Restaurants use five times more energy than any other business in the retail industry. With all the cooking, refrigeration and dishwashing that takes place in a restaurant kitchen, it’s obvious where most of their energy goes. This is why most sustainability initiatives start in the back of the house. However, if you’re concentrating only on the kitchen and dish area, you’re missing valuable opportunities to cut energy usage throughout your restaurant.

Conserve: Solutions for Sustainability, an environmental initiative of the National Restaurant Association, offers the “virtual green restaurant,” an interactive tool providing conservation tips for every location in your restaurant. The interactive tool organizes tips into several categories, including outside, waiting area, bar, dining room, waste area, restroom, refrigeration and building materials.

Landscaping can be a water hog for restaurants, but Conserve suggests using soaker hoses or trickle irrigation systems that use less water. It also advises using brooms to sweep off sidewalks and parking areas instead of hosing them off with water.

Your entrance or waiting area might not seem like a sustainability focal point, but there are a few things you can do to conserve energy. Replacing existing exit signs with LED exit lighting, checking doors to ensure they close securely and prohibiting cool or heated air from escaping are just a few steps you can take to reduce energy costs.

For some chain restaurants, the dining room is the largest part of their operation. Reduce energy use here by opening the blinds in the winter to let in the natural sunlight. This small change doesn’t cost anything, but it will save on heating costs because it warms the interior and reduces the amount of artificial lighting needed. Speaking of lighting, make sure you’ve replaced incandescent bulbs with CFL or LED alternatives.

Restrooms have the potential to use the most water in your facility. Installing low-flow toilets and waterless urinals can significantly reduce water costs. Installing motion-activated lighting will also help reduce your energy costs.

National Restaurant Association Conserve: Solutions for Sustainability offers many more energy-saving tips as well as sustainability success stories and facts. They’d also love to hear about your sustainability story.

For more energy-saving tips, visit Conserve.Restaurant.org or contact Chris Moyer at CMoyer@restaurant.org.