Cooking-Up a New Approach for Commercial Program Design

Foodservice facilities are among the most energy-intensive commercial buildings, consuming roughly 2.5 times more energy per square foot than other commercial buildings. In addition, the foodservice sector can also be a big consumer of water and a large generator of wastewater and solid waste. In the past, a majority of energy efficiency programs have addressed this sector by promoting a single product conversion to capture energy savings. Program success has been limited under this approach mostly due to the complex decision-making barriers unique to this sector that affects procurement procedures and actions. This paper discusses a recent national effort to better address these decision-making barriers through a new program design strategy. By adding industry perspectives as well as consumer thinking into program strategies and design, efficiency programs are likely to have greater, longer-term impacts in the market. The effort is unique in that it simultaneously addresses multiple efficiency opportunities within the foodservice sector through a “bundled” program approach that cuts across equipment types. The effort initially focuses on a particular segment within the foodservice sector, restaurants, which have significant savings potential, a high degree of efficiency program relevance, and a large customer base. In this paper, the authors—which include representatives of the foodservice industry as well as water agencies and energy efficiency program managers—will describe the methodology by which the program design strategy was developed including the program theory and logic.