HVAC Contracting

Chipotle Cuts Energy Use, Optimizes Restaurants with GridPoint Energy Management

Helps company surpass its efficiency and sustainability goals

RESTON, Va. — Energy management system supplier GridPoint announced that its submetering, monitoring, and intelligent building control technology, combined with cloud-based analytics software and services, has helped Chipotle restaurants reduce energy usage by more than 13 percent over a multi-year period.

As part of its energy reduction strategy, the restaurants started with the implementation of asset-level submetering and centralized management of air conditioning and override thresholds to optimize savings without sacrificing the comfort of its restaurant guests. GridPoint’s energy management system (EMS) is currently installed in multiple restaurants across Chipotle’s three brands: Chipotle Mexican Grill, Pizzeria Locale, and ShopHouse. The solution includes HVAC control, temperature monitoring, and asset-level submetering which details energy expenditure of specific equipment pieces including HVAC units, walk-in coolers, kitchen hoods, and steam tables.

Sites have since been continuously optimized through algorithmic control and data analysis to reduce peaks and operational drift leveraging GridPoint’s structured and historical asset-level data. Collected data is aggregated in GridPoint’s cloud-based software platform, GridPoint Energy Manager, and broken down into alarm and exception reports designed for Chipotle’s facilities team. The team can monitor usage trends, verify equipment is working properly, and identify savings opportunities across its fleet of sites.

Chipotle relies on a variety of GridPoint’s services to ensure its sites are running efficiently. GridPoint’s Control Support Services enable site managers to seek assistance with adjusting temperatures, store hours, and schedules while keeping within pre-set corporate standards and maintaining guest comfort. GridPoint’s Energy Advisory Services team provides hands-on analytical support to identify exceptions and other on-site behavior that could negatively impact energy savings and sustainability goals.

“GridPoint’s data-driven products play an essential role in our ability to affect our environmental impact across our restaurants nationally. The financial benefits we see continue to grow as we deploy the solution throughout our enterprise and is an exceptional byproduct of working with partners like GridPoint,” said Carolyn Anderson, executive director at Chipotle. “The full-service approach of GridPoint has proven critical to our success because it enables us to get the most out of our EMS investment. GridPoint’s flexibility in offering a comprehensive ‘EMS as a Service solution’ with little to no upfront investment combined with its attractive returns makes it a great fit across our concepts, and further drives corporate sustainability goals at each location.”

Additionally, GridPoint’s EMS improves the efficiency of Chipotle’s teams for operational savings, primarily by reducing the resources required to service and maintain sites. GridPoint diagnostic tools can be used to identify and triage HVAC or other system issues at a site before dispatching a technician, which provides greater information to make service activity more efficient and reduces the number of return visits by validating repairs before a technician leaves the site.

“Chipotle’s commitment to ‘Food With Integrity’ takes corporate responsibility to the next level,” said Mark Danzenbaker, GridPoint’s president. “From sourcing top-of-the-line ingredients, to supporting local farmers, Chipotle’s mission to cultivate a better world is evident in all aspects of their business and GridPoint is honored to play a role supporting their efforts in reaching this goal.”

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