Article: “Restaurant Equipment Tips: Are Energy Costs Eating Up Your Restaurant’s Profits?”

excerpt:
“We at Jean’s Restaurant Supply want you to succeed with your business venture and rising energy costs are on the forefront of everyone’s minds. Inefficient, or inefficient use of, food preparation equipment is the second-largest energy drain on your restaurant’s profits.

So here at Jean’s Restaurant Supply, we have compiled some energy-saving tips for your commercial ovens, stove/cook tops, fryers and broilers. In doing so, we hope that with the implementation of some of these energy-saving tips, your energy bill leaves you with some profits still on your plate…”

source: “Restaurant Equipment Tips: Are Energy Costs Eating Up Your Restaurant’s Profits?” by Patty Gardiner (chef2chef.net)

links of restaurant energy efficiency tips and advice:
Restaurant Energy Tips (Energy Star)
Boosting Restaurant Profits With Energy Efficiency (Flex Your Power) [pdf]
Restaurant Energy Saving Tips (EnergyIdeas.org) [pdf]
Energy-Saving Solutions for Restaurants (SempraEnergy) [pdf]
Energy-Saving Tips (SempraEnergy)
Restaurant Energy Conservation & Efficiency Tips (PermaFrost)
Restaurant Energy Analysis (NPPD)

Article: “Restaurateurs’ diet now includes fuel surcharges” (Jul.2006)

excerpt:
“Jeff Raider knew it was time for a change when he noticed the shipping costs on the vegetables, seafood and other tasty foodstuffs that arrived at his restaurant were often higher than the costs of the products themselves.

Raider, the executive chef at the Valley Restaurant at the Garrison, decided he needed to seek out other sources of product, instead of taking shipments from all over the country. The restaurant now depends more on purveyors from New York City and the surrounding areas.

In return for the steady stream of business, those suppliers agree not to tack shipping charges onto his costs, Raider said.

The near-record cost of gasoline and diesel fuel may be the last thing on the mind of a restaurant patron cutting into a juicy steak or cracking open the shell of a scrumptious lobster. But those high fuel prices are putting pressure on restaurateurs in at least one way and possibly two.”

source: “Restaurateurs’ diet now includes fuel surcharges” by Allan Drury (The Journal News, Jul.7,2006)

Article: “Shaping Restaurants to Be Models of Efficiency” (May 2006)

excerpt:
"Here's food for thought: if restaurants were automobiles, they would be Hummers. That's because the restaurant business wastes more energy than any other industry in America. Experts say that 80 percent of the $10 billion annual energy bill for commercial food service is squandered by the use of inefficient equipment.

But one organization here, the Food Service Technology Center, has been trying to turn gas-guzzling eateries into energy-efficient hybrids.

For 20 years, the center has been "road-testing" restaurant equipment, as Don Fisher, the center's project manager, calls it. The center applies the equivalent of a mile-per-gallon rating to the appliances that cook and refrigerate food and clean the hardware used to prepare it."

source: "Shaping Restaurants to Be Models of Efficiency" by Laura Novak (May 17,2006)

link: Food Service Technology Center  

Try this out: The Energy Efficient Kitchen Tool - "Use this interactive tool to get recommendations on how to save energy and money in your commercial foodservice operation."