Hy-Vee Joins With EPA to Trim Chiller Emissions
Hy-Vee Inc. is teaming with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenChill Program to reduce refrigerant emissions, help protect the ozone layer and fight climate change.
“Hy-Vee’s participation in GreenChill underscores the company’s commitment to sustainability in all aspects of our operations,” said Michael Smith, Hy-Vee’s director of real estate and sustainability. “From the design and construction of our stores to our energy conservation, waste reduction and product-sourcing efforts, Hy-Vee has adopted a host of earth-friendly practices that promote the well-being of customers, employees, communities and the global environment.”
By joining GreenChill, Hy-Vee pledges to the public to go beyond regulatory requirements to protect the environment. “Hy-Vee is setting an excellent example of environmental leadership among supermarkets by voluntarily reducing the company's impact on the earth’s ozone layer and on climate change,” said Keilly Witman, EPA’s GreenChill manager. “We at EPA hope that Hy-Vee’s commitment will spur its competitors to meet Hy-Vee’s standards and take the same challenge.”
By joining GreenChill, Hy-Vee has committed to requiring that all of its new and remodeled stores use environmentally friendlier refrigerants, reduce the amount of refrigerant they use and eliminate refrigerant leaks, and adopt green refrigeration technologies, strategies and practices.
Launched in 2007, the GreenChill Partnership includes 49 partners with nearly 5,500 stores throughout the nation. GreenChill’s supermarket partners’ refrigerant leak rates are about 50 percent lower than the industry average, the EPA estimates. The agency says that if every U.S. supermarket reduced its refrigerant emissions to the GreenChill average leak rate, the nation would save the equivalent of 22 metric tons of carbon dioxide every year, which it says is the same as taking more than 4 million passenger vehicles off the road.
West Des Moines, Iowa-based Hy-Vee, Inc. is an employee-owned corporation operating 229 retail stores in eight Midwestern states. For more information about EPA’s GreenChill Partnership, visit www.epa.gov/greenchill.
“Hy-Vee’s participation in GreenChill underscores the company’s commitment to sustainability in all aspects of our operations,” said Michael Smith, Hy-Vee’s director of real estate and sustainability. “From the design and construction of our stores to our energy conservation, waste reduction and product-sourcing efforts, Hy-Vee has adopted a host of earth-friendly practices that promote the well-being of customers, employees, communities and the global environment.”
By joining GreenChill, Hy-Vee pledges to the public to go beyond regulatory requirements to protect the environment. “Hy-Vee is setting an excellent example of environmental leadership among supermarkets by voluntarily reducing the company's impact on the earth’s ozone layer and on climate change,” said Keilly Witman, EPA’s GreenChill manager. “We at EPA hope that Hy-Vee’s commitment will spur its competitors to meet Hy-Vee’s standards and take the same challenge.”
By joining GreenChill, Hy-Vee has committed to requiring that all of its new and remodeled stores use environmentally friendlier refrigerants, reduce the amount of refrigerant they use and eliminate refrigerant leaks, and adopt green refrigeration technologies, strategies and practices.
Launched in 2007, the GreenChill Partnership includes 49 partners with nearly 5,500 stores throughout the nation. GreenChill’s supermarket partners’ refrigerant leak rates are about 50 percent lower than the industry average, the EPA estimates. The agency says that if every U.S. supermarket reduced its refrigerant emissions to the GreenChill average leak rate, the nation would save the equivalent of 22 metric tons of carbon dioxide every year, which it says is the same as taking more than 4 million passenger vehicles off the road.
West Des Moines, Iowa-based Hy-Vee, Inc. is an employee-owned corporation operating 229 retail stores in eight Midwestern states. For more information about EPA’s GreenChill Partnership, visit www.epa.gov/greenchill.