EPA's GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership recently recognized three supermarkets in New England for reducing their use of GHG refrigerants that deplete the Earth's ozone layer and contribute to climate change.

GreenChill is an EPA cooperative alliance with the supermarket industry that works with stores to reduce their emissions of ozone-depleting GHG refrigerants. EPA estimates that if every supermarket in the nation joined GreenChill and reduced its emissions to the current GreenChill average, the nation could save the equivalent of 22 million metric tons of CO2 and 240 ozone-depleting potential tons every year, all while saving $108 million in refrigerant expenses annually.

The Agency's 2009 partner awardees included Whole Foods, Hill Phoenix, and Supervalu, the parent company of Shaw's Supermarkets and Star Market.

GreenChill now has a total of 46 partners, including 37 food retail partners with more than 6,500 stores in 47 states.

INFO: Contact EPA's David Deegan at 617-918-1010.