Energy is the lifeblood of most businesses, especially for restaurants and retailers. It does more than just power the lights; energy makes equipment run and keeps employees and customers feeling comfortable. But with consumption comes waste, and a lot of it. Researchers at MIT estimate that commercial buildings account for 20% of all the energy […]
For facilities managers, the change in season also ushers in the need for maintenance on HVAC units as businesses shift from cooling to heating. Regular maintenance is a key part of making sure an HVAC system is running optimally, but merely performing seasonal check-ins won’t protect your equipment against catastrophic failure. That’s a job for […]
The food service industry was hit hard by the pandemic and unfortunately, the problems aren’t in the rearview mirror just yet. When restaurants across the nation were forced to close, owners looked forward to a time when their empty tables would be full again. But with that day here, many are still struggling; not because […]
Hard-to-find operational efficiency improvements are all around us. For instance: Is your store lit up all night long? How cold or warm is your staff making your facility? How much of your repair and maintenance spend is actually necessary? All great questions that until a few years ago would have required you to be at […]
Just as the Internet has revolutionized our lives over the past 20 years, the Internet of Things (IoT) promises another upheaval to the way we work in the years to come. The Internet forever altered the way we communicate with each other and gather information in order to make decisions and run our lives. Acting […]
At MUFSO today, we attended an interesting presentation about an important topic for all restaurant organizations: safety. Customers and employees are the driving forces behind any successful restaurant so their safety and well-being is a top priority for restaurant managers. When a restaurant is identifying opportunities to keep its customers and employees safe, it doesn’t focus only […]
In a recent post, I wrote about how next-generation Energy Management Systems (which we call “EMS 2.0”) are enabling facilities management firms to be heroes to their clients by providing unprecedented visibility and automated analytics down to the equipment level, allowing service companies to respond more proactively to equipment issues. Similarly, EMS 2.0 can enable managed […]
Too hot. Too cold. Just right. Just like all consumers, Goldilocks expected that her preferences would be met. Luckily for the three bears, she didn’t have social media and rating websites like Yelp to broadcast the fact that her first two bowls weren’t to her liking! Today, consumers do have those powerful tools, and it’s […]
Energy bills can often be one of the larger expenses for an organization – especially for companies managing chains of restaurants or convenience stores, which typically consume three times more energy per square foot than other commercial facilities. Energy costs can also be frustrating to try to control, and many utilities don’t seem to […]
Tip 2: Control HVAC Costs In the second of the series of posts on energy efficiency in restaurants, let’s look at the highest cost in most areas of the country – heating and cooling. The starting point is to make sure that HVAC settings consider comfort first, but also costs. Adjusting settings by as […]
