Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has added four more GreenChill-certified stores this year, including a Gold-certified store opening in Oceanside CA recently. GreenChill certification is awarded by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) GreenChill Partnership for stores meeting benchmarks for cutting emissions that harm the Earth’s protective ozone layer and contribute to global warming.
The supermarket chain opened its first GreenChill-certified store in September 2010 and now has eight stores certified through the program—the most of any grocer in the nation. Only 45 of the nation’s more than 35,000 grocery stores have received GreenChill certification awards. Fresh & Easy stores that received GreenChill certification so far in 2011 include ones in El Cajon, Lake Forest, Oceanside, and San Dimas CA.
In addition to efforts to reduce refrigerant emissions, the company also stresses energy efficiency. Characteristics of the company’s refrigeration units include:
•Energy-efficient doors on freezer and dairy cases
•Triple-pane glass with an anti-fog coating on refrigerator doors, eliminating the need for door heaters
•Night curtains on refrigerators to conserve energy and keep product at the right temperature when stores are closed
•LED lighting in all chilled cases
Fresh & Easy operates more than 160 stores in California, Arizona, and Nevada.
Besides using advanced refrigeration and freezer units, Fresh & Easy uses LED lighting in external signs and freezer cases and offers recycling in every store. The company also recycles or reuses all display packaging, sending the majority back to its distribution center’s on-site recycling facility.
The company opened its first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold-certified store in 2010 and is a pilot member of the LEED Volume Certification Program. It has also joined the California Climate Action Registry and The Climate Registry to disclose its greenhouse gas emissions. At its distribution center in Riverside CA, the company invested $13 million in a solar roof installation, which at 500,000 square feet is one of California’s largest.
For more information, visit www.freshandeasy.com. More information about the EPA’s GreenChill Partnership is available at www.epa.gov/greenchill.
