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Food Lion, Hill Phoenix, Sweetbay, Whole Foods, and Supervalu Chill for the Environment

Release Date: 08/26/2009
Contact Information: Dawn Harris-Young, (404) 562-8421, [email protected]

(Atlanta, Ga. – Aug. 26, 2009) EPA’s GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership announced its 2009 partner awards this week, and among the awardees are: Food Lion, Hill Phoenix, Sweetbay, Whole Foods, and Supervalu, the parent company of Bigg’s and Farm Fresh. 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.

Food Lion, which owns stores mostly along the Eastern Corridor, received a Distinguished Partner Award for contributions to the environmental advances of the supermarket industry. “Food Lion pioneered technologies that have since become widespread in the industry,” said Keilly Witman, GreenChill Partnership Manager. “Whether it’s case studies on new refrigerants or statistics from sub-metering on refrigeration systems that use advanced technologies, Food Lion is always ready to share information so others can benefit from their experience.”

Refrigeration manufacturer Hill Phoenix, based in Conyers, Ga., also earned a Distinguished Partner Award for its advanced refrigeration technology, including compact chillers and secondary loop systems.

“GreenChill’s advanced refrigeration systems manufacturers have a very important role in the GreenChill Partnership,” Witman said. “As systems manufacturers, they have to be at the forefront of environmental innovation in the industry, so they can bring the best environmental solutions to supermarkets.

Sweetbay Supermarket, based in Tampa, Fla., earned a New Partner Award. New partners pledge to go above and beyond regulatory requirements by measuring and tracking refrigerant emissions that affect climate change and the earth’s ozone layer, and then setting reduction targets for these emissions. Partners also agree to use only ozone-friendly alternatives in all new and remodeled stores.

Whole Foods, a nationwide chain of supermarkets, received the award for Most Improved Emissions Rate. As a GreenChill Founding Partner, Whole Foods shares GreenChill’s mission to minimize supermarkets’ impact on the Earth’s ozone layer and on climate change. Another food retailer that can be found nationwide, Supervalu, was recognized for achieving its emissions target in 2008/2009.

EPA estimates that if every supermarket in the nation joined GreenChill and 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. For additional information on the EPA GreenChill Partnership, please visit: www.epa.gov/greenchill.