Whole Foods Earns GreenChill ‘Best of the Best’ Award

Whole Foods Market has received the 2015-2016 “Best of the Best” award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenChill Partnership for using an advanced, more environmentally sustainable refrigeration system at its Dublin, Calif., store. The GreenChill Partnership works with food retailers to reduce refrigerant emissions to decrease their impact on the ozone layer and climate.

Presented annually to one or more GreenChill-certified stores demonstrating innovation in advanced refrigeration technology, the award honors companies for meeting refrigerant emissions rate goals, demonstrating reduced emissions or achievements within the Store Certification Program. Whole Foods’ stores are among approximately 11,000 GreenChill partner stores nationwide, and the grocer received its first GreenChill certification in 2009, after becoming a founding GreenChill partner in 2007.

The Dublin store exceeds requirements for efficiency and features an innovative indirect cooling system that greatly reduces dependency on public energy sources. Some 99 percent of the store’s lights are high-efficiency LEDs, and the refrigeration system runs entirely on natural refrigerants.

Most recently, the grocer’s newly opened Santa Clara, Calif., store received the EPA’s highest award for climate-friendly refrigeration: a Platinum-level GreenChill certification.