When we first built Ted’s Montana Grill, we used low-voltage fluorescent lighting in the heart of the house. Then I installed light fixtures that were all dimmable but had 60- or 100-watt light bulbs in them. So we didn’t have any fancy halogen lighting or anything like that.

Well, the problem was, that when we wanted to find fluorescent low-volt lights to replace the [standard bulbs] in the dining room, we had to deal with the curlicues. And, the light was greenish/bluish, not very good with food. They were non-dimmable.

What we were hearing was, “You have to buy a new fixture. A new fixture will allow those curlicue light bulbs to be dimmable.” Well, that was totally cost-prohibitive. We couldn’t go back and retrofit all of our restaurants with all new light fixtures.

So Ed continued to work and found this company, bulbs.com, that created whatever that ballast is at the bottom of that light bulb that allows it to go into any fixture and be dimmable.

We did a test. We put it into the restaurants. It cost us $111,000 to replace approximately 100 light bulbs per restaurant times 50 restaurants. The light bulbs have a two-year guarantee, an unconditional guarantee. They say the bulbs will last three to five years, but we have a two-year unconditional guarantee. Light bulb goes out, we send it back, they send us a new one.

In the first 12 months after we spent that $111,000, we reduced our kilowatt hours by 32,000 per restaurant on average. We lowered our utility bill by $185,000. So in the first year, we made $74,000—net gain. We have another year now that’s free. If we assume we can save another $185,000, we’ll save $250,000 in two years.

Those are real numbers. Yes, it took an investment on the front side, but we paid it back in a year. Anybody, any chain restaurant, any business that knows in 12 months they are going to get a 35 percent return on their investment would be foolish not to get it. And we’re going to get a 200 percent return on investment over two years.

And if the light bulb company is right, and they last … let’s say 80 percent of the bulbs last three years, 40 percent last four years, and 20 percent last five years, we’ll continue that savings down the road because we’ll never have to replace every light bulb. And the ones we replace them with get a new two-year guarantee.

Those returns are impressive, but does such an investment make sense in this economy?

McKerrow: You can’t afford not to think about it. There are real savings that can be made in certain things. Should every company do what Ted’s does, which is use a paper straw instead of plastic straw at a 100 percent increase in cost (because if straws cost you half a cent, they’re costing us a penny)? No. You have to look at whether there is a return on investment.

But if you can use solar panels for your hot water and save real money; change your light bulbs and save real money; recycle and get paid; sell your french fry oil to a biodiesel manufacturer, those are all net gains. You have to look at it differently.

What we’re hoping long-term is the more the industry steps up and demands these products, the supply side will respond. Costs will continue to go down to where they’re in balance with the nonsustainable products.

Part of that cost for many operators is the man-hours spent on sourcing. People feel like they don’t even know where to start.

McKerrow: Go to the Web site that the National Restaurant Association and Turner Foundation helped fund. That’s what that Web site is also about. It’s called Conserve.restaurant.org.

Without much trouble, there is a lot of information readily available in their backyards. You can look up the LEED's Web site and find out what those requirements are.

Bazor: We’ve considered building a LEED-certified building. If we go back to freestanding building that would certainly be on the objectives because we’re finding out you can do that with no additional cost if you plan for it. If you do your research, if you source out the products, source out the sub-contractors, we find that it’s still very competitive with the regular market.

What about cost-savings in a build out?

McKerrow: Let me give you an example. We were putting hickory wood floors in. Restaurants putting oak in would be more common for flooring. Well, bamboo looks just as good and is significantly cheaper than hickory and comparable to oak. So a restaurateur might say: “Well, I'm not saving anything, but I’m also not spending any more.”

Bazor: We’re finding that, like with bamboo, a sustainable product, it costs us a bit more to install than what we were previously doing, but we have no maintenance on it. Plus, it’s a green item. We helped save some trees because bamboo is a plant. Every three to five years they can reharvest that same plant.

Is there real ROI on the marketing end?

McKerrow: We had an e-mail come through. The person wrote: “We ate at your So-and-So restaurant. We really, really loved it, but please get rid of the paper straws. It’s a great marketing ploy, but we don’t think we should have to suffer because of your marketing ploy.”

Well, see, it’s not a marketing ploy for us. It’s a cultural thing that started the day we started the company, when we said we were always going to seek to understand the most sustainable and viable way for us to do business at every level.

That doesn’t mean we went out and did stupid stuff that cost us tons and tons of money. Did we do a little bit more than the average person could do? Yes, we did because Ted was willing to fund it. Are we luckier than most? Yes, in that regard. But what we found over time is that we’ve actually now begun to find ways to save us money. The light bulbs saved us money. The solar panels we use in Florida saved us money.

Have we gone out and put solar panels across the country? No. But we had a specific deal with Florida where we were able to get a state subsidy and federal subsidy and put them onto a building that we own and save about 5 percent of our electric bill.