Fresh & Easy's green efforts marked platinum by EPA's GreenChill

FOLSOM, Calif. — Fresh & Easy announced that its new store in Folsom, Calif., received the platinum-level store certification award from the Environmental Protection Agency's GreenChill Partnership.

While the platinum award puts Fresh & Easy — which joined EPA's GreenChill in 2009 — among the nation's 36,000 grocery stores, the Folsom location is the second store in California, and one of four grocery stores in the nation, to achieve these standards.

"Environmental responsibility is part of our DNA. We’ve made a commitment to invest in sustainable technologies from the start," said Steve Hagen, director of procurement and engineering at Fresh & Easy. "Using new natural refrigerants puts Fresh & Easy on the forefront of sustainability in our industry and ultimately makes these emerging technologies more cost effective for everyone."

EPA GreenChill's store certification program is the only certification program in the nation that focuses on greener refrigeration. Its chief goal is to reduce refrigerant emissions from supermarkets that damage the Earth’s protective ozone layer and contribute to global warming.