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Restaurants are prodigious energy users. Flex Your Power’s best practices guide Boosting Restaurant Profits With Energy Efficiency notes that, square foot for square foot, restaurants rank among the most energy-intensive commercial spaces in California. And, though considerable energy savings are possible by changing everyday practices in existing restaurants, owners and managers can save still more by investing in energy-efficient equipment on the front end.

In today’s San Francisco Examiner, Hank Ryan, the executive director of Small Business California, proposes a novel solution that could save restaurant and liquor-store owners time and money. To encourage liquor license applicants to consider energy efficiency before all purchasing and design decisions have been made, Ryan wants the California Department of Alcohol Beverage Control (DABC) to offer 60-day “fast-track” permits for applicants who’ve invested in energy efficiency. Businesses that provide receipts showing the purchase of at least $2,500 in ENERGY STAR qualified refrigeration or other food service equipment would have their applications processed in two months, rather than the typical 90 to 120 days. To make the decision to invest in efficiency even easier, utility rebate information could be folded into the permitting process.

A hypothetical cost comparison in Boosting Restaurant Profits With Energy Efficiency illustrates that investing in efficiency is money well spent. Over one year, the restaurant that selected a dozen pieces of high-efficiency equipment — such as a steamer, boiler, oven, griddle and reach-in refrigerator — would spend almost $7,000 less on energy than a second restaurant that purchased standard-efficiency equipment.

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