Sustainability

Retailers are steadily embracing sustainability — perhaps none so much as supermarkets, particularly purveyors of natural and organic provisions. In California, the new 28,000-sq.-ft. Sprouts Farmers Market store in Westlake Village has received the EPA’s GreenChill Platinum Award for its state-of-the-art green refrigeration technology. The system is expected to reduce the store’s total carbon footprint by 2,417,000 pounds over 10 years — the equivalent of removing 215 cars from the road for a decade.

With long operating hours and lots of equipment for storing and cooking food, restaurants devour energy. Add lighting, estimated to account for 25 percent of the load, and you can understand why many operators are finding a place for low-voltage light-emitting diode (LED) sources at the table.

Denny’s recently tested LED lights from Durham, N.C., manufacturer Cree in various applications, and the results were such that Cree LEDs are now the preferred lighting standard for all new and remodeled units in the full-service family restaurant chain.

Combine continually rising costs with multiple locations and disparate assets, and energy management is a headache that many retailers would just as soon hand off. But what about those who seek a holistic solution with the control that comes from handling the tasks in-house?

In recent years, “green” products, services and practices have become less costly. Returns on investment are starting to appear. But then there’s the field of clean energy. Still somewhat of a holy grail, the idea of clean, reliable, efficient energy that’s actually “affordable” remains an idea just out of grasp.