PHOENIX—Sprouts Farmers Market in Round Rock, Texas, received EPA’s GreenChill Gold-Level Store Award for green refrigeration technology. The Round Rock location is the first in Texas and one of just 13 grocers in the nation to achieve gold certification from the GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership, a voluntary business-government program managed by EPA. The partnership’s chief goal is to reduce emissions of refrigerants that damage the Earth’s protective ozone layer and contribute to global warming.
“Sprouts Farmers Market shares EPA’s commitment in decreasing refrigerant emissions through innovative refrigeration design and leak tight practices in our existing and future stores,” said Jerry Stutler, vice president of construction and facility engineering, Sprouts Farmers Market. “We are committed to being an environmentally conscious neighbor and grocer.”
Keilly Witman, manager of the GreenChill partnership, said Sprouts achieved “a very high environmental standard with its store in Round Rock – the very first EPA gold-certified store in the state of Texas. As one of GreenChill's newest partners, Sprouts is off and running to reduce the company's impact on the earth's ozone layer and climate change."
To achieve gold certification, a store must meet stringent environmental criteria, including the following steps: use refrigerants that do not damage the Earth’s protective ozone layer, reduce the size of its refrigerant charge by at least 65 percent from the industry average, reduce annual refrigerant emissions to 15 percent or less of total store capacity, and test refrigeration systems for adherence to GreenChill's leak tightness guidelines.
Sprouts, which has 44 stores in four states, joined the GreenChill partnership last May. The Round Rock store received the gold certification in December. The company contracted with another GreenChill partner, Hussman Corp., a subsidiary of Ingersoll Rand Climate Control Technologies, for work at Round Rock.
By meeting or exceeding GreenChill criteria, Sprouts is helping to prevent deterioration of the Earth’s protective ozone layer and is combating climate change, the EPA said.