Fresh & Easy Opens First Store With CO2 Refrigeration System in Southern California

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Sept. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market today opened the first grocery store in Southern California to use naturally occurring carbon dioxide (CO2) refrigeration. The store, located in Rosemead, is Fresh & Easy's first to be GreenChill certified and is among four stores that the company opened today, including the 100th in California.

Fresh & Easy's sub critical cascade CO2 refrigeration system, which is one of only four in the United States, reduces the impact of the store's refrigeration on the ozone layer by about 70%, as compared to industry standards. By utilizing a natural refrigerant, the system has an approximately 50% lower Global Warming Potential than traditional refrigerants.

The store also earned a silver certification award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) GreenChill Partnership by meeting tough benchmarks for cutting emissions that harm the earth's protective ozone layer and contribute to global warming. Fewer than 40 of the nation's 35,000 grocery stores have received GreenChill Store Certification awards.

"Fresh & Easy's Rosemead store is an excellent example of what can be achieved when a supermarket puts technology to work to help the ozone layer and fight climate change," said Keilly Witman, Manager of EPA's GreenChill Partnership. "This store's commitment to reducing refrigerant emissions proves that Fresh & Easy is serious about protecting the environment."

In addition to Fresh & Easy's efforts to reduce refrigerant emissions, the company also stresses energy efficiency. Energy efficient characteristics of the company's refrigeration units include:

• Energy efficient doors on freezer and dairy cases
• Triple-pane glass with an anti-fog coating on refrigerator doors, eliminating the need for door heaters for icing or fogging
• Night curtains on refrigerators to conserve energy while keeping product at the appropriate temperature when stores are closed
• LED lighting in all chilled cases

"On average, our stores use 30% less energy than a typical supermarket, which helps our customers save money while also helping the environment," said Fresh & Easy CEO Tim Mason. "We've worked hard to make sure we are thoughtful in the impact we have on the environment and we're excited to continue to innovate in this area."

The company worked closely with partners Kysor/Warren, the equipment manufacturer and designer of the system, and Source Refrigeration & HVAC, Inc., which handled store specific engineering and installation. Verisae provided the energy management system controlling the system and its software will be used to help Fresh & Easy track energy use and operating costs.

About Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market

Fresh & Easy operates 163 stores in California, Arizona and Nevada. In addition to fresh prepared meals, meats and produce, Fresh & Easy offers everyone's favorite national brand products and household items, all at unbelievably low prices. The grocer's popular fresh&easy brand products have no artificial colors or flavors, no added trans fats, no high-fructose corn syrup, and only use preservatives when absolutely necessary.

In addition to using advanced refrigeration and freezer units, Fresh & Easy uses LED lighting in external signs and freezer cases and offers customer recycling in every store. The company also recycles or reuses all of its display packaging, sending the majority back to its distribution center's on-site recycling facility.

Fresh & Easy opened its first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certified store last year and is a pilot member of the LEED Volume Certification Program. The company has also joined the California Climate Action Registry and The Climate Registry to disclose its greenhouse gas emissions. At its distribution center in Riverside, CA, the company invested $13 million in a solar roof installation, which at 500,000 square feet is one of California's largest.

For more information about Fresh & Easy, visit www.freshandeasy.com. Also follow the company on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/fresh_and_easy and become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/freshandeasy.

About GreenChill

EPA's GreenChill Partnership works with food retailers to reduce refrigerant emissions and decrease their impact on the ozone layer and climate change. Under the agreement with the EPA, Fresh & Easy works to achieve the following:

• Transition to refrigerants that have a lower environmental impact;
• Lower refrigerant charge sizes and eliminate leaks; and
• Adopt green refrigeration technologies, strategies, and practices.

According to the EPA, GreenChill's food retail partners have refrigerant emissions rates 50% lower than the EPA-estimated industry average. If every supermarket in the nation reduced refrigerant emissions down to GreenChill's average, they could prevent the equivalent of 22,000,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere every year. That is equal to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of 4.2 million passenger vehicles. In addition, these stores would save over $100 million every year, which would help customers save money too.

More information about the EPA's GreenChill Partnership is available at www.epa.gov/greenchill.

SOURCE Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market