Stop & Shop Wins Energy Star Leader Recognition
The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company, LLC, which includes Stop & Shop stores in New England, New York and New Jersey, and Giant Food stores in the Mid-Atlantic, is now recognized as an Energy Star Leader, according to the New England regional office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Stop & Shop is the only company in New England to earn the recognition in 2007, and its chain of supermarkets is the only one in the country earning this recognition.
Based in Quincy, Mass., the supermarket chain is one of 16 organizations across the nation to receive the award this year in recognition of improvements to building energy performance. Notably, Stop & Shop and Giant have a rating of 90 (out of possible 100) across a portfolio of 552 buildings.
Energy Star Leaders are an elite group of organizations that manage energy strategically across an entire portfolio of buildings using EPA's standardized measurement tool for tracking building energy use. These select organizations are recognized by the agency for improving the energy performance of their portfolio by 10 percent or more. The highest Leader recognition identifies those organizations with portfolios that perform in the top 25 percent of energy efficiency nationwide based upon the average of the buildings in the portfolio.Stop & Shop is receiving recognition for the superior energy performance of this group of supermarkets.
In August, EPA also awarded Stop & Shop an ENERGY STAR label for its Southbury, Conn., store recognizing the building's superior energy performance. Energy efficiency measures at this location included: skylights and natural lighting in stores, high-efficiency T5 lighting, refrigeration systems with variable -speed compressors and low-energy glass doors, occupancy sensors, and reflective, insulation roofing.
"We are deeply committed to finding energy conservation and energy efficiency solutions," stated José Alvarez, Stop & Shop and Giant Food president and chief executive officer."With 575 Stop & Shop and Giant stores covering more than 33 million square feet and 165 trucks in our Stop & Shop fleet, it is of utmost importance that we constantly work to improve our energy performance. We believe this is the right thing to do not only because these measures help us leave a lasting legacy – a healthy planet – for our children and grandchildren, but they also help our customers today.Our energy conservation and energy efficiency programs help lower our operating costs and, in turn, we pass these savings on to customers, keeping our prices low."