QSR July 2023

ENVIRONMENT

The new restaurants feature solar panels, where possible, which provide a portion of their power. Inside, all kitchen equipment is electric, and heat pumps provide heat and cool ing. The company installed energy management systems, a smaller electric cookline, and improved exhaust hoods. Chi potle also learned to adjust the set points for the HVAC units as needed for seasonality. “In 2022, we saved approximately 65,000 MWh of energy through energy management systems in our restaurants; this is enough energy to power over 6,100 homes in a year,” Shibata says. Like Chipotle, Amy’s Drive Thru is recognized for its envi ronmental stewardship. The company, which has a CPG arm, Amy’s Kitchen, has four restaurants close to San Francisco (one in the airport) and has plans for 17 new locations on the West Coast. Amy’s is committed to net zero, which requires sustainabil ity practices to balance the amount of greenhouse gas produced and the amount removed from the atmosphere. The fourth location in Roseville, California, and all others to come, are designed with this goal in mind. The company is committed to the renewable energy transi tion and aims to be powered 100 percent by renewable electricity by 2030. The restaurants feature solar panels on their roofs, which supply around 10 percent of the required energy. All future stores will have solar panels, as well. For remaining energy needs, Amy’s avoids purchasing renew able energy certificates or carbon credits and is intentional about procuring only “additional” renewable energy that directly brings new wind and solar assets onto the grid. Amy’s also keeps energy usage down by using reclaimed materials as much as possible in its restaurant design. “Beyond the warm look that matches the feel of our spaces, using reclaimed wood and metal components helps keep those mate rials out of landfills,” says Renaud des Rosiers, Amy’s director of sustainability. “It also decreases the embodied greenhouse gas impact of our restaurants by reducing the need for newly manufactured components and the extraction, manufacturing, and energy use that goes with it.”

Sourcing reclaimed materials can be difficult, however. Amy’s searches through junk yards and reused lots. “There’s this cottage industry of reuse-oriented work yards,” he says. “There’s not a conventional supply chain. It’s almost case-by-case.” Amy’s used reclaimed materials in a wood facade at the ordering station of the newest location—which opened this May in Thousand Oaks, California—and more frequently for table bases, often using axels and parts of wheels. “It can be chal lenging to find things that fit, tables that are the right shape and maintain cleanliness and we love to do it a way that brings some flair,” des Rosiers says. Amy’s also provides electric car charging stations, as does Chipotle. Last year the company was part of the inaugural cohort of the Gigaton Power Purchase Agreement, which includes Amy’s Kitchen and Amy’s Drive Thru. The company will buy renew able energy from Ørsted’s Sunflower Wind Farm in Marion County, Kansas. The Gigaton Agreement was created as part of Walmart’s renewable energy accelerator, which allowed five companies, including Amy’s, to get together as a group to reduce or avoid one gigaton of emissions from Walmart’s supply chain by 2030. “We feel really good about that because it sets the precedent for other small companies to bring renewable online,” says des Rosiers, who expects this to be running by October. “It will be a large component of our energy portfolio, and we’ll continue to source more renewables in coming years.” LEGACY RENEWABLE Legacy restaurants aren’t being left behind. Wendy’s has 10 company-owned restaurants in Florida that are powered by renewable energy. It expects to have another 22 by the end of this year and 35 more in 2025. The restaurants are all in Central Florida and are sourcing renewable energy from Duke Energy Florida’s Clean Energy Connection program, a community solar offering. “The solar facility was being built [by Duke Energy] and we

AMY’S DRIVE-THRU USES A LIVING ROOF, WHICH IS COVERED IN VEGETATION.

AMY’S DRIVE THRU / CESAR RUBIO (2)

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JULY 2023 | QSR | www.qsrmagazine.com