🌐 Cutting Carbon with a Side of Fries: Budderfly Lowers Energy Consumption by 40%

How do you put your neighborhood Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, KFC, or Sonic at the forefront of sustainability?

For Al Subbloie, founder & CEO of Budderfly, you make their business owners an offer they can’t refuse:

Zero-cost, risk-free energy efficiency upgrades that replace outdated refrigeration, HVAC, and lighting with cutting-edge equipment and software.

The result? Franchise owners save thousands annually on energy costs—without lifting a finger.

Budderfly has cracked the code for rapid scale in the Energy-as-a-Service market.

For two decades, the idea of outsourcing energy management has been gaining traction. Energy-intensive businesses love the ability to upgrade equipment without upfront costs.

But today, the stakes—and opportunities—are enormous. Rapid tech advancements, rising energy costs, and the push to cut carbon emissions have created a massive opportunity to help commercial and industrial companies slash energy consumption.

Yet, while the market is vast, working with clients can be cumbersome. Understanding complex energy usage patterns, predicting savings, collecting accurate data, and customizing solutions make scaling a grind.

That’s where Budderfly breaks the mold.

From day one, Al Subbloie understood that replicability—not one-off customization—was the key to fast, profitable growth.

The formula? Find energy-intensive businesses with thousands of identical locations. Crack the code on retrofitting one. Then rinse, repeat—and scale like crazy.

Here’s the Budderfly playbook:

1. Raise $1 billion to finance equipment so customers don’t have to.

2. Use a land-and-expand strategy—start with a few local franchisees, and before long, corporate HQ wants in.

3. Leverage scale to procure top-tier equipment from global giants like Carrier at unbeatable prices.

4. Deliver up to 40% energy savings, cutting costs and carbon emissions.

5. Take over energy billing so customers never have to think about it—and use that data to drive even more efficiency using real-time artificial intelligence-powered energy management software.

It’s working. Launched in 2017, Budderfly hit $200 million in revenue by 2024, upgrading equipment and managing energy in 7,000 buildings across the U.S.

Budderfly counts as clients a veritable “who’s who” of the most recognizable chains and real estate in America. In addition to the aforementioned brands, that list also includes Applebee’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Dunkin’ Donuts, IHOP, Outback Steakhouse, and Wendy’s.

The business model works well for fitness chains too. Orange Theory is a customer. Even YMCAs are getting upgrades.

The best part? Every dollar Budderfly earns is tied directly to energy savings and carbon reduction—participating locations cut carbon emissions on average by 19% just by signing up.

For Al, this is just the beginning.

His vision? Build the world’s largest virtual power plant by weaving Budderfly-managed locations into a demand-response powerhouse for utilities. Plans are already underway to work with utilities in New York, Maryland, Arizona, and the Pacific Northwest.

Al joins Supercool this week to discuss Budderfly's business model and strategy and the tech-enabled future of energy-efficient commercial real estate.

Listen to this podcast episode on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and all other platforms.

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Number of the week: 43%

That’s the percent of energy reduction Budderfly achieved across its entire customer base in 2024—avoiding 219 tons of carbon emissions.

Quote of the week:

“Let's say we have 1,000 restaurants, and the utility one minute from now needs 20 megawatts of power immediately. We could take one degree off of 1,000 places, and all of a sudden, we deliver that to the utility.

“We now have control of all the equipment in these places. And again, we don't want to affect their operations. So whether the freezer is zero degrees or two degrees, it doesn't matter to the food. The food is happy no matter what.”

—Al Subbloie, discussing Budderfly’s virtual power plant capabilities in this week’s podcast.

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The Over-50 Crowd is Founding Climate Tech Startups That Win

Al Subbloie is emblematic of another trend we see at Supercool. 

Successful climate founders who lead their startups through all phases of venture creation—inventing, building, and scaling to profitability—frequently defy the fresh-faced, twenty-something stereotype of the prototypical tech founder.

Instead, they’re seasoned leaders—often in their 50s and 60s—with decades of experience when they pull the trigger on launching their climate tech ventures.

Subbloie started Budderfly in his fifties after a successful fifteen-year run as founder and CEO of Tangoe, a telecommunications expense management firm that grew to manage billions in annual telecom spend.

Before that, he co-founded Information Management Associates, which focused on modernizing the call center industry. Before that, he co-founded BuyersEdge, an internet-based reverse auction company, and Freefire, a customer interaction software company.

What did all that experience get him? The skills, network, perspectives, and vision to leap headlong into climate tech and successfully build at speed and scale.

Al’s story isn’t unique. Other Supercool entrepreneurs fit the description.

• Lynn Mueller founded Sharc Energy in his 50s, creating a system that captures heat from wastewater to power district heating and cooling. Sharc systems now heat and cool millions of square feet in Vancouver, Denver, Washington DC, and beyond.

• Marshall Gobuty pivoted from fashion—he founded Arizona Jeans, JC Penney’s most successful private label fashion line—to green housing development in his 50s, building Hunters Point, the world’s first LEED Zero Energy-certified community. No homeowner pays an energy bill thanks to solar panels, battery storage, and super-insulated building envelopes. 

Research from MIT shows that the average age of a successful startup founder is 45. In some important climate industries—like energy and manufacturing—the average skews even higher.

Why? Because these industries require deep expertise, networks, operational experience, and wisdom.

The myth of the wunderkind founder dominates startup lore. But climate tech isn’t about social apps or quick exits. It’s about solving massive, complex problems—and that takes time, experience, and patience.

Like Subbloie, Mueller and Gobuty have no plans to hang it up. All of them are in it for the long haul—like they’ve always been.

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