Eater: For Restaurants Cutting Their Carbon Footprint, Composting Food Scraps Is Just the Beginning

October 15, 2024 - Budderfly was recently featured in an article from Eater detailing the ways restaurants are working to become more sustainable. Budderfly's model enables restaurants to gain access to energy efficient equipment - reducing energy usage and cost.

“There’s about a 30 percent waste factor going on out there,” said Al Subbloie, founder and CEO of Connecticut-based Budderfly, a company that helps restaurants and other businesses reduce their energy costs.

Budderfly provides restaurants with the upfront capital to purchase newer, more energy-efficient equipment, including lighting, refrigeration controls, thermostats, heat pump technology, induction ovens—even solar panels. Budderfly manages the utility bills free of charge, and when electricity costs drop, it shares those savings with the restaurant. Typically, restaurants receive three to six percent of the savings, and “End up with an economic benefit handed to them for nothing,” said Subbloie. “I removed the friction of doing the right thing.”

Budderfly’s business model works best for restaurants with longevity, since its contracts are for 10 years, or for chains, whose multiple locations use large amounts of energy. For example, it helped Sonic burger franchise owner Spencer Hart install solar panels on the drive-in canopies at four of his Long Island locations. Those panels now provide 35 to 40 percent of his electricity needs. Budderfly also installed a new HVAC system at one location and made other equipment upgrades that have cut his energy use by 20 percent.

The HVAC system would have cost Hart tens of thousands of dollars, he said. “We got a share of the savings, and we didn’t put up anything, and it’s good for the world.” Hart now wants to install EV chargers at his Sonic locations.

Read the full article here.