Thanks to a deal with Standard Renewable Energy (SRE) struck recently, 75 Chipotle restaurants will soon feature solar energy systems.
The installations are already under way in Denver, Chipotle’s home base. Other panels-in-progress are also happening in Austin, Dallas and San Antonio.
The Houston Chipotle, site of SRE’s home office, will not be getting a solar retrofit. Even though it meets two of the standards for solar installation set by Chipotle executives (sufficient energy usage and access to sunlight), the city doesn’t offer solar rebates.
Solar siting is, according to Chipotle’s Chairman and Co-CEO Steve Ellis, similar to the way the chain restaurant firm decides what buildings should look like and where they should go, the biggest focus being on efficiency and environmentally-friendly design.
The panels will produce a combined total of 500 kilowatt-hours of electricity, making the chain restaurant the largest direct producer of solar energy in the restaurant industry. The purpose behind the installation is to reduce peak energy consumption, which commonly occurs in Chipotle locations from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. This is also when energy demand from other venues is greatest, leading to peak energy prices that can seriously dent restaurateurs’ profits, especially in fast food, where profit margins are individually tiny and depend on volume sales.
The panel installations, which are estimated to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 41 million pounds over their lifetime, are not Chipotle’s first foray into environmental friendliness. Chipotle was also the first restaurant ever to receive Platinum-level LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for its Gurnee, Illinois location.
Chipotle has another LEED-certified location Long Island, and a restaurant waiting for certification in Minneapolis. In fact, all of Chipotle’s new restaurants incorporate environmentally-friendly materials like low-VOC paints and sealers, recycled drywall and stainless steel in kitchens and serving areas, low –E windows that reduce heating and cooling requirements, and light controls that regulated interior lighting based on the amount of available sunlight.
Chipotle also incorporates sustainability into its food, including more organic meat, dairy products made from hormone-free milk and cream, and a commitment to locally grown food. Whatever the recipe, Chipotle is still a cut above the rest in terms of chain restaurants, and in Minnesota, at least, has acquired something of a reputation for excellence, even among the large and growing Hispanic population.
Houston-based SRE is the nation’s largest distributed energy services company. It provides energy efficiency monitoring and upgrades, high-efficiency heating and cooling products, and solar and wind energy. SRE has an office in Boulder, Colorado, as well as locations in Austin, Dallas, Denver, Phoenix and Tulsa, and headquarters in Houston.