Synergy with Energy in Foodservice: TRC and CenterPoint Energy

In today's episode, Karey and Justin are joined by Julia Emerson of TRC and Nora Luna of CenterPoint to discuss how foodservice operators can be mindful of, use and be rewarded for efficiently selecting and using kitchen equipment. 

Nora Luna began her career at CenterPoint Energy in 2003 in Customer Service.  In 2005 was promoted to Associate Service Consultant in Electric Distribution eventually being promoted to Staff Service Consultant.   As a Service Consultant her roles included Electric Distribution and Street Lighting Design at various locations during her 17 years in Electric Operations.  In 2022 she moved to CenterPoint Energy’s Energy Efficiency Department, managing multiple Energy Efficiency Programs, including Commercial High Efficiency Foodservice Equipment (CHEF), Commercial Standard, Residential Standard, and Hard-to-Reach Offer programs.  One of her many passions is educating others on conserving the environment by using exiting energy resources more efficiently.   She holds a bachelor’s in Business Management from LeTourneau University. 

Julia Emerson works in TRC Companies' Advanced Energy division, specializing in administering energy efficiency programs. Julia currently manages the implementation of the CenterPoint Energy Commercial High Efficiency Foodservice (CHEF) program, and works with other TRC Company foodservice initiatives aimed at promoting energy-efficient practices and increasing market transformation. As a dedicated and passionate advocate for sustainable energy solutions, Julia is committed to educating others about the benefits of energy efficiency and promoting best practices within the industry. She works closely with clients and stakeholders to identify opportunities for savings, raise awareness about efficient kitchen practices, and recruit new program participants. She holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma and an MSc in Environmental Management from the National University of Singapore. Her diverse educational background has given her a unique perspective on the energy industry, and she is always eager to share her insights and experience with others.

Nora Luna
nora.luna@centerpointenergy.com

Julia Emerson
jemerson@trccompanies.com

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Forbes  Hever & Wallace, Inc. produces the Foodservice for Thought podcast. 

Please rate, follow and share the podcast. Help us introduce the characters and characteristics of the foodservice / restaurant industry to others. 

Transcript

What does people plus food service plus conversation equal? The food service for thought podcast produced by Forbes, Eva and Wallace and hosted by Carrie Clements and Justin Alverez. The BI monthly podcast connects the food service industry through in depth conversations with chefs, restaurant equipment suppliers, food service establishment owners and so many others that make up our wonderful industry. If you like food people and great conversation, we think you will enjoy the food service for thought podcast.
Hello, everyone, welcome to another episode of the food service for thought Podcast, the podcast connecting the food service industry. Carrie Hello. I'll tell you what it is as of recording going to be 97 degrees today here in Phoenix. So let's say you in the Houston area.
Well, it sucks to be you. It's it's cool and low humidity here. And you know we're never Yeah, listen, we got a little breeze. I think humidities probably in the 70%. Somebody that 80% which is low for us. That's nice, right, Julia?
Yeah, yeah, it's very nice, good. As much as I'd love to do a deep dive in southern Eastern Gulf Texas weather carry that is not the purpose or the purpose of today's call to make a water reference. The purpose of today's call is one
that is so bad to improve their job skills. That's what we are pivoting from talking about energy efficiency, a commercial kitchens to Justin's joke skills. Everybody's going to weigh in on that. Yeah, we're going to talk about energy efficient equipment and incentive programs for commercial foodservice operators. And we've got two guests today. Julia Emerson with trc is joining us. She's the Advanced Energy Program Manager or project manager. And then Nora Luna was centerpoint. She is the project manager for energy efficiency with them. And yeah, they we have been, uh, Julia and I have been trying to get together and get them on the podcast for a while.
And I mean, a long while. So you know, COVID happened and things like that. So here we are. And I'm really pleased that we're finally making this happen. So welcome, Nora and Julia. Thank you. Thank you for having Thank you. Well, great. Well, before we get in to the meat and potatoes of the conversation, we need to start of course carry with our moose. Boosh. anybody that doesn't know moose Bucha is a culinary term that is sort of a one bite appetizers sort of awaken the palate for what's to come. So this is some some podcasts over here just to loosen this up and get us ready. So first question for both Julia and Nora. If you were a food what food would you be?
Pastry I love sweets, pastries and fruity pastries.
Yummy. Okay, um, I would be an egg. Maybe? Yes. I love eggs and I can be used in many things.
There you go.
Yeah, very again, we're continuing this trend which I don't like have like two or three guests in a row now not saying that they would just be a bottle of vodka or wine or something like that. Right? I know. I know. Maybe people are moving away from their their alcoholic routes or they're just embarrassed to admit to it. I don't know.
I think the latter
one.
That's good. That's good. We just don't want to be we don't want to be interviewing people who So Uber professional.
Without shine outside. So
what foods do you make Nora and then Julia, if you're having a bad day, and you know, you just need a little food pick me up
with sugar go twos.
For me sweets, it's always it's always gonna be sweets. Another thing that I always have at home was hummus or we like hummus and that will kind of I became a vegetarian. I've been started a vegetarian journey June 17 of last year. So that's, that's one of my go to that it's tasty, enjoyable, and I can
try with vegetables or
herbs or anything else that I'm I like depending on the mood I'm in, but hummus will be one of the ones. Awesome. So yeah, mine has to be by Stitcher. It's a it's a Greek Cypriot dish. With pasta. You can do it with meat or you can do it vegetarian. I'll often do it vegetarian lentils, carrots, celery, nuts, walnuts, and the bishop Mel sauce on top. It's so so so bad for me.
I don't do well with wheat, but I can eat a whole, you know, serving as teacher. It's lovely. It's warm. It's pasture. And it's something that we eat a lot over there in Cyprus, and I absolutely love it. I'll never get tired of it. We always have it. Nice now. Now I might change. I was just gonna go get a salad and eat at my desk today. There are two Greek restaurants what on either side, I might have to look on the menu and see if they've there's something similar. They might happen. Yeah, totally disrupt the B word on a special Mel. It's like okay. Oh, that's right. Yeah, that's right. creamy goodness.
All right. Final, final question here. We'll start with Julia.
What is the and this may be the same answer. What is the food that you most often cook for the people that you love.
For the people that I love? Well, we have very different tastes in my house. So I am more on the healthy side. And I suppose they're headed that way. The food I cook the most is actually a vegan potting, because it's something that can you can munch on throughout the week and it can be frozen and then thawed and used. Got a lot of mushrooms in it. The boys love it. My husband doesn't try it. But that's probably what I cook the most because I absolutely love it and I can use it for so many different things. It's really, really good. So Justin, she's like, I don't care about those people. I want
people that I love is me
I mean, I'll send you all the recipe and you can try it.
I am totally
just had chicken liver pate last week and I hadn't had yours and it was delicious. But yeah, just so the fact that you said that I am willing to try a mushroom version I will pass on the recipe. This is vegan, because I I'm more vegetarian. I do eat meat, but I do prefer vegetarian and you will love this. If you love Petey, you will love this. I'll pass it on to I put it in the show notes. Justin. Sure.
for that. Proprietary Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, it's from a book and I'll put the author and who it's not my recipe for I got it from a recipe book and I'm always happy to share great delicious love it. Okay, Nora, Nora, well, for me, it's I have an old recipe, a family recipe of meatballs that my family loves for me to cook and make. And is they just that I wrap them in bacon because everything even though I'm a vegetarian now I do remember the taste of bacon. Everything tastes better in bacon. So
So yeah, and they really like I do. When I mix the ground turkey that I use, I use oatmeal instead of rice and people use rice or bread crumbs, but I like using the oatmeal. It gives it a really nice flavor. And a little chopped onions, mustard and all that good stuff. And they come out really really delicious. My family they all love it.
Okay, well, we need your recipe to share. Well, I think what we need is a potluck
dinner party, I could do that. You would have to come here, Justin.
I'll come down to you, Carrie, and then over to just oh yeah, yes, yeah. Hey, listen, I'm down. You can come visit our test kitchen here and Kima well, so on Tuesday of next week, Julie and I are just going to meet in a back alley in Phoenix and just exchange a briefcase of pate.
And I'll bring you some
I'll bring you some
fun part of the podcast. Let's get to this boring stuff and talk about energy efficiency and money. helping the environment and all that stuff. Yeah, yeah. Just just the little things the little thing things in life. So
I yeah, I think we should start with if Julia Nora will explain. When you're talking about energy efficiency. What does that mean to you guys? And what is the the incentive program and I'm happy to
Share a broad description of energy efficiency and incentive programs across the country. And they're all different kinds. So electric utilities try to balance supply and demand side for their electrical energy on their systems. But as demand for electricity increases, they can either choose to build new infrastructure, or they can pay to reduce demand. And so energy efficiency programs sort of come from that, where it's educating customers providing incentives to help them purchasing more efficient piece of equipment, which ultimately does reduce consumption on the on the electrical side.
It's called demand side management. And it's cheaper for them to do that a lot of times, and it offers other cool benefits such as it can help economic resiliency for those businesses or for those homes, when they are now having to win, they now have more efficient equipment, and they can reduce their electric bill as well. So I actually love energy efficiency programs, and I've always been looking for them and most states, all states offer them somehow, a lot of times, they are encouraged by the state to offer these as well.
Okay, so
can you just for my understanding, go back to, to the part about why this is necessary. It's so it's either expanding the expanding the supply or decreasing the demand is that that's correct. And utilities often have decarbonisation goals now as well. So they want to help reduce the emissions
that come from new infrastructure as well. So in addition to, you know, providing programs that can be beneficial to the customers, they also have their own goals where they'd like to reduce carbon emissions. And this does both. Okay. All right. I've talked to Julia before and I understand the program and and it varies from area to area, what things are available. So for you guys, can you talk about what you're doing in Houston? The program CEF which
stands for commercial high efficiency food service equipment. And this program is only specializes on foodservice equipment for restaurant and big kitchens. We also are working with
hotel chains with school, school districts. It can be Yes, anything with a commercial nature that does commercial food service. So it could even be it goes to kitchen, or a cafeteria or anybody who's using commercial foodservice equipment in the industry in the market here in Houston can qualify. So what would what would you say?
Nora and Julia are the easiest ways for a foodservice establishment to to begin the participation in this? Well, normally, we work with dealers, and most of our dealers they offer they offer the
customers to purchase this, the energy efficiency equipment, and either depending on the dealer, they will pass on the discount directly, or they will wait until Senator point paste them and then send them the refund.
And do we have a list of those dealers? Yes. And I don't have the list with me today by any chance Do we have it with you? I can give it to
miss anyone. We work with a smart just to back up for a second this this would be called a midstream program, which means that instead of working directly with the restaurant owners, it is sometimes easier to work with anybody who is selling the equipment. And that way the restaurant owner or whoever's in the commercial food service, it could be a school, it could be anybody doesn't have to deal with any of the paperwork or anything like that. So all the paperwork is done on the back end. And they just get the benefit of a more efficient piece of equipment for less basically. So we work with retailers. We work with designers, we work with consultants, so we have a smart and budget Restaurant Supply and CNT design Stafford Smith,
tri Mark ISI. We also work with demand control kitchen ventilation companies such as mulink. They are a specific brand. And we work with sink fans, they install all types of demand control kitchen ventilation systems, so that's usually connected to your home because that can save considerable amounts of money. I really hope I'm not missing anyone. And we're always working to bring on more dealers, distributors, retailers. We would love everyone in the market here in Houston to participate Okay,
We do a lot of the backend work for them. So even for the dealer or whoever selling the equipment, we try to make it as easy as possible for them, because I'm coming from the end user market. So I remember what it was like with some programs to try and apply for incentives. And so we really work hard to minimize their reference. So I'll say this, if anybody has any questions or whatever, they can get in touch with me, and then I'll make the introduction to you guys. And, again, this this program. So the reason you mentioned the dealers that you did is because they are in Houston and service, Houston customers. And, you know, next Justin, we can chat a little bit about programs that are out how it works are outside of Houston, because there are programs in Texas, Oklahoma, across the country, probably even in Phoenix, Justin.
Don't know why anybody here would want to be energy efficient. Why? Don't know why. But yeah, so what are how do people find other programs? What, what can you share about that?
That's a really good question. Again, coming from the end user perspective. Initially, when I first started this, I didn't know where to look or who to call. And, you know, throughout the years, things have changed, where utilities are happy to share their programs now, and they're getting more creative with what types of programs that they offer. So in general, you'll have energy efficiency programs across the country. And within that, you could have something that's called a commercial standard offer program and food service equipment could be included in that program. And they could offer you an incentive per piece of equipment, for example, you know,
$1,900, you know, incentive if you buy an energy efficient steamer, or they could offer you so many cents per kilowatt hour, based on the savings that that steamer will save them. That would be a standard offer program. And so we have trc has programs where we have that in there already. And then we have other programs where we offer a direct incentives to them. So instead of just the cents per kilowatt hour, it's still in the standard offer program, but we're offering you know, a specific amount, then you have niche programs, such as Chef or other states have even statewide programs that are specifically Food Service Programs. And that's what they deal in. And the people who are representing the program, truly understand food service and have a great network of manufacturers, manufacturer reps, and dealers that they work with throughout the country. So if you are local, have a local office, but also have offices in other states as well, then we can work with everyone to help promote energy efficiency in commercial foodservice, because it still does have very high energy usage. So you would go to your local utility, and you would ask, Do you have any programs. And that's your starting point. And they should direct you to either their standard offer program, or they might have a specific program, you can always ask what they'd be willing to consider a custom,
you know, possibility where they might be always interested to see what they can do to help you. They may not have a commercial foodservice program, but I think some utilities are always open to listening to what else they could do to help their customers as well. So I've had utilities say, tell me what you're interested in. And I'll let you know if we can do it.
And that's sort of the best way to get started is to sort of see how the programs work. You have midstream programs, you can have downstream programs midstream is what we do here in Houston, where we work through the dealers and we minimize any effort on the end user downstream would be where you as a restaurant owner or any other kind of commercial foodservice individual will fill out the paperwork yourself, send it into the utility and the utility will send you a, you know, check directly to you. So I'm not sure which is better. That's, that's interesting to hear that because I think as a food service operators, you're going to be buying certain types of equipment anyway. So if you can do a little bit of homework or partner with someone like us as reps, or visit some of the dealers that are that you mentioned that are knowledgeable in equipment, and navigate that together and figure out well hey, if I'm gonna buy, you know, an oven that's got to fit under a hood will carry why don't I buy our crest core or Oh ventless oven that doesn't need to fit under a hood and potentially can offer some additional savings if that's, you know, one of the pieces of equipment so you could could either have you nor Julia talk a little bit about some of the maybe the the hurdles that you that maybe end users perceive are there in front of them to getting into this, this program to participating in it. I think that there are real hard
models. And I wouldn't give up on them though, because some of these savings are fantastic they really are. So one hurdle that's real is a lot of times you'll contact a utility company. And if it's not exclusive, they may not always have a qualified product list ready. So for example, we will have a qualified product list ready. So you can literally go on and take a look and say, I was looking to buy this model, and this brand. And look, it qualifies, it's right there in front of them, the easier you make it for the end user, the better it is, for them to be able to participate in the program. So not all products, qualifying. That's the other hurdle model. model numbers do qualify. Every state has
a technical reference manual, and they have, you know, restrictions and not restrictions. But they they list for example, in our program, we can do vertical regions, I can't do milk coolers, I can't do chef bases or anything like that, even though they may be ENERGY STAR. So number one, ask your utility if they have a program. Number two, ask them what types of products are under the incentive program. And are there any restrictions that could be another step to sort of get past that hurdle.
And then if you have an idea of what it is you're looking to purchase, you could always say I'm looking to buy this model. And usually they should look it up and tell you whether it qualifies or not. Okay, if you could come in with your information, if you're not sure.
They can't usually recommend a brand because we were brand agnostic, but they can tell you go here and look at this qualified product list and see if any of those are going to be to your satisfaction, just and so so you know, in the chef program, they have a list put together of they have a list put together of manufacturers, including some of ours and our competitors, off the top of my head, I know Cresco or Continental
Jackson, and those have no competitors have very generous rebates very generous. I mean, it could, in some instances that I've looked at, like especially for for credit score, I noticed that that equipment and maybe because it's hot, I'm not sure those rebates were I mean, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dollars. So you're really reducing the amount of the the amount of the piece of equipment. So it was shocking to me.
Well, with hot food as well that there are additional benefits to find more efficient equipment. For food prep, if it's a hot food holding cabinet or a steamer or a convection Combi. All of those generate a lot of heat, and a lot of the new products have better insulation. And also and again, you'll know more about the equipment than I do. But also a side effect you could say is because there's less heat in the kitchen, it also is helping your HVAC system as well. So there are additional benefits to having more efficient equipment in your kitchen. So overall, you can reduce, you can increase your savings basically reduce your consumption and probably I bet the staff in the kitchen will be a lot happier as well.
That's true. That's very true. Yeah, I mean, I don't think people realize that a hood, regardless of how well it's manufactured, and how well the technology, how great the technology is behind the hood, especially once you've changed equipment in and out, you know, it may lose efficiency or what have you. If you have,
the more heat you put in the kitchen, the harder that hood has to work because it is bringing in makeup air as well. So it's not just dump, you're not just dumping cool air into a kitchen to cool it. You're also replacing the air that you remove by sucking it up sucking the cooler up and air into your hood.
So yeah, we're big, but Justin especially is a big, big proponent of ventless. Cooking. Yes, very much. So the cost savings, the efficiency, all that sort of stuff. Nora, I want to ask kind of what Julie was discussing. Have you come across any sort of
rebuttals or pushback from end users that you that you hear over and over about like, oh, you know, it's too much money to buy this stuff or whatever. What are some of the objections that you hear from maybe a potential participating dealer or an end user that that is something we should probably address? Well, I've heard some customers that say, you know, it's especially the small mom and pop a
restaurants, you know, it's it's an extra
three $4,000 to purchase this equipment. And all I can say is that in the long reviews explain the benefits, you know, over the long run. And that's all I can do just give them the information, educate them and let them know what are the benefits that they might receive. And because unfortunately at the end, I cannot force them to purchase
any equipment. But that's basically it the most, most of the pushback that I get that I've gotten has been for, for the small mom and pop shops, you know, foodservice operators run on such narrow margins, I don't think people understand how narrow their margins are. But if you're if you're setting yourself up for success, these kinds of this kind of program can do it in two different ways. One, make the equipment less expensive, but to also decrease costs over a long period of time. And that message is hard to convey to somebody in a program or what have you. And I know Julia, we've talked about this before just getting the information out. One of the questions I had for you guys is what percentage of energy use what's the percentage of energy use and a kitchen by category. And what makes energy efficient equipment efficient. The category for example, food prep, which would include or hot prep would be about 35%. Refrigeration is about 6%
Sanitation 18%. So in addition to saving energy really quickly, on some products, you're also saving water as well, if they're ENERGY STAR, and they're efficient. HVAC is about 20% of your full service restaurant, if we're looking at a full service restaurant, it all depends on what it is you're what kind of facility you have, as well. So the examples I'm giving are just general restaurant percentages. Now, depending on the type of equipment,
if it's, for example,
a hot food holding cabinet, you've got sometimes I think, now you'll know more about this than than I do as far as your equipment goes. But in general, the installation is better.
The door gaskets tend to be better as well. Controls, there are more controls, which will allow you to probably
I'm gonna say the wrong word ramp up and ramp down. But it can sort of it has better sensors. And
other examples, they say Dutch doors, magnetic door handles, but I don't know fully about enough about hot food holding cabinets to tell you with confidence that those are but that's one of those are examples of things that they use there. We know when we make just some small adjustments at home, that we feel it we see it in our bill, we can see some some real decreases in our bill. So
you know, whatever the motivation is whether it's having an impact on the environment as a whole or just doing your part or whether it's saving you money. There's no downside. No, that you're right. And what Nora was saying about some of the smaller operators that struggle with kind of seeing the value in that or maybe they see the value, but they just don't have the capital investment. I think you can take a lot of the practices that you see larger foodservice operators like chain restaurants use and just the the conceptual thoughts about how do we monitor energy? Something I am a huge proponent of is, how do we buy equipment? That's not only energy efficient, but is but is operationally efficient. So can I buy a piece of equipment that does more than one thing? So if I'm if I'm buying, you know, and maybe something like a, like a fryer, for example, okay, well, can I be thoughtful about what my menu looks like, so that I'm getting maximum value out of that fryer, if I have it in there. So every every piece of equipment is very thoughtfully placed and very thoughtfully used. And by doing that, you can probably trim down your equipment package by maybe one or two pieces, or shorten up your hood. And there's your cost savings. And now you combine that with buying more efficient more optimizable there's a newer equipment, and now you sort of have shifted that cost savings onto something or you can just open a restaurant that serves nothing but whole fresh apples and there you go. That's beautifully said it really is because we're not asking people to run out and buy all brand new energy efficient equipment coming again from small business, I totally understand that you can't always get everything that you want. So you pick your one that is the leader in terms of in restaurants, it would be what is the food that I make the most and maybe look at that and with a fire the turnaround is faster. So you're right. You know, don't buy to buy one, if it's more efficient as well so you know the money that you pay on your electric bill.
Energy turns into food or for some either hot or cold food basically. So you're only getting
back that money through what you sell. So if you have an inefficient fryer, a lot of that's gonna go out the window, basically, you're not going to retrieve that money back.
And another thing to look at is if you're looking to buy an energy efficient piece of equipment, look at the incentive, and sometimes it can help cover that incremental cost, and then ask what the savings will be. And then you'll know, on average, what your savings would be per year. So that's more than makes up for the additional cost of the piece of equipment. Or it might not, it all depends on the type of facility that you're running. Well, some something I noticed with the equipment that you guys, you know, specifically for the chef program are incentivizing on that if if somebody's got to replace a piece of equipment, okay, so
Justin, I off the top of my head, I think about a convection oven. Okay? That's under hood, right? It's, it's under hood. And crosscore has options that don't have to go under hood that can replace those. And what you get besides that energy savings and the reduction in costs, because convection ovens are generally more expensive than, than the credit score, Aro are co events, you get more capacity. So when you look at things like that you're getting more capacity, you're using less headspace, you can keep, you can replace a convection oven. But But the other thing is, some of these, these incentives allow you to upgrade where you may not usually be able to spend the money on the good brand, you can now because you're getting such a big incentive, that it closes that gap and more. That's what I noticed on a lot of the the incentives that you guys are providing.
Well, and when again, back to what Nora was saying about the small mom and pops typically don't have as large of a staff, right, so the more equipment you have, that can be multifunctional that can be more efficient, you can also trim down some labor savings, because maybe you can have equipment that's programmable. So you can start your prep a little bit later in the day. So your operation doesn't need to open as early people don't need to show up to work as early. You also probably with a lot of this equipment I know with Crest core one. And Blendtec is another one that we have for blenders up but you can be really efficient with food waste, minimize, really, really minimal food waste, and so you're saving money there. So I think if you look at it from a larger perspective, that small business can very easily find the savings in the margins that they can recoup within a quarter of business. What trends are you seeing and and commercial food service and energy consumption, we're seeing more small restaurants looking for more countertop type equipment where they might want to provide more food, more different types of food, you may not have a full service restaurant, but you want to be able to provide a larger menu in a smaller type cafeteria, or a smaller type cafe, coffee shop type facility. And the technology today is allowing both of you turn, Nora and Julius said you both tend to eat more vegetarian, food. And I think if you would have backed up even 10 years ago, being able to find that at quick service restaurants or find those options outside of your own house and your own kitchen, I think was very difficult. But now with a lot of this equipment, not only is it being energy efficient, but it's also really raised the sophistication level of what you can produce, at at realistically appropriate pricing. So the consistency and just sort of the versatility of some of this stuff. I think carry. The reason I'm such a proponent of the ventless stuff is because I'm looking at it more from the culinary side initially is, hey, if I can be creative with how I lay out my menu and organize my menu, and the choices we make to put food on the menu that can help drive my can help inform me on how I can use ventless equipment and more energy efficient equipment. And now it can be a much more inviting space, a much quieter space and much cooler space. And I can save money and all of that kind of stuff. So that's kind of where I really get excited about about. This has been a great great conversation. Is there anything that that commercial restaurants or food service operators, schools, hospitals, health care?
Any of these operators think about as they decide equipment purchases
to add something,
if any, I know that your listeners are national wide and if anyone was interested in any type of incentives, energy efficiency, any energy efficient incentives
for any type of equipment, commercial or residential, all they have to go to the ENERGY STAR website and look for their program, sponsor. And all you have to do is put in your zip code. And they will list the different incentives available in that area. And they will give you the name of the wires company or distribution company, whatever it may be called, at that location. Wonderful. Thank you very much. And if you don't see it still cool. Yeah.
Yeah, still cool. Yeah. And, you know, we also, this is a market transformation program, here in Houston. And I really do believe in energy efficiency. Again, look at it simply from a business perspective, if you don't look at it in any other way. So we are happy to come and talk to schools or any facilities if they would like to learn more about energy efficiency and process savings,
and how we view savings and capture savings here, just to get a better understanding of how the process works. And wherever they go from there, they'll always know that if they go to another state or another utility, they will know the questions to ask a lot of times, it's just understanding how the process works, and we'd be very happy to help them and it doesn't just have to be here in Texas, if anyone has questions. I'm always very happy to help.
That's, that's wonderful to hear. Cuz I think maybe some some people might on the end user side might kind of view this whole process as almost like insurance like it's just confusing and I don't know who to call or what to do or whatever. But no, it's not it's not really we're just mentioned there's lots of easy ways to get the basic information. Both of you are willing to help
Yeah, yeah, no happy to help. So if anybody wants that information they can reach out to me and I'll find all that to you.
I think this has been awesome very educational. Justin Did you learn anything Dustin because you're very very smart. Maybe you already knew all of this. Oh, I have my headphones that I've been listening to another podcast
Mr. Most of it I'm sure Tommy great.
I've learned in learning how to get the resources object honestly learning how to find the resources and where you can quickly get information as an end user, I think is a huge thing. Because you're always looking to save money large business or small business but if you can do something minimal and pick up even a couple of $100 I mean that's that's better than nothing. Yeah, definitely. So so the way to reach Julia on ordinary you can you can get to me but also their websites
trc companies.com is Julius company and Nora is was set up.
Pretty, pretty easy to find them as well. Thank you for listening to the food service for thought podcast. We hope you enjoyed it. And a big shout out to Forbes Heever and Wallace and everyone on the team for producing the first ever food service rep driven podcast. Please subscribe rate and review. Oh, and go eat out at your local restaurant or grab some takeout or delivery even if you are just in the mood for some apps or dessert. Every bite helps