Happy Earth Day!

On Friday, April 25, City Market is also partnering with Seventh Generation and Cabot Creamery to provide free, reusable tote bags at the registers for customers who would normally need a bag in celebration of Earth Week.  For this one celebratory day, City Market will not have paper and plastic bags available at the registers, in the hope that customers who receive a free, reusable bag will remember to bring them back on future visits to the Co-op.

“While giving away reusable bags is just a one day event, we hope that this helps more people remember reusable bags when they visit the Co-op.  Besides plastic water bottles, plastic bags are one of the worst offenders for our landfills,” said Pat Burns, General Manager.

City Market is also continuing its work to increase environmental sustainability this month by joining with the EPA’s GreenChill Partnership. The GreenChill Partnership is a voluntary program in which participants adopt greener refrigeration practices and protect the ozone layer, environment, and human health. Refrigerants used by supermarkets are potent global warming gases, up to 4,000 times more harmful to the climate than carbon dioxide. GreenChill Partners pledge to: transition to refrigerants that are less harmful to the ozone layer and climate system, reduce the amount of refrigerant they use and eliminate refrigerant leaks, and adopt green refrigeration technologies, strategies, and practices. If every supermarket achieved GreenChill standards, over the course of a year the supermarket industry could save more than $100 million in refrigerant costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an amount equal to the greenhouse gas emissions of 4.2 million cars (22 million metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent).

“Becoming a GreenChill Partner seemed like the right step for City Market to make in committing to serious reduction of our environmental impact,” commented Brent Demers, City Market Facilities Manager. “Not only will we be reducing the amount of harmful refrigerant emissions City Market produces, we’ll also be working to educate our staff and customers about how we can continue to increase our environmental sustainability.”

City Market actively works toward increasing the store’s environmental sustainability on a regular basis.  In 2013, City Market diverted 80% of its waste from landfills and increased the amount of composted waste by 42% through the use of new compost and waste bins and better signage for staff and customers. The Reverse Osmosis water machine (free for Co-op Members) helped customers divert over 650,000 20 ounce bottles of water, and the Co-op worked with Burlington Electric Department to install LED lighting throughout the store, which will lead to a 30% decrease in electricity consumption.