When restaurant locations compete to conserve energy usage, everyone wins
With restaurants continuing to struggle in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Southern California Gas Company is piloting a program designed to help restaurant chains boost their energy efficiency and save money on their natural gas usage.
Fourteen Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar locations participated in the initial “Take the Challenge,” which kicked off in September 2022. The locations competed against each other to see which could reduce its natural gas use the most.
In addition to providing each Lazy Dog location with personalized energy-saving tips, SoCalGas employees developed a unique dashboard tool that provides the restaurant chain locations with a breakdown of their hourly natural gas usage. The single sign-on tool enables participating restaurants to view and compare their natural gas consumption against different locations.
This is the first time a restaurant will be able to view all this information on a single online site. “Through our collaboration with restaurant chains and by giving their locations the tools to save energy, the ability to view hourly usage and the opportunity to understand usage anomalies, restaurant employees are empowered to make economic changes in their operations,” Dr. Liza Legaspi, SoCalGas behavior programs and financing products segment supervisor, told American Gas.
One goal is for participating restaurants to become aware of unusually high usage hours and focus efforts during those times to identify the causes. If, for example, the dashboard’s hourly usage graph indicates the location is using an abundance of natural gas in the early morning, employees can evaluate whether they’re preheating equipment for more time than necessary.
“We have learned that to inspire change, it is vital to provide easy-to-understand information for restaurant staff to see usage patterns and to equip their employees with a practical course of action that is simple to implement,” Legaspi said. “We have a commitment to our restaurant customers to equip them with the tools and information they need to help them conserve energy and save money. We will continue to research and pioneer cutting-edge technologies as we work toward a more sustainable future.”
SoCalGas has initiated an outreach plan to invite other chain restaurants with 10 or more locations to participate in the pilot, with the goal of making the program available to multiple restaurant chains in the utility’s service area.