FROM THE FIELD
July 2007
Time To Install 'Chief Energy Officers'

If there was any doubt about it before, there isn't any more: The soufflé is definitely hitting the (low efficiency) fan where energy is concerned. Headlines everywhere blare about fossil fuels, carbon footprints, greenhouse gasses and how to manage them, including headlines here at FER and our electronic e-newsletter, FER Fortnightly. As author Janice Cha notes in this issue's cover story, even the utility industry itself is warning consumers off sloppy consumption. A sense of urgency about conservation has spread far beyond just California's energy providers. Finally.

In the June 5 Fortnightly, we reported Hill & Knowlton recently surveyed 420 senior business decision makers across numerous business sectors in Canada, China, U.K. and United States and found that barely a third (35%) said they have "a concrete energy strategy." At the same time, a whopping 77% said they believe their companies would benefit from the creation of a Chief Energy Officer, or CNO.

Which immediately raises the question of what we in foodservice are doing in an industry that uses far more energy per square foot than almost any other kind of commercial enterprise. Do you have a designated energy officer? Are you thinking about it? Wendy's has an energy manager. You really need to check out the cover story.

The energy scene is not going to get better any time soon. Sure momentary squeezes will give way to momentary reliefs, but long term the lines on the charts are only going to go down for availability and up for prices. Corn ethanol shifts a problem but doesn't solve it. Used shortening will not solve our automotive energy issues unless we all figure out how to use up way more shortening than any human can stand. Solar? Wind? Partial solutions. Nuclear has potential if we resolve to start flinging the spent rods into outer space. But the supply side, period, is not going to be an answer, at least not by itself. The answer will have to come from demand management—you will need to use less, and it won't be a financial decision. It'll be a supply decision.

Why this "sudden" supply problem? Simply put, it's not sudden, and it's because we continue to use more and more of everything. As if we could just "make more" forever, we've never really looked at demand.

"Despite huge gains in efficiency, Americans use 38% more energy per person than they did 50 years ago."

Just focus on what we're doing here in the United States. First, consider that the U.S. population has grown by 77% over the past 50 years. Then, too, consider that the average consumer has a whole bunch more energy-consuming gizmos than in decades past.

Hard numbers? According to data listed at the Department of Energy's Energy Information Agency, in 1955 the United States used 40.21 quadrillion Btu in total, which worked out to 244 million Btu per capita.

Fifty years later, in 2005 those numbers were 99.59 quadrillion Btu total, a staggering 337 million Btu per capita. That's an increase of 147% overall, and 38% more for every man, woman and child--despite all our gains in efficiency.

So really, who can say they don't need a Chief Energy Officer?

For more numbers crunching on historic U.S. energy consumption, try www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/pdf/pages/sec1_13.pdf. You'll scare yourself.

Brian Ward
Chief Editor