McDonald's USA - A Model that Focuses on Energy Efficiency as Part of its Strategy

Energy costs are going up. For example, on November 22, 2011, Xcel Energy Inc. filed a request for a $141.9 million electric rate increase for its Colorado customers.  It is anticipated that the rate boost will increase customer bills by approximately 4%.  Because energy is one of higher operational costs of running a business, rate increases can hit businesses especially hard.  Businesses can however, take steps to cut their energy use and control their costs.

More and more companies are recognizing that they can do more with less and the result is a positive impact on the balance sheet and the environment.  One company at the forefront is McDonald’s USA.  This is not a new concept to McDonald’s either.  November 20, 2010 marked the 20th anniversary of a groundbreaking partnership between McDonald’s and the Environmental Defense Fund.  The McDonald’s approach to energy can be broken down into two disciplines: energy procurement (how they buy it) and energy efficiency (how they use it). 

In our upcoming show on ICOSA radio, we plan to focus on McDonald’s efficiency efforts. We want to highlight how the changes made by businesses can have positive impacts that go beyond just energy savings and extend into other areas such as the environment.  For example, a fryer is not just a fryer to McDonald’s.  McDonald’s has developed a next-generation low oil volume (LOV) fryer that uses about 40% less cooking oil and 4% less energy than standard fryers.  That translates to lower operational cost, less waste, less transport cost and less overall energy use.

McDonald’s USA has sought to:  (1) Increase adoption of energy efficient equipment and technology in the restaurants.  (2) Improve tracking of restaurant energy consumption data.  (3) Increase energy awareness and education across the business to continue to realize savings to the bottom line and benefits to the environment.

We are excited to discuss McDonald’s energy strategies in more detail with Steve DePalo, Director of Energy for McDonald’s USA on Monday, December 19th at 11:20 MST on ICOSA’s Connect and Collaborate Segment with Experience Pros Radio on 560 AM in Denver or archived shows can be downloaded from the Experience Pros website: www.experiencepros.com.  Check out ICOSA radio at http://www.theicosamagazine.com/icosaradio.