New Jersey and New York Supermarkets Recognized for Environmental Achievement by EPA GreenChill Program

Press release:

New Jersey and New York Supermarkets Recognized for

Environmental Achievement by EPA GreenChill Program

Weis Markets, ACM, and Whole Foods Take Action to Reduce

Harmful Emissions from Chemicals Used for Refrigeration

Contact: John Martin, (212) 637-3662, martin.johnj@epa.gov

(New York, N.Y. – September 18, 2012) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today awarded supermarkets in New Jersey and New York GreenChill 2012 Environmental Achievement Awards for reducing their use of harmful chemicals used in refrigeration. ACME, Weis Markets and Whole Foods were all recognized for their efforts to reduce the refrigerants they use, which can contribute to climate change and harm the ozone layer. The EPA’s GreenChill partnership works with supermarkets to help them transition to less damaging refrigerants. GreenChill has 54 partners nationwide with almost 8,000 stores, representing over 20 percent of the supermarket industry.

While GreenChill Partners achieve emission rates well below national averages, all partners set annual goals to continually improve their performance. The EPA estimates that if supermarkets nationwide reduced their emissions to the GreenChill average emissions rate, the industry would eliminate the equivalent of 22 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, equal to removing more than 4.3 million passenger vehicles from the road. This would also help restore the earth’s ozone layer, which protects the earth from the sun’s damaging ultraviolet radiation, a leading cause of skin cancer.

SUPERVALU, which operates ACME Markets, was honored with this year’s Distinguished Partner Award. The Distinguished Partner Award is given to the supermarket partner company that goes above and beyond to advance the mission of the GreenChill Partnership.

Weis Markets and Whole Foods Market both won GreenChill’s Superior Goal Achievement Award for exceeding their companies’ annual target to reduce refrigerant emissions from their stores.

More on EPA’s GreenChill Partnership: http://www.epa.gov/greenchill/.

Follow EPA Region 2 on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/eparegion2 and visit our Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/eparegion2.

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