Cooking Green for Profit

Will County is about to offer it’s third half-day seminar for businesses to help them increase profits and become more energy efficient.  This seminar is scheduled for March 21, 2012 at JJC in Joliet and is focusing on restaurants.  Restaurants use a lot of energy, over two times as much per square foot as other commercial businesses and they face increasing costs for that energy.

Along Rt. 30 in Joliet, there is a Denny’s in a commercial business strip whose owner, Joey Terrell, decided to build as green as possible. He had to get approvals from the company for improvements to the franchise and he had to work with the developer of the commercial strip to investigate efficiency opportunities. The effort paid off as he is making over $10,000 more a year in profit from the reduction in energy use.

He will be the featured speaker at the seminar, which will include a presentation from ComEd on rebates for energy improvements, an exhibit booth from Nicor on their rebate opportunities and a speaker from SEDAC (Smart Energy Design and Assistance Center) that free energy audits to businesses, schools and government.

Other speakers will address grease recycling, fluorescent light recycling and Electrical Solutions Network that provides efficiency upgrades to businesses. Exhibitors include Waste Management, Eco Lab providing cleaning products with lower air pollutants, the Will County Health Department, Go Green Light Solutions, Berner Plumbing for water efficiency and the Soil and Water Conservation District among others.

If you own, manager or work in a restaurant, you should attend. For a few hours of your time, you could learn ways to make more money every hour your business is operating.

For more information about this seminar and past business seminars, visit http://www.willcountygreen.com/business/greening_business_seminars.aspx