Whole Foods Receives GreenChill Award for its GREEN Efforts

Northeast Cooling is thrilled to see several major retail grocery chains, not only participating in the Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenChill Partnership, but receiving awards for their commitment to the program.

GreenChill was launched in November of 2007 as a response to the phase-out of ozone depleting hydrochlorofluorcarbons.  The GreenChill Partnership pairs the EPA with food retailers to reduce refrigerant emissions and decrease impact on the ozone layer and climate change.

GreenChill started with just six founding partners in 2007; today there are a total of 54 partners, including SuperValu, Whole Foods, Publix, and Target. This brings the total number of individual stores involved in the initiative to over 7,000! It is estimated that these 7,000+ stores make up over 20% of the entire supermarket industry.

Recently, the EPA awarded honors to some of these stores. Among those honored is a chain widely recognized in the Chicago area: Whole Foods. For the second time since becoming a GreenChill Partner, Whole Foods received the Most Improved Emissions Rate Award. This award recognizes the GreenChill Partner with the highest reduction in refrigerant emissions rate. This rate is based on the previous year’s emissions rate.

GreenChill works with supermarkets to provide support through the transition to utilize more environmentally friendly refrigerants, reduce refrigerant use, and eliminate leaks, as the refrigerants used by supermarkets contribute to climate change and deplete the ozone layer, which is vital protection from carcinogenic ultraviolet radiation. It is essential that HCFC emissions are reduced in a timely fashion in order to comply with the Montreal Protocol for the complete phase-out of hydrochloroflourcarbons by 2030 worldwide.

Target joins the GreenChill Partnership

Another locally, and nationally, recognized chain, Target, has also joined the GreenChill Program and has a goal of earning the Energy Star label for at least 75 percent of its U.S. locations by 2016.

Northeast Cooling couldn’t be more supportive of larger chains making the huge effort to go GREEN!