Recent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announcements regarding refrigeration have noted a gold level award in Texas and what was being called “an environmental milestone” in Pennsylvania. Both involve supermarkets and the EPA’s GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership.

GOING GOLD

Sprouts Farmers Market in Round Rock, Texas, received the EPA’s GreenChill Gold-Level Store Award for green refrigeration technology. According to an announcement from the EPA, the Round Rock location is the first in Texas and one of 13 grocers in the nation to achieve gold certification from the Advanced Refrigeration Partnership, a voluntary business-government program managed by the EPA. The partnership’s chief goal is to reduce emissions of refrigerants that damage the Earth’s ozone layer and contribute to global warming, said the EPA.

“Sprouts Farmers Market shares the EPA’s commitment in decreasing refrigerant emissions through innovative refrigeration design and leak tight practices in our existing and future stores,” said Jerry Stutler, vice president of construction and facility engineering, Sprouts Farmers Market. “We are committed to being an environmentally conscious neighbor and grocer.”

Keilly Witman, manager of the GreenChill partnership, hailed Sprouts for achieving “a very high environmental standard with its store in Round Rock - the very first EPA gold-certified store in the state of Texas. As one of GreenChill’s newest partners, Sprouts is off and running to reduce the company’s impact on the Earth’s ozone layer and climate change.”

To achieve gold certification, a store must meet environmental criteria, such as:

• Use refrigerants that do not damage the Earth’s protective ozone layer.

• Reduce the size of its refrigerant charge by at least 65 percent from the industry average.

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

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

Sprouts, which has 44 stores in four states, joined the GreenChill partnership in May 2009 and received gold certification for its Round Rock store in December.

MILESTONE

Weis Markets’ Carlisle Street store in Hanover, Pa., is said to be the first supermarket in the state to earn a certification award from GreenChill.

The store attained a silver certificate by meeting benchmarks for cutting emissions. “We’re pleased our Hanover store has achieved Green Chill’s silver certification level. While we have long focused on ways to conserve energy and lessen the environmental impact of our stores, this project represents an increased commitment on our part,” said David J. Hepfinger, Weis Markets’ president and CEO. “In the coming years, we will look for opportunities to incorporate these technologies into the stores we build or upgrade.”

“This newly remodeled store represents quite an environmental achievement for Weis Markets,” according to Witman. “The Silver-Level Store Certification award puts them in a select group of environmental best-in-class supermarkets.”

To achieve silver certification, a store must meet such criteria as:

• Use refrigerants that do not damage the Earth’s protective ozone layer.

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

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

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

“Our Hanover project allowed us to simultaneously improve our store and efficiently reduce the environmental impact of our refrigeration systems,” said Charlie Dinsmore, Weis Markets’ director of engineering and store service.

Publication date:05/03/2010