CII Case Study: City of Santa Monica Restaurant Retrofit Program
Food-service facilities are one of the more highly water intensive types of
commercial businesses operating in the market place. In response to this, many
agencies choose to implement some form of restaurant efficiency program. The
City of Santa Monica implemented the Restaurant Retrofit Program (Program)
from July 1, 2002 through June 30, 2005 offering restaurants within its service
area a turn-key water-efficiency program which included an indoor water
assessment, retrofit recommendations, water-saving products and installation at
no cost to the customer. The City of Santa Monica was able to determine that
there were 364 restaurants within the City boundaries.
For this program, restaurants were defined as any establishment serving food
with on-site seating. This allowed a wide range of businesses to participate
including child-care facilities, schools and retail food markets. Restaurants were
motivated to participate because it was free, they were receiving high-quality
guaranteed plumbing fixtures, little down time for installations, and finally the City
was giving back to them without an ulterior motive.
It was difficult to get the decision-makers involved and to approve the retrofits
and manager turn-over was an issue, however, over 200 restaurants
participated; two hundred ninety-five products were installed with an estimated
water savings of 29 acre-feet per year. The total cost $71,079 total not including
rebates or $923.10 per restaurant.
The City of Santa Monica is a retail water agency providing water to 17,000
connections which includes 87,000 residents and 17,000 businesses. For more
information about this program, please contact Kim O’Cain, City of Santa Monica,
(310) 458-8459, kimberly.ocain@smgov.net, www.sustainablesm.org/water