The Golub Corp., parent company of Price Chopper Supermarkets, Market Bistro and Market 32, has been recognized by several different organizations for its efforts to build and maintain energy efficient and environmentally friendly stores.
Two recently constructed Price Chopper stores were certified by the U.S. Green Building Council under the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) national certification for retail building standard. The Watervliet, New York, Price Chopper received Silver LEED certification and the Price Chopper in Storrs, Connecticut, received LEED certification. Buildings designed and constructed to LEED standards are frequently certified one to two years after full occupancy.
Additionally, three remodeled Market 32 stores (in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and Clifton Park and Wilton, New York) and one new, built-from-the-ground-up Market 32 in Sutton, Massachusetts, have been awarded third-party certification under Green Globes, a nationally recognized green rating system for new and existing buildings established by the Green Building Initiative.
Three Price Chopper stores in New York’s Capital Region—Chatham, Watervliet and Colonie—have been certified/re-certified as qualifying for GreenChill recognition for streamlining and reducing the use of refrigerants as part of its continuing environmental stewardship efforts.
In April 2015, Price Chopper completed its lighting conversion project to LED lighting. The result of the project has been a reduction in annual electric usage of more than 3,600 megawatt hours, which is equivalent to removing 518 cars from the road, saving 332,377 gallons of gasoline or planting 804 acres of trees, according to EPA calculations
The Golub Corp. is pursuing a variety of other environmentally sustainable best management practices for the design, construction and remodeling for all Price Chopper/Market 32 stores as well. Among those practices:
• Recycling more than 75 percent of construction waste (rather than disposing of it in landfills or incinerators) on all new ground-up construction projects.
• Designing to use natural lighting throughout the store, thereby reducing energy consumption.
• Utilizing environmentally sustainable building materials throughout the store with a high degree of recycled content.
• Installing state-of-the-art refrigeration technology to minimize the use of refrigerants with high ozone depletion and global warming potential.
• Recovering waste heat from refrigeration systems for reuse in space heating and hot water production at store level.
• Food waste composting and alternative organics diversion through an anaerobic digestion process, which reduces the produce to “gray water” and eliminates waste from being transported and disposed of at landfills (at select store locations only).
• Utilizing high efficiency lighting systems throughout the store and in exterior signage.
