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Grocers and Refrigerator Companies with New England Presence Chill for the Environment

Release Date: 08/28/2009
Contact Information: David Deegan (617) 918-1010

(Boston, Mass. – Aug. 28, 2009) – EPA’s GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership announced its 2009 partner awards this week, and the awardees included Whole Foods, Hill Phoenix and Supervalu, the parent company of Shaw’s Supermarkets and Star Market. All three companies have a significant presence in New England states.

An EPA cooperative alliance with the supermarket industry, the GreenChill Partnership works with supermarkets to reduce their emissions of ozone-depleting and greenhouse gas refrigerants.

Whole Foods, a nationwide chain of supermarkets and a GreenChill Founding Partner, received the award for Most Improved Emissions Rate. Another food retailer with many outlets in New England and nationwide, Supervalu, was recognized for achieving its emissions target in 2008/09. Supervalu’s stores in New England are Shaw’s Supermarkets and Star Market.

Refrigeration manufacturer Hill Phoenix also earned a Distinguished Partner Award for its advanced refrigeration technology, including compact chillers and secondary loop systems. Advanced refrigeration systems manufacturers play a significant role in the GreenChill Partnership because their designs and innovations play such a big part in pushing energy efficiency for supermarkets across the country.

“EPA is proud of our partners’ accomplishments to find meaningful solutions to energy-use problems. Advancing energy efficiency in refrigeration and supermarkets helps reduce air emissions and reduces greenhouse gases,” said Ira Leighton, acting regional administrator of EPA’s New England office.

EPA estimates that if every supermarket in the U.S. reduced its emissions to the current GreenChill average, the nation could save the equivalent of 22 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and 240 ozone depleting potential (ODP) tons every year, all the while saving $108 million in refrigerant expenses annually.

GreenChill’s founding food retail partners created baseline measurements of corporate-wide refrigerant emissions in 2007 and set goals to reduce those emissions in 2008. These partners reduced their aggregated total corporate emissions rate from 13 percent to 11.9 percent in 2008, an emissions reduction of 8.5 percent in one year.

GreenChill now has a total of 46 partners, including 37 food retail partners with over 6,500 stores in 47 states.

More information: EPA GreenChill Partnership (www.epa.gov/greenchill)

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