Food Lion, Harveys and Reid’s have cut their energy consumption by more than 31 percent since 2000 or 2.8 trillion BTUs, winning the grocery stores their 12th consecutive Energy Star award, according to parent company Delhaize America, the US division of the international retailer Delhaize Group.
The supermarket group says the three retailers have received the Energy Star partner of the year sustained excellence award for their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve energy efficiency.
An Energy Star spokesperson says the full list of winners will be posted online on March 26. Winners are selected from some 20,000 organizations that participate in the Energy Star program.
In 2012, the three supermarket chains topped their 2011 energy-reduction levels by eliminating 103 billion BTUs, up from 87.7 billion BTUs the year earlier. These energy reductions in 2012 saved more than $2.2 million, up from $2.04 million in 2011, and reduced carbon emissions by 67 million pounds, Delhaize America says.
Food Lion, Harveys and Reid’s also added 90 Energy Star-certified stores in 2012, bringing their total number to 1077, or 85 percent of the entire chain of stores. Food Lion, based in Salisbury, N.C., operates more than 1,100 supermarkets. Harveys operates 73 stores in Georgia, Florida and South Carolina.Reid’s operates 11 stores in South Carolina.
The grocery stores were recognized in last year's annual Energy Star awards for expanding a pilot program to put glass doors on medium-temperature cases — a measure found to cut a stores overall energy bills by 10 percent without hurting sales — by tripling capital investment in 2011 to more than $5 million and enclosing cases at another 106 stores.
Sears, Lowe’s, utility Xcel Energy and LG Electronics also took home top honors in the the 2012 awards. Sears won for achievements that included increasing the amount of Energy Star-qualified decorative lighting products, power tools and washing machines it sells and reducing company-wide energy consumption by 6.5 kBtu per square foot, representing a 4.3-percent improvement in energy efficiency in 2011.
