Subway’s energy-saving initiatives include switching to a corrugated cardboard that’s smaller and stronger but uses less paper.

In the same way, chains are trying all sorts of green programs to reduce their impact on the environment—composting, recycling, fueling delivery trucks with biodiesel, putting solar water-heating panels on roofs, even using worms to compost waste—as they follow the advice of sustainability experts who prescribe integrated plans.

Of the 25 chains contacted for this story, many are still inventorying their operations to see what already fits the green scheme and what more needs to be done. Others such as McDonald’s, Subway and Ted’s Montana Grill are well on their way to a comprehensive strategy. But no matter where each chain falls on this continuum, energy reduction and management is the place to start.

“We view energy management as our No. 1 environmental or sustainability priority,” says Bob Langert, vice president of corporate social responsibility for McDonald’s USA. “We paint the picture based on where our impacts are and where we can do better with energy. It’s a very holistic view.”

Other chains echo that sentiment for many reasons. With profit margins so slim, operators want to do everything they can to save money by reducing wasteful practices. Energy costs have been increasing at a rate of 6 percent to 8 percent per year, according to Fletcher, N.C.-based Appalachian Energy, which means the 2.3 percent to 3.6 percent of sales the National Restaurant Association says operators typically spend on energy is not going to stay static.

Then, too, with consumers more intently focused on green issues, the last thing the chain industry wants is negative press focused on its notoriously energy-intensive process loads. According to Richard Young, senior engineer and director of education for San Ramon, Calif.-based Food Service Technology Center, restaurants use five times more energy per square foot than other commercial buildings. And restaurants use five times more energy in the kitchen than in the rest of the building.

By reducing the amount of packaging it uses to ship product, Subway hopes to save 97,400 pounds of plastic a year.

“You can make all the changes you want with water usage and lighting, but that’s not the home run stuff,” he adds. “Home runs come with reducing process loads connected to refrigeration and cooking, serving and holding food.”

There’s reason to believe that if chains don’t voluntarily work toward greater efficiency in these areas, governments will make them. For example, California’s Title 20 Appliance Efficiency Regulations require that restaurants specify high-efficiency holding cabinets, reach-in solid-door refrigerators, and low-flow spray valves on dishwashers.

The spoonful of sugar making energy management and reduction plans easier to swallow is that simple measures such as changing over to compact fluorescent light bulbs, turning off appliances when not in use or fixing hot water leaks provide quick savings that can help operators move forward to the bigger energy impacts. Operators that take advantage of tax rebates from utilities and tools such as the FSTC’s onlinelife-cycle cost calculator to figure ROI find that bigger moves such as specifying more energy-efficient equipment or trying renewable-energy features can taste even sweeter.

“Small steps lead to bigger things,” says George McKerrow Jr., president of Atlanta-based Ted’s Montana Grill, a 55-unit concept that leads the full-service-chain sector in sustainability. Switching out all its incandescent light bulbs for compact fluorescent bulbs systemwide cost Ted’s $60,000. But over their two-year lifespan, those bulbs will save $90,000 to $100,000 a year in energy costs, providing payback in only six months.

Two years ago, the company formed a six-person Green Team, with members from different departments. They meet each month to focus on a particular platform such as water management, energy management, recycling or technology.

Ted’s now specifies kitchen equipment in all six Energy Star commercial categories, installed variable-speed hood ventilation systems that eliminate the need for make-up air units, and uses high-efficiency rooftop HVAC systems. Comprehensive water-management measures save the company 150,000 gallons of water and $2,500 dollars annually at each of the 10 new units that have the more-efficient fixtures. Parsing that out, high-temperature dishwashers cut water use by 40,000 to 60,000 gallons a year per unit. In bathrooms, automatic low-flow faucets, dual flush toilets and waterless urinals make up the rest of the water savings. While it’s too expensive to retrofit all units with this equipment, it will be specified for new units moving forward.

“You’re not only saving on the cost of water, but you’re also saving the cost of waste-water treatment, which in most states is equal or more than the cost of the water,” says Ed Bazor, director of construction and development for the chain. If hot water is involved, energy savings also enter in.

Ted’s is now looking at renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power. In 2009, the company plans to mount wind turbines around the perimeter of parking lots in Wichita and Kansas City, Kan. The turbines will generate electricity, which will be run back into the switch gear within the restaurant, reducing direct cost to the utility by an estimated 10 percent to 15 percent per unit. It’s also testing on-site power generation with solar photovoltaic cells at a Tallahassee, Fla., unit.

Of the large QSR chains, McDonald’s and Subway are doing many of the same things.

McDonald’s won recognition as U.S. EPA Energy Star Partner of the Year in 2007 for energy-management plans that reduced energy usage at its 13,700 U.S. units by 3.75 percent, resulting in a $28 million savings, says Steve DePalo, national energy manager for Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald’s USA.

DePalo says McDonald’s does diligence on designing more efficient equipment and cultivating operational efficiencies through training. “Forty percent of our energy is used in the kitchen and is controlled by behaviors from our employees,” he says. “So training is really important. The cheapest and most environmentally friendly kilowatt hour is the one you don’t use.”

McDonald’s energy training covers conservation, energy tools and best practices. About 15,000 managers receive energy education at the chain’s Managers Peak conference each year. Those who excel at energy practices throughout the year are recognized as Energy All-Stars.

McDonald’s is also working on its next generation of energy-efficient fryers, which will use less oil. And it’s in the process of changing to new water heaters that are 10 percent to 12 percent more efficient than previous models.

“One of the real strengths about McDonald’s is that we can use units as green laboratories in different parts of the world, sharing best practices and then trying to scale successful tests for application in other markets,” says Langert.

Some of the tests, such as the use of worm farms to help compost food waste from eight Hong Kong units and capturing gas released from decomposing food waste to fuel a biogas delivery truck in Switzerland, have a sort of “gee whiz” quality about them. But other projects show potential for practical application in many regions.

McDonald’s conversion of used cooking oil into biodiesel for fueling delivery trucks, for example, started in the United Kingdom in 2007, and this year was expanded to Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States.

And daylighting—using natural light to help reduce reliance on electric lights—has been tested in the U.S. and European units.

McDonald’s is also testing geothermal heating at a unit in Pensacola, Fla. This method of tunneling deep into the ground to tap into the more-constant temperature of the earth greatly lessens reliance on gas or electric power to heat or cool a building. Energy savings can be in the neighborhood of 15 percent to 20 percent annually, says Tara Handy, senior manager, corporate media relations.

To reduce reliance on electric lights, Subway’s Eco Stores use daylighting to reflect sunlight through tubes that shine through panels in the ceilings.

Rather than using biodiesel to fuel trucks, Subway conserves fuel by relocating plants closer to redistribution centers.

It has also reduced the amount of packaging used to ship product. For example, it took some of the brine out of the pickle and pepper pouches and put more pickles in the pouch, reducing the amount of water used. The changes allow Subway to ship fewer pouches, less frequently. The company also switched to a corrugated carton that’s smaller and stronger but uses less paper. The combined changes add up to 614,000 gallons of water and 97,400 pounds of plastic saved each year, says Tina Fitzgerald, director of produce and social responsibility for IPC.

Subway’s Eco Store is another huge initiative. The Eco Store pulls all of the successful energy-efficient features Subway has tested under one roof: HVAC, water heating, lighting and kitchen equipment. Three pilot Eco Stores were built year-end ’07 in Kissimmee, Fla., and St. Helens and Keizer Station, Ore. Energy use will be measured through 2008. A nearly identical new unit that has “standard” equipment was built near the Eco Store in Kissimmee and is being monitored for comparison. Subway hopes the Eco Store will be its prototype for future expansion.

“We want to ensure that all of the efficient equipment has a payback of less than five years, making it feasible for the franchise environment,” says Davis.

The units are being certified by the U.S. Green Building Council as having met its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design guidelines. If the Eco Store measurements prove out, there is a good chance that Subway will apply for the LEED portfolio certification with the design, which is less expensive and time consuming than going for LEED certification for each unit, and groundbreaking for the chain-restaurant industry.

Still, “If individual franchisees see no perceived benefit to going with the LEED certification, they can follow the Eco Store template without doing the certification,” Davis says.

While not yet ready to talk about comprehensive strategies, Taco Bell is reducing process loads through new equipment design. The Irvine, Calif.-based chain has moved from a steam-heat system to an energy-saving Grill to Order dry-heat system. The system uses a flat-top grill for cooking tortillas to order and a dry heat-to-hold section on the assembly table. It replaces steam cabinets for heating tortillas and steam tables for keeping ingredients hot.

Taco Bell says the dry-heat system will save 300 million gallons of water a year and cut energy use 15 percent. It expects to reduce energy costs about $3,500 to $4,000 per unit. Including all 5,800 units, that tallies up to $20 million or more in savings.

Helping offset the cost of the new equipment, several utilities awarded Taco Bell rebates of up to $3,000 per unit for making the switch. Parent Yum Brands is evaluating the equipment for its other concepts.

Meanwhile, Arby’s franchisee The Winning Team in Asheville, N.C., worked with Fletcher, N.C.-based Appalachian Energy to install solar panels on 33 units. The panels heat 70 percent of the hot-water load for the units. The Winning Team expects them to reduce 100,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions, cut annual energy costs 30 percent to 45 percent relative to hot-water demand and heating, and save $12,000 annually.

Because the solar power is part of a power purchase agreement, Appalachian Energy eliminates the upfront cost of the panels. “It allowed us to get into solar with no capital outlay,” says Gene Austin, The Winning Team’s director of marketing.

Operators say there have been challenges to going green. The biggest, says McKerrow, are the time and human energy not directly tied to feeding customers. “You really have to look at the justification,” he says. “Every business has to take a look at the raw cost and net return on each sustainability investment you make.”

Code and permit issues can also cause snags. To get waterless urinals installed in Georgia, Missouri and Montana, for example, Ted’s Montana Grill had to meet with local officials to explain how the system worked, says Bazor. “We’re still lobbying to get the code changed in Illinois,” he says.

Similarly, Chipotle says some municipality codes do not yet allow tankless water heaters. “That means that about 25 percent of the new units we build each year are not able to get the new system,” explains Scott Shippey, Chipotle’s design director. According to Shippey, success in 2002 with tankless water heaters and high-efficiency HVAC units made them standard for new units since. Factory-programmed thermostat and photocell light controls came in 2004. And wind turbines and solar tests will be up and running this year.

The lack of a consistent definition for what constitutes energy-efficient equipment is also problematic, says Kate Lewis, sales and marketing manager for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program. “You’ve got governments saying you have to meet this mandatory standard, which may be at one level, and then you’ve got Energy Star, which is voluntary but may set the measure for energy efficiency at a different level.”

Organizations such as the Consortium for Energy Efficiency and the Food Service Technology Center have been working to set energy efficiency standards for an array of commercial equipment.

Despite difficulties, many operators are committed to broadening their sustainability efforts. Quoting a Chinese proverb, Subway’s Davis sums it up: “The difficulty is not coming up with new ideas, but in undoing the old ones.”