Energy Savings Come Alive

Editor’s Note:  Today we’re welcoming our manager of project engineering, Scott Moline, to The Square Deal!  While he may be a new contributor, we’ve previously highlighted the great work that he, the development team and our franchisees do related to energy stewardship.  Scott is an energy strategist and has held development roles at various Fortune 500 companies throughout his career.  Scott has been at Wendy’s for more than  four years and has been instrumental in our energy conservation journey.

At Wendy’s we’re committed to energy conservation in the communities in which we live and operate.  We also think it’s important to provide regular progress reports on our goals. 

As we’ve reported previously, Wendy’s has made many commitments to reduce energy over the past several years.  Most recently, we joined the EPA’s ENERGY STAR® program as an ENERGY STAR partner.  In December 2015, we joined the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Better Buildings Challenge, setting a public goal to reduce the amount of energy use in our company- owned and operated restaurants by 20% by 2025. 

Reporting Progress Towards Energy Reduction Commitments

We’re pleased to report that our 2016 energy savings numbers are in, so we figured it was a good time to share an update. Here are a few highlights as compared to our 2012 baseline figures:

As a whole, Wendy’s company-owned restaurants and the Dublin Restaurant Support Center reported a 12 percent reduction in energy per transaction. We are well on our way to hit our 20 percent goal before 2025.  

More than 165+ company restaurants are reporting more than a 10% reduction in energy use. Furthermore, 56 – nearly 20% of our company-owned restaurants—exceeded the overall 20% reduction goal in 2016.  That’s nine years ahead of schedule.

The Dublin Restaurant Support Center—Wendy’s headquarters—has reduced energy usage by an impressive 34 percent, thereby lowering greenhouse gas emissions by 24 percent over the 2013 baseline year.

Wendy’s spent nearly $1 million less in energy in 2016 at our company restaurants compared to 2012 .  This was a result of strategic changes including remodels, upgrades —like installing new HVAC systems, more efficient walk-in cooler motors and LED lights—and operational focus on energy conservation.

The Franchisees’ Role

Being a 95% franchised organization, our franchisees clearly play a big role in executing these goals.  With that in mind, Wendy’s became the first restaurant company to encourage franchisees around the country to join the DOE’s Better Buildings Challenge.  So far, 17 franchisees in the United States representing more than 1,000 Wendy's restaurants have said, “We’re in.”

We were so encouraged by our participation in the Better Buildings Challenge that we developed our program to include our franchisees outside the U.S. We modeled our initiative on the DOE’s program and called it—you guessed it—the Wendy's Energy Challenge. We are excited to report that we now have 18 franchisees participating in the Wendy’s Energy Challenge representing more than 1,300 restaurants in our system.

The top franchise performers in the Wendy’s Energy Challenge for 2016 are the Carlisle Corporation, Delight Restaurant Group, Pennant Foods, Wendco Group, and Wendium of Florida. The 500+ franchise restaurants reporting energy data in 2016 have saved enough energy to power 540 U.S. homes for an entire year!  

Roger Webb’s Wendco Group reported an impressive 13% reduction in energy per transaction from a 2013 baseline – well ahead of their goal.  The Wendco Group continues their strategic energy upgrades and their remodels, and Roger’s organization is on track to reach their energy reduction goal early. Even more important is their engagement and willingness to share their energy best practices with other franchisees.

Committed To Executing On Our Goals

Congratulations and thanks to all our franchisees who are participating in the challenge and to everyone who takes small and large steps every day to save energy at their restaurant, their office, and their home. We applaud your ongoing efforts to make the energy savings come alive!