Dunkin' Brands – Jochen Schloesser – 2011

Goals

Jochen Schloesser spent his summer as an EDF Climate Corps fellow at Dunkin’ Brands in order to (1) determine the financial potential of energy efficiency for Dunkin’ Donuts stores and (2) identify specific projects which could be conducted at the store-level to increase energy efficiency while adding value to store owners. Importantly, Schloesser conducted his project with a focus on improving the energy efficiency of Dunkin’ Donuts stores belonging to franchisees, since, as a franchisor, Dunkin’ Donuts itself owns and operates virtually no Dunkin’ Donuts’ restaurants, bakeries, or other hard assets.

Solutions

In 11 weeks, Schloesser conducted an extensive benchmark of Dunkin Donuts’ locations to discover that energy efficiency represents a big opportunity to reduce select stores’ energy consumption. Schloesser detailed lighting, ventilation, refrigeration, and water product-related recommendations that franchisees could implement to increase energy efficiency. Lastly, he identified utilities as a key resource to provide potential turnkey expertise and financing for several of these projects.

Potential Impact

Schloesser’s analysis illustrated that if approximately 2,700 freestanding stores managed to reduce their energy consumption 15 percent through energy efficiency projects – an assumption strengthened by the results of the store benchmarking he conducted – franchisees could collectively cut around $12 million in energy costs, 80 million kilowatt hours and 47,000 metric tons in associated CO2 emissions annually.