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EPA Administrator Announces Expansion of Energy Star Program to Supermarkets

Release Date: 07/30/2001
Contact Information: Peyton Fleming, EPA Press Office (617-918-1008) Mark Merchant, EPA Press Office (617-918-1013) Bernard Rogan, Shaw's Supermarkets (508-313-3316)

BOSTON - In an effort to boost energy efficiency in the private sector, EPA Administrator Christie Whitman today announced that the Energy Star program is being expanded for the first time to include supermarkets and grocery stores, which together use close to $4 billion a year of electricity.

Whitman also announced the approval of a Shaw's Supermarket store in East Boston for the Energy Star label - the first grocery store in the country to receive such a certification. Individual stores must demonstrate a superior energy efficiency performance to qualify for the label.

"Boosting energy efficiency is a key to the country's energy future and one way to make that happen is expanding successful, voluntary-based programs such as Energy Star," said Whitman, at a news conference this morning in downtown Boston. "Shaw's Supermarkets is already seeing the huge benefits from energy efficiency and it's our goal to bring those same benefits to supermarkets and grocery stores all across the country."

"Although Shaw's has been implementing energy efficiency measures into the business since before joining the Energy Star program, Energy Star has been a wonderful impetus for Shaw's to commit to continually raising the bar," said Kathleen Loftus, manager of energy and regulatory affairs at Shaw's Supermarkets Inc., which owns 185 Shaw's and Star Market stores across New England. "By promoting capital spending on energy efficiency projects, companies can keep expenses down which, in turn, helps keep costs down for their customers. We've realized rates of return of up to 35 percent on some of the projects we've implemented."

Today's announcement came at an office building complex at Five Hundred Boylston and Two Twenty Two, which has received national acclaim from the Energy Star program for its superior energy efficiency performance. Hines, co-owner and property manager of the 1.2-million-square-feet of office space, received an Energy Star Partner of the Year Award from Whitman in March of this year.

"We feel responsible use of energy is essential both for the environment and for controlling business costs," said Greg Brown, vice president of operations at Hines, noting that energy accounts for about a third of an average Boston office building's operating costs. "We are proud to be a partner with EPA as part of the Energy Star Program."

As part of his Energy Plan announced last winter, President Bush called for an expansion of the Energy Star Program to include such business sectors as grocery stores, health care facilities and hotels. The program is also expanding its offering of Energy Star product categories to include such items as ceiling fans and commercial refrigerators. Just two weeks ago, Administrator Whitman announced an agreement with Canada that will bring Energy Star products to Canadian citizens and businesses.

In the United States alone last year, Energy Star resulted in greenhouse gas reductions equivalent to taking 10 million cars off the road. More than 1.2 trillion pounds of carbon dioxide emissions have been prevented due to Energy Star commitments to date, with cumulative energy bill savings of $60 billion through 2010. In New England, Energy Star investments have saved organizations and consumers more than $1.9 billion on their energy bills to date.

As part of the agency's push to help the food retailing sector, Whitman said the Energy Star program is now offering supermarkets a benchmarking tool that they can use to evaluate the energy performance of individual stores and whether those facilities might qualify for the Energy Star label. The web-based tool is available on EPA's web site at www.energystar.gov.

"Supermarkets and grocery stores use enormous amounts of energy, so anything we can do to help them reduce their footprint will have enormous benefits, both for the environment and the bottom line " said Whitman, who praised several national food retailers for assisting in the benchmarking effort, among those Shaw's, Food Lion, Safeway, Albertsons, and SuperValu.

The Shaw's Supermarket chain, the second largest supermarket food retailer in New England, has been an Energy Star Partner since 1993. Since that time, the company has invested millions of dollars in energy efficiency programs, including comprehensive lighting retrofits at its stores, detailed computerized tracking of energy use and buying an aerodynamic truck fleet to cut down on fuel consumption. Shaw's has consistently found that the investments have paid for themselves within two to four years. Last year alone, the company netted $3.7 million from energy savings.

"Shaw's deserves kudos for its innovations and national leadership on the energy efficiency front," said Whitman, who honored the company in March of this year as an Energy Star "Partner of the Year."

Energy Star was established by EPA in 1992 to offer energy-saving and pollution-preventing solutions for consumers and businesses by awarding labels to the most energy-efficient products, homes and buildings. Energy Star currently offers labels, if specifications are met, to products in over 30 categories, including computers, dishwashers, refrigerators and air conditioners. This makes it easy for families to make purchases that reduce the need for power generation at electric utilities, thereby reducing air pollution and global warming emissions. More than 600 million Energy Star products have been purchased, and thousands of buildings have been upgraded, providing savings of more than $4 billion in 2000. By using Energy Star labeled products, the average household can save more than $400 a year on their energy bills.

Offices account for more than 20 percent of carbon emissions from energy consumption in buildings. Since 1998, when Energy Star began working with office building owners on energy efficiency upgrades, more than 25 percent of the nation's eight billion square feet of leased office properties have joined in partnership with Energy Star to make their buildings more energy efficient and increase their financial value.