Businesses' steps to save on energy turn permanent

NEW YORK • As the cost of gasoline soared over the past year, many small businesses took steps to mitigate the damage to their cash flow and profits. Now, even though gas has fallen from the record levels it hit in mid-July, companies are making those money-saving strategies permanent.

When Janet Buck moved her consulting firm, Emergent Success, from Northern California to Orange County in the southern part of the state four months ago, she decided not to take permanent office space, but to operate the business using her home office and the Internet. That allowed her employees to work at home if they weren't visiting clients. She also used conferencing services so employees who lived hundreds of miles away in San Luis Obispo, Eureka and San Francisco could take part in meetings without traveling.

Buck said the costs of gasoline and fuel surcharges on plane tickets factored heavily in her decision to run her business virtually. Her policy has been to reimburse employees for the mileage they run up driving to and from work, and she estimated that eliminating their commutes is saving her company $2,800 a year. She calculates that airline fuel surcharges cost another $1,200.

"That's a biggie," Buck said of the total $4,000 she won't have to spend on those two budget items.

"A small business needs to be so conscious of cash flow," she said. "To keep more of the profits for us, that's just a good way to be."

As gas prices retreat, Buck said she has no plans to set up a freestanding office. What started in part as a way to save on energy is making good business sense for her firm.
Businesses have many ways to cut back on their outlays for gasoline, diesel and other energy. For example, companies whose business involves deliveries, such as florists, are making fewer trips each day, or they plan their deliveries so they can bunch together stops that are near one another. Many businesses that need to buy new vehicles are looking for smaller ones, or hybrids.

Wing Zone, an Atlanta-based franchise chain of 120 stores that sell chicken wings, decided this spring to convert its company-owned delivery vehicles so they'll run on used cooking oil - something that is in great supply at a store that is frying wings all day long.

Matt Friedman, Wing Zone's co-founder, estimated that the company's fuel costs have risen 50 percent over the past year. He said that while it costs about $4,000 to convert a vehicle so it runs almost entirely on vegetable oil (it needs diesel to start the vehicle), using cooking oil instead of unleaded gas will save $8,000 per vehicle per year. Wing Zone has five company-owned stores, and each one has three to five vehicles.

There are other benefits to converting to cooking oil.

First, the company will save several hundred dollars per store each month on disposal of the oil.

And, using cooking oil will be part of the Wing Zone marketing program; the vehicles are being emblazoned with logos that say "Wing Powered" with an arrow pointing to the gas tank.