Content about Environmental Issue

Boca Raton, Fla. -- Office Depot has been recognized with a Climate Leadership Goal Achievement Award for Excellence in Greenhouse Gas Management by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Center for Corporate Climate Leadership, the Association of Climate Change Officers the Center for Climate & Energy Solutions, and The Climate Registry.

Boca Raton, Fla. -- Office Depot announced that it has been named to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) list of 2012 Energy Star Leaders for Leadership in Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Office Depot’s significant energy reduction makes the retailer the first ever retailer in the United States to be recognized for a 30% or greater improvement.

Folsom, Calif. -- Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market received the Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenChill Partnership’s highest award — Platinum-Level Store Certification — for green refrigeration technology at its new store  in Folsom, Calif. It is just the second store in California, and one of just supermarkets in the nation, to achieve platinum certification.

Boca Raton, Fla. -- Office Depot announced that Office Depot stores in Plano, Texas; Raleigh, N.C.; and Tallahassee, Fla., won the top three spots for retail energy efficiency gains in the 2011 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Energy Star National Building Competition. The Plano and Raleigh stores were also the only retailers in the overall top 10 list.

New York City -- Innovation in heating, ventilation and air-conditioning will be driven by cost savings from more efficient energy use and pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a recent from Pike Research.

Salisbury, N.C. -- Grocery chain Food Lion said Tuesday that two of its stores have earned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 2011 Gold-Level GreenChill Store Certification Award, one of the agency's highest honors for refrigeration.

The stores are located in Conyers, Ga., and in Columbia, S.C.

Food Lion became a founding partner with the EPA's GreenChill program in 2007. Since that time, the grocer joined other food retailers to reduce refrigerant emissions and decrease impact on the ozone layer and climate change. Food Lion has won GreenChill's Distinguished Partner Award and its Superior Environmental Achievement Award in the past.

"Our company is committed to going beyond simply reducing refrigerants," said Susan Sollenberger, director of energy, maintenance and equipment purchasing at Delhaize America South. "In addition to reducing emissions through the EPA's GreenChill partnership, we continue to look for new environmentally-friendly technologies and increase the amount of stores that are also Energy Star certified."

Food Lion has more than half of the nation's Energy Star stores, with 1,015 certified stores. In addition, the company has partnered with utilities to evaluate a variety of energy saving opportunities, such as solar power. 

Utility expenses are Shari’s Restaurants’ third biggest operating expense, behind food and labor. In 2008, the 24-hour, family-dining chain began to take a closer look at how to minimize its utility costs. 


“We knew we couldn’t control the price of our utilities, but we could control the usage,” said Jodenne Scott, energy efficiency manager, Shari’s Restaurants, Beaverton, Ore., which operates 104 locations, primarily in the Pacific Northwest (all are corporate-owned). 


Washington, D.C. -- Eighty percent of building owners expect double-digit energy-price increases during the next year, causing owners to set an average energy reduction target of 12%, according to Johnson Controls’ fifth annual global Energy Efficiency Indicator survey.

Menomonee Falls, Wis. -- Kohl’s Department Stores announced Tuesday that it will be recognized as a 2011 Energy Star Partner of the Year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.

The award, Kohl’s second consecutive, will be presented Tuesday evening at the Energy Star Awards ceremony in Washington, D.C.

El Segundo, Calif. -- Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has added four more GreenChill certified stores this year, including a Gold certified store opening Wednesday in Oceanside, Calif.

Fresh & Easy opened its first GreenChill certified store in September 2010, and now has a total of eight stores currently certified through the program -- the most of any grocer in the country. Only 45 of the nation’s more than 35,000 grocery stores have received GreenChill Store Certification awards.

Expectations are high for the upcoming 100th annual NRF Convention & EXPO, produced by The National Retail Federation, Washington, D.C. Among the expected hot topics at this year’s event: mobile retailing, social networking, and sustainability.

A Sears store in Glen Burnie, Md., and a J.C. Penney store in Orange, Calif., took second and third place, respectively, in the Environmental Protection Agency’s first-ever National Building Competition. Top finisher: a dorm at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.


The competition challenged teams from buildings across the country to see which commercial building could trim its energy use the most during a 24-month performance period. The EPA required utility-bill statements for verification of the energy loss.