Fresh & Easy Opens GreenChill Platinum Store in Folsom, CA
Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has opened a new GreenChill Platinum Award-winning store in Folsom, Calif., which was honored for its significant reduction in refrigerant emissions
GreenChill is an E.P.A. Partnership with food retailers to reduce refrigerant emissions and decrease their impact on the ozone layer and climate change. A typical supermarket in the U.S. uses approximately 3,500 pounds of refrigerant. The Fresh & Easy Folsom store uses just 70 pounds – a 98 percent reduction that earned it GreenChill’s highest award.
“Environmental responsibility is part of our DNA,” said Steve Hagen, director of procurement and engineering at Fresh & Easy “We’ve made a commitment to invest in sustainable technologies from the start,” “Using new natural refrigerants puts Fresh & Easy on the forefront of sustainability our industry and ultimately makes these emerging technologies more cost effective for everyone.”
Fresh & Easy’s Folsom store features Hill PHOENIX Second Nature medium temperature fixtures and walk-ins running on glycol and low temperature fixtures and walk-ins running on C02. Glycol and C02 are environmentally friendly, natural alternatives to harmful HFC refrigerants.
“Fresh & Easy selected a Second Nature Compact Chiller system that effectively eliminates all HFCs from the store’s refrigeration system by using medium temperature glycol to condense the low temperature CO2. This is typically achieved with an HFC refrigerant,” explained Henry Pellerin, director, marketing programs for Conyers, Ga.-based Hill PHOENIX. “The Folsom Fresh & Easy is the only store in the nation, to date, that uses this innovative type of system.”
Hill PHOENIX Second Nature Compact Chiller (SNCC) utilizes a unique heat exchanger technology that allows engineers to design a typical medium temperature supermarket system with the lowest refrigeration charge of any commercial refrigeration system on the market. As a result, retailers like Fresh & Easy can achieve a sustainable zero leak rate. SNCC is comprised of multiple compact chiller modules. Each module is a standalone refrigeration system and is completely factory-assembled, charged and run-tested prior to delivery.
GreenChill’s Store Certification Program is the only certification program in the nation that focuses on greener refrigeration. The Program’s chief goal is to reduce refrigerant emissions from supermarkets that damage the Earth’s protective ozone layer and contribute to global warming. A pound of leaked refrigerant can cause more global warming than 2000-4000 pounds of carbon dioxide.
Fresh & Easy operates 185 stores along the West Coast.