to develop community partnerships and offers a demonstration kitchen to showcase efficient products.

NYSERDA is also a strong advocate of developing relationships with local restaurant owners. Through a commercial kitchen pilot program, NYSERDA has partnered with local restaurant association chapters to promote the energy-efficient commercial kitchen products. The City of Austin is working with Austin Energy to promote water efficiency in area restaurants.

Next steps
Over the next few months the Commercial Kitchens Committee plans to monitor discussions between EPA and commercial dishwasher manufacturers regarding revisions to ENERGY STAR’s draft dishwasher specification.

Other committee activities include a review of current ENERGY STAR specifications and discussion with the PG&E Food Service Technology Center (as well as other sources) to determine the inclusion of a steamer specification to the initiative.

The Commercial Kitchens Committee will meet at the next CEE Program meeting in Long Beach, Calif., (Jan. 19-20) and prepare a work plan for 2007.

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