Green Spotlight
Grocer Goes Green – EPA identifies Safeway as the Nation’s Fourth-Largest Purchaser of Renewable Energy
Safeway, one of the largest retail grocery stores in the U.S., is also the nation’s fourth-largest retail purchaser of renewable energy, according to an EPA report released in April 2007. By 2010, the company will have saved 390,000 tons of carbon emissions by substituting clean energy for traditional sources like coal. This CO 2 savings is the equivalent of taking 33,760 cars off the road or planting 130,000 acres of pine forests.
Going green is not new for Safeway, the first retail company to join the California Climate Action Registry, which tracks emissions reduction projects. The company is also the first retailer to join the Chicago Climate Exchange, a network of companies that receive financial incentives for reducing and trading greenhouse gases. Safeway also received the EPA Green Power Purchaser of the Year Award in 2005, the City of San Diego Recycler of the Year Award in 2006, WRAP (Waste Reduction Award Program) Awards from 2002 to 2006 and a 2007 California Flex Your Power Award for energy efficiency.
“We will continue to pursue green energy sources and ways to reduce carbon emissions because we feel it’s the right thing to do,” said Steve Neibergall, president of Safeway’s Eastern Division. “This is still a work in progress, but we are committed to achieving further energy efficiencies and broadening our sources of renewable energy.”
Safeway, a member of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, has 110 stores in Greater Washington and is the area’s second largest grocer.
