Au Bon Pain
At a Glance
Industry
Food Services
Project Type
Commercial Energy Efficiency
Year
2012
Location
Boston, MA
Net Present Value:
$1,200,000
Annual kWh Savings:
2,700,000 kWh
Annual CO2 Reductions:
1,400 metric tons
Summary
Jana Holt evaluated efficiency opportunities for four Au Bon Pain cafés including lighting and kitchen equipment upgrades and optimized HVAC settings.
Goals
Jana Holt was enlisted to evaluate energy efficiency opportunities for Au Bon Pain, a café and bakery chain with over 280 locations worldwide. She targeted four in New England to help the company understand efficiency opportunities across its entire café portfolio.
Solutions
By conducting a series of energy audits, Holt identified opportunities to upgrade lighting and optimize HVAC settings. Additionally, because ENERGY STAR-certified models of much of the kitchen equipment Au Bon Pain uses are not available, she also identified more efficient refrigerated display case models for potential refrigeration upgrades.
Potential Impact
In total, Holt’s projects could save the four cafés more than $90,000 over the project lifetimes, as well as more than 200,000 kilowatt hours of electricity and 100 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year. If implemented at 50 priority cafes, Au Bon Pain could save more than $1.2 million over the project lifetimes, as well as over 2.7 million kilowatt hours – an average electricity reduction of 23 percent per café – and 1400 metric tons of carbon dioxide every year.