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Fresh & Easy has Most Stores Currently GreenChill Certified in the Country:

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Feb.16, 2011 /PRNewswire
Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has added four more GreenChill certified stores this year, including a Gold certified store opening today in Oceanside, California. GreenChill certification is awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) GreenChill Partnership for stores meeting tough benchmarks for cutting emissions that harm the earth's protective ozone layer and contribute to global warming.

Fresh & Easy opened its first GreenChill certified store in September 2010, and now has a total of eight stores currently certified through the program – the most of any grocer in the country. Only 45 of the nation's more than 35,000 grocery stores have received GreenChill Store Certification awards.
"The fact that Fresh & Easy has received the most GreenChill awards for its stores in the nation speaks volumes for the company's environmental commitment," said Keilly Witman, Manager of EPA's GreenChill Partnership. "We're happy to continue working with Fresh & Easy on bringing even more of its stores into the GreenChill program."

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

"We've worked hard to be thoughtful on the impact we have on the environment and we're excited to continue to innovate in this area," said Fresh & Easy CEO Tim Mason. "On average, our stores use 30% less energy than a typical supermarket, which not only helps the environment, but also keeps our prices low so our customers can continue to save money."

About Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market

Fresh & Easy operates more than 160 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 to 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

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