ShopRite Achieves EPA GreenChill Gold Certification

September 27, 2012

ShopRite’s new store in Brodheadsville, Penn. has been awarded the GreenChill Gold Certification, one of 30 national recipients of gold certification.

The award, distributed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), recognizes food retailers who have implemented sustainable cooling systems, thereby reducing refrigerant emissions and decreasing their impact on the ozone layer and climate change.

The ShopRite of Brodheadsville was built from the ground up using some of the industry’s “greenest” technologies to help reduce waste, protect the environment and create a more energy-efficient shopping experience. The store includes the latest energy-saving and sustainable technologies in refrigeration and lighting, including glass doors on the dairy and freezer cases, LED and T-8 lighting, environmentally-friendly refrigerant systems and a store-wide energy management system. Energy usage will be reduced significantly for refrigeration of products and store lighting with the implementation of this state-of-the-art equipment.

This store also employs a waste to water machine, called a bio-digester, to convert organic waste that would otherwise be bound for a landfill, into water. This machine has the potential to eliminate 240 tons of organic waste annually. In addition, the ShopRite of Brodheadsville is working with its waste hauler to remove 12 tons per year of paper, cardboard, plastic and aluminum from the store that would otherwise end up in landfills.

ShopRite installed seven waterless urinals, which will save between 20,000-45,000 gallons of water per year. The store’s skylights provide natural daylight, saving on electricity and the store’s “Green Team” challenges its associates and customers to come up with even more energy saving ideas.

The EPA’s goal in creating this award is to encourage retailers to act as partners to transition their stores to environmentally friendlier refrigerants, eliminate environmentally and financially costly refrigerant leaks and to adopt green refrigeration technologies and other environmental practices.

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