INITIATIVE 3:Energy Awareness

Michael Garry

Over the past several years, Giant Eagle, Pittsburgh, has distinguished itself as one of the most energy-efficient and environmentally minded food retailers in the U.S. Evidence for this comes from the 158-store chain's participation in practically every energy-related initiative open to retailers, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star, Green Power and GreenChill programs and U.S. Green Building Council's LEED rating system.

Giant Eagle has earned Energy Star certification — a designation the EPA gives to stores that meet a certain standard of energy efficiency — for 125 of its stores, according to Cliff Timko, Giant Eagle's energy manager, conservation department. Last month, Timko explained how the chain goes about getting Energy Star certification for its stores in an SN-hosted webinar, “How to Become an Energy Star Retailer.”

Timko attributed the chain's Energy Star success to retrofitting equipment in its stores and continuously monitoring energy consumption, as well as to a store-level energy awareness program introduced this year.

Giant Eagle has long endeavored to instill energy awareness at its stores by putting up posters, observing Earth Day each year, turning off lights when not in use and adopting an hour-long training program for store employees. “With all of that, we still didn't feel we were having much of an impact at the store level,” Timko said during the webinar.

So this year the chain created a new position — energy awareness champion — who is charged with holding regional energy awareness meetings and meeting with each store's manager and “energy point person.”

The program also includes a new emphasis on training. Training store associates to have energy awareness is the role of the store manager and the energy point person, who themselves go through a regional training session. A Food Marketing Institute energy management training video explains procedures on a department-by-department basis.

Energy-saving measures impact all aspects of store operations, including lighting, HVAC, refrigeration, equipment and exits/entrances.

The store's energy point person must complete a checklist of energy-saving measures each month and submit it to the corporate energy awareness champion, who verifies that the measures are being implemented by performing “middle-of-the-night” store audits. As an additional incentive, the anticipated energy savings from a store's energy awareness program are incorporated into the store's utility budget for the fiscal year.

Giant Eagle has also established a Web-based power monitoring system that a store manager can use to track a store's performance. “This information is available to a store manager at the beginning of each month,” said Timko.