Albertsons and Whole Foods’ green refrigeration efforts garner national awards

(Seattle-Sept. 20, 2011) Albertsons and Whole Foods received national accolades from the E.P.A. for their work to green up refrigeration in their stores. The agency is recognizing both supermarket chains under the GreenChill Partnership, which aims to reduce harmful refrigerant emissions, protect the ozone layer and combat climate change.

Albertsons Intermountain West, owned by SUPERVALU, earned an E.P.A. GreenChill award for achieving the company's challenging emissions reduction goal this past year. SUPERVALU runs over 250 stores throughout Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Utah and Montana. Even though GreenChill partners achieve emission rates well below national averages, all partners set ambitious, tough-to-achieve yearly goals to continually enhance their performance.

"SUPERVALU sought out every opportunity to stop refrigerant leaks and achieve the company's ambitious voluntary emissions reduction goal," said Keilly Witman, GreenChill Plan Manager. "The employees should be very proud of their hard work, and their customers can feel proud that their supermarkets take environmental protection seriously."

For the 2nd time since the beginning of the GreenChill Partnership, Whole Foods received the Most Improved Emissions Rate Award. This award acknowledges the GreenChill Partner with the most dramatic reduction in its corporate refrigerant emissions rate from the previous year.

"Whole Foods' efforts to stop refrigerant leaks led to a 17 percent reduction in the company's refrigerant emissions rate in one year," said Witman. "Whole Foods' efforts show that it is possible to make significant gains in environmental protection in a short period of time when a company prioritizes emissions reductions."

The refrigerants used by supermarkets, if not managed properly, contribute to climate change, and harm the ozone layer, which protects people from cancer-causing ultraviolet radiation.

GreenChill is an E.P.A. partnership with supermarkets to reduce harmful refrigerant emissions and decrease partners' impact on the ozone layer and climate change. GreenChill works with supermarkets to help them transition to environmentally-friendlier refrigerants, reduce the amount of refrigerant they use, eliminate refrigerant leaks, and adopt green refrigeration technologies and environmental best practices. In excess of 7,300 stores belong to the GreenChill Partnership, a full 20 percent of the supermarket industry.

Additional information on EPA's GreenChill Partnership is accessible at www.epa.gov/greenchill.