Weis Markets will reduce refrigerant usage by 50%

Weis Markets announced that three new stores it is building will incorporate technologies and systems reducing store refrigerant charges (usage) to 50% less than a typical supermarket, thus decreasing their impact on the Earth’s ozone layer and climate change.

In recent weeks, Weis has begun constructing superstores in three Pennsylvania locations: Bellefonte (Centre County), West Lawn (Berks County), and Fork Township (Northampton County).

The announcement was made at an award ceremony at Weis’s Carlisle Street store in Hanover PA. This unit was the first supermarket in Pennsylvania to earn a certification award from the GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership, a voluntary Environmental Protection Agency alliance with food retailers to reduce refrigerant emissions. Keilly Witman, manager of EPA’s GreenChill partnership, presented an award to Weis for achieving these standards.

“Reducing the environmental impact of our stores is a key part of being a good neighbor and we are committed to doing so in the years ahead,” said Kevin Small, Weis's vice-president, construction and development.

“Weis’s commitment to achieve GreenChill’s certification standards for three new stores proves that the company is serious about its role in protecting the ozone layer and preventing climate change,” said Witman. “It is important that companies understand that helping the environment doesn’t end with one store. It has to become the business model of the future.”

To achieve GreenChill’s silver certification, a store must meet environmental criteria including:

•Use refrigerants that do not damage the ozone layer.

•Reduce the size of its refrigerant charge by at least 50% from the industry average.

•Reduce annual refrigerant emissions to 15% or less of total store capacity.

•Test refrigeration systems for adherence to GreenChill’s leak tightness guidelines.

The Hanover store attained a silver certificate by installing a glycol refrigeration system reducing the refrigerant charge to less than half that of a typical supermarket. Just 35 of the nation’s 35,000 grocery stores have received GreenChill store certification awards.

Weis operates 164 stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, and West Virginia.