Got Sustainability?
by Warren Thayer
October 21, 2008
The Food Marketing Institute’s Sustainability Task Force defines “sustainability” as “business strategies and practices that promote the long-term well being of the environment, society and the bottom line.”
For quite some years, it was “the bottom line” that held back sustainability initiatives at most retailers. With the exception of recycling, things that were good for the environment were all too often bad for the bottom line. That’s changed, as sustainability initiatives now often pay for themselves very quickly.
Let’s take a look at the successes of 10 leading retailers that have done everything from installing high-tech refrigeration systems to educating employees about the importance of turning out lights when they aren’t being used. This isn’t meant to be a complete study, but there are bound to be some ideas here that you can use.
Whole Foods: ‘Greenest’ of the Green
If you ever need inspiration for “green” initiatives, just drop in on the Whole Foods Market website, www.wholefoodsmarket.com. It’s no secret that this company embodies sustainability for most people — the nationwide 2008 ImagePower Green Brands survey showed the Austin, Tex.-based retailer at the very top of the list in a ranking of “greenest brands.” And the Environmental Protection Agency ranks it as the No. 1 retailer on its Top 10 list of green power users, since it generates 100% of its electrical power from renewable resources.
A visit to the Whole Foods website not only explains the company’s initiatives in everything from energy efficiency to packaging to green building, it has links to governmental and non-governmental agencies where you can get more information. That takes it a step further than just blowing its own horn.
Whole Foods has countless initiatives, but we chose to drill down to refrigeration specifics in a store opened in June in Town and Country, a suburb of St. Louis, Mo. This store cut greenhouse gas emissions by 22.5 million pounds and energy use by 30% annually, thanks in good part to sophisticated new systems for its refrigerated and frozen food cases.
Whole Foods teamed with Hussmann Corp., Bridgeton, Mo., which installed its Protocol distributed refrigeration system to lower energy use and reduce the possibility of refrigerant leaks. Other green products installed by Hussmann: LED lights (using 51% less energy than fluorescent lamps and providing improved illumination); integrated night curtains on open multi-deck cases to save energy when the store is closed (the curtains are concealed inside the case canopies when not in use); “Innovator” doors with advanced insulation and anti-sweat heat features to provide 20% energy savings; and energy-efficient fan motors and E-plus coils in refrigerated and frozen food cases.
Hussmann says the Protocol system itself saved 475.2 pounds of refrigerant. The chart to the left shows the savings for each feature.
Safeway: Cutting its Carbon
Safeway has stronger incentives than most to reduce its carbon footprint. It is the only retailer to have joined the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), the world’s first legally binding greenhouse gas emissions reduction and trading system for emissions source and offset projects.
Under the legally binding contract that Safeway chose to sign, it must reduce its carbon footprint by 1.5% every year between 2007 and 2010. The 6% total reduction uses levels from the year 2000 as a baseline.
If Safeway misses the mark in any year, it is required to buy carbon credits from companies in the exchange that have exceeded their targets. But of course if Safeway exceeds its own targets, it gets to sell credits. Although independent auditors haven’t yet tallied the 2007 score, Safeway expects to make money on the deal.
Based on all the sustainability initiatives it has underway, the 1.5% annual reductions seem like a slam-dunk. Safeway was the fourth-largest retail purchaser of renewable energy in the country last year. Its annual purchase of 87 million kilowatt hours of wind energy is enough to offset the electricity used by its 300+ fuel stations, its headquarters complexes in Northern California, and all its stores in San Francisco and boulder, Colo. And last year, it launched an initiative to power 40 California stores with solar energy.
In fact, Safeway has more than two dozen renewable solar projects under development with a projected output of more than 7,500 megawatt hours of electricity per year. It ranks seventh on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Top 10 list of “green power” retailers, generating 3% of its electricity from renewable sources.
Some Safeway stores, of course, do better than that. Nine of its stores now have more than 1,000 solar photovoltaic panels on their roofs, capable of providing for 20% of store’s power usage. With state subsidies and high electric rates, payoff is faster than it would be in many other locations.
Walmart: Sharing What It Learns
For the past few years, Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart has been testing new technologies in its experimental and high-efficiency stores scattered around the country, often with significant results.
Walmart says it is committed to openly sharing what it learns with the industry so that everyone can become more energy-efficient. So it’s no surprise that all eyes are on Walmart’s most energy-efficient store ever — the new HE.5 prototype, which opened this past March in Las Vegas. It is expected to use 45% less energy than a baseline Walmart supercenter.
What’s especially noteworthy here is that the HE.5 prototype is designed to achieve maximum efficiency gains in specific climatic regions. Accordingly, the Las Vegas store has advances in heating, cooling, refrigeration and lighting to conserve energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These innovations were adapted from Walmart tests elsewhere, and customized for use in the warm Western climate.
For example, the new store achieves significant energy savings by using evaporative cooling and radiant flooring technologies. Water is chilled by pumping it through roof-mounted cooling towers and then run beneath the floor to cool the shopping area.
Walmart’s experimental stores, built in 2005 in McKinney, Tex., and Aurora, Colo., are being monitored by independent labs. Walmart is not shy about sharing the successes and the disappointments.
For example, LED lights in exterior signs, internal grocery, freezer and jewelry cases were proven to use less electricity and last longer — so they’re being rolled out nationwide. Experiments with T5HO fluorescent bulbs didn’t come close to the expected 12% energy savings. Solar power and wind turbines at both stores also performed below expectations.
Doored, state-of-the-art refrigerated cases in the Aurora store have proven successful. The doors reduce air infiltration into the case, reducing electricity demand, and the combination of doors, LED lights and an evaporative condenser has resulted in energy reduction. For details on this and more, go to www.walmartstores.com.
Supervalu Steps Up
Minneapolis-based Supervalu, long known for environmental leadership and with more than 100 Energy Star stores across the country, is stepping up its sustainability initiatives.
After being one of the first to open a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) supermarket in 2005, it is opening what may be the company’s first gold-certified LEED unit — a Cub store in St. Paul, Minn.
Construction costs for the 60,000 square-foot Cub were about 7% higher than normal, but the environmentally friendly features will more than pay for themselves and continue to produce savings, Supervalu says. For example, the store has 44 skylights using a solar-powered GPS system to capture and redirect sunlight inside, saving an expected 35% in lighting costs. The parking lot will use only LED lights and the refrigeration systems, as required under GreenChill, will use only non-ozone-depleting refrigerants.
Another cutting-edge store — under the Star Market banner — will open next year in Chestnut Hill, Mass. A natural-gas fuel cell on the roof is targeted to produce 90% of the store’s energy — heating it in winter and operating the refrigeration system. The refrigeration system will use 90% less ozone-depleting refrigerant than is typical, and will use food-grade glycol for mid-temp cases and carbon dioxide for freezer cases.
Together, the fuel cell and refrigeration system are expected to reduce the store’s carbon emissions by five million pounds a year, or the equivalent of taking 539 cars off the road annually.
To keep business units and operations teams working smoothly together, Supervalu has an environmental stewardship council, called ValuEarth. This group studies, recommends and oversees ways the company can minimize its environmental footprint.
Energy savings and carbon footprint reductions from sophisticated technology have been substantial. But some savings have also come from the low-tech ValuEarth signs that appear throughout Supervalu’s stores and offices in breakrooms, conference rooms and rest rooms. They remind associates to turn off lights and faucets when not in use.
Price Chopper Chops R-404A
Schenectady, N.Y.-based Price Chopper is the first North American supermarket to install a Cascade carbon dioxide refrigeration system, entirely eliminating R-404A refrigerant on the low-temp side. The chain estimates it will be 3% more energy efficient than conventional systems.
The test began in March in a store in Saratoga, N.Y., in conjunction with Hill PHOENIX, Conyers, Ga. The system is connected to a secondary loop, medium-temp system which uses R-404A to cool the carbon dioxide condensers. This controls pressures, and cools propylene glycol — which in turn chills the medium-temp cases.
Price Chopper’s first-ever LEED-certified store — in Colonie, N.Y. — will serve as a testing ground for several initiatives. Set to open next spring, it will have a fuel cell to provide much of its electricity and heat, and skylights to reduce the need for electric lighting. And instead of a steel skeleton, the store will be made from precast concrete panels made locally, with floors of colored concrete that can be cleaned without harsh chemicals.
CEO Neil Golub wants the company’s supermarkets to operate off the electric grid, at least in part so they can stay open during storms and to prevent losses when refrigeration equipment goes down. Right now, Price Chopper is one of several retailers working with Boston-based Eneroc on a demand-response program designed to reduce energy use during peak periods.
Price Chopper’s new headquarters, now being built in Schenectady, N.Y., will also be LEED-certified.
Publix Goes High (and Low) Tech
Lakeland, Fla.-based Publix has cut its electric use by 7% overall and about 23% in new stores since launching its “Get Into a Green Routine” program in 2002. The low-tech program focuses on common sense. Associates were taught the importance of things like shutting off lights, closing freezer doors and shutting off computers. It’s certainly paid off.
Of course, Publix’s sustainability efforts also include the high-tech. Like most retailers, it’s studied ways to improve the gas mileage of its trucks and the efficiency of its refrigeration and lighting. For example, installation of LED lighting in its frozen and refrigerated cases cut energy use there by 50-80%.
But now it is also working with the Florida Solar Energy Center and several companies to integrate solar energy into its retail operations. And it has joined the Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership in cutting-edge efforts to reduce refrigerant emissions and promote use of non-ozone-depleting refrigerants.
It has even developed a cross-functional team of 40 executives from different parts of the company to study sustainability, and recruiting some outside experts to help. Check the company’s website, www.publix.com, to see some of the many initiatives, including: requiring that private label packaging be either recycled or recyclable unless there is a food safety reason that prevents it; working with non-governmental organizations to support sustainable seafood; opening a new format, GreenWise Market, focusing on organic, all-natural, and earth-friendly products.
Giant Eagle: First to LEED
Giant Eagle opened the nation’s first Leadership in Energy and Environmentally Design (LEED) certified supermarket in Brunswick, Ohio, in 2004 and followed up three years later with the first supermarket to earn LEED Commercial Interiors Silver Certification — in its Shadyside Market District store in Pittsburgh.
The Shadyside store requires 20% less energy than comparable, conventionally designed units, with increased insulation, a green roof and 40 skylights. A planted roof cleanses and reduces storm water run-off, and drought-tolerant vegetation requires no irrigation.
Fresh air is monitored with sensors and preserved through the use of adhesives, sealants, paints, carpeting and wood products that are low in volatile organic compounds. There is also a green housekeeping program in place, with alternative flooring that virtually eliminates costly and repetitive floor maintenance.
With many features similar to those in Shadyside, the Brunswick store uses no ozone-depleting refrigerants. Given this as a background, it’s no surprise that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) presented Giant Eagle with a 2008 ENERGY STAR Sustained Excellence Award for its continued leadership in everything from use of wind power (it has contracts through 2012) to offering biodiesel and E85 alternative fuel at selected GetGo locations. At this writing, Giant Eagle's annual wind power purchase is 17 million kWh a year as a member of the EPA's Green Power Partnership. Further, all new and remodeled stores are being outfitted or upgraded with system controls that track energy use, producing an average energy savings of 12% per store.
Food Lion: Star of ENERGY STAR
Salisbury, N.C.-based Food Lion LLC owns more than 725 of the country’s roughly 1,300 ENERGY STAR-labeled supermarkets, and is gunning to hit 800 by year-end. The designation, from the Environmental Protection Agency, is for commercial buildings that use an average of 35% less energy and release 35% less carbon dioxide into the air than is typical. Based on EPA calculations, each of Food Lion’s ENERGY STAR stores saves up to 56,000 kWh annually — enough to power six American homes for a year.
Early this year, a Food Lion in Portsmouth, Va., became the nation’s first grocery store to operate two ozone-friendly refrigeration systems, both of which reduce the amount of required refrigerants by more then 60%. One uses water and glycol for refrigerated cases, while the other uses carbon dioxide for frozen cases. Both were created in partnership with Hill PHOENIX, Conyers, Ga.
Recently, Food Lion unveiled a biodiesel generator that runs on cooking oils, such as those used by the store’s deli. The company uses generators to ease the demand on local utilities on hot days when commercial and residential air conditioners are running full blast.
Food Lion was among the first grocers to join the EPA’s GreenChill partnership aimed at curbing refrigerant leaks, transitioning to non-ozone-depleting refrigerants and testing new refrigeration technology. It is the only grocer to win seven consecutive ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year awards.
Other Food Lion initiatives include heat reclaim, lighting automation/retrofits, partnerships with vendors to increase equipment energy efficiency and campaigns to raise associate knowledge of energy conservation.
Kroger ‘Does Its Part’
Unlike certain presidential candidates, Kroger is very specific about its goals. Its 2008 Sustainability Report, “Doing Our Part,” offers a blueprint of initiatives covering both the environmental and social fronts. (You can find it at www.kroger.com).
For example, the Cincinnati-based chain plans to reduce overall energy consumption in stores by 30% by 2010, using the year 2000 as a baseline. So far, the reduction stands at 22%, which is equivalent to saving enough electricity to power more than 150,000 homes for a year. Using 2007 as a base year, it plans a 2% reduction in miles traveled by 2010 — the same as removing 1,300 cars from the road for one year.
These specific goals are among many tied to areas including donations to food banks, worker safety, waste reduction, recycling, and sales of compact fluorescent light bulbs. Results have been impressive, sometimes in areas you wouldn’t expect. Kroger’s dairy manufacturing team reduced the weight of its milk bottles and removed about 470,000 pounds of plastic resin from the supply chain without compromising on quality. Company stores use heat produced by refrigeration equipment to heat the air and water, cutting electrical and gas consumption.
Insulation on refrigerated trucks has been improved, and Kroger is making more use of multi-temp trucks to transport frozen, refrigerated and dry goods all on the same trip. And the Fry’s division saved hundreds of thousands of dollars by cutting back on lighting and air conditioning after a local utility asked businesses to help by using less energy. The customers? They loved it. In team spirit, it fit in perfectly with “Doing Our Part.”
Hannaford Goes for Platinum
Gold isn’t good enough for Hannaford, the Scarborough, Maine-based supermarket chain. It’s aiming to have the world’s first platinum-certified Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) supermarket when it opens a new 49,000 square-foot store in Augusta next June.
Knowing Hannaford’s long history of environmental stewardship, this doesn’t seem unusual. About 20 years ago, to cite just one example, a team of workers exhaustively studied whether it was more environmentally sound to use paper plates or to wash dishes in an employee dining area. (The two options came out even, if we recall correctly.) And three years ago, Hannaford Trucking initiated fleet efficiency initiatives that are saving road miles and 115,000 gallons of diesel fuel annually.
There’s nothing higher than platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, and the standards covering energy-saving and environmentally friendly sustainable elements are rigorous. Hannaford hopes to make the new store 40% more efficient than a traditionally designed supermarket. It plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption and waste and to provide an improved indoor environment for both store associates and shoppers.
So among other things, the new store will have solar photovoltaic panels, geothermal heating and cooling, high-efficiency refrigeration, energy-efficient lighting, an advanced recycling system, a “green” roof with plants and natural lighting. The site will also be used to test new technology tied to energy efficiency and sustainability.
The platinum rating system encourages Hannaford to recycle 95% of the old high school building on the construction site. Undaunted, Hannaford says it expects to clear that mark.
|
