Wegmans Store Gets GreenChill Gold

MICHAEL GARRY

WOODMORE, Md. — Wegmans Food Markets’ store here has received Gold-Level Store Certification from the Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership.

The store is one of only 13 supermarkets in the U.S. that hold GreenChill’s gold-level award, and it is currently the only supermarket in the state of Maryland to be given this recognition.

Opened in October 2010, the store is first among 77 supermarkets operated by Wegmans, Rochester, N.Y., to use a design — the Nature Advance LT System, made by Hill Phoenix — that has far less global warming potential than most other commercial low-temperature refrigeration systems.

“We’re honored to have received this store certification award from EPA’s GreenChill Partnership,” said Rich Kelley, Wegmans’ manager of engineering, in a statement. “Sustainability is one of our company’s priorities, and the low-temperature refrigeration system at Woodmore is a major step in the right direction. In addition to reducing the global warming potential that refrigeration systems can pose, it also uses less energy.”

“The design of the system at the Woodmore store lets us cut our use of R-404A by about half,” said Kelley. “We are able to do this by substituting other refrigerants that are better for the environment, and confining all of the R-404A in mechanical room compressors, instead of having it circulate throughout the network of pipes." Carbon dioxide is used to cool frozen food cases.

The store also uses glycol to cool medium-temperature dairy and meat cases. The medium-temperature system is used at more than a third of Wegmans’ 76 other stores.