Get Energy Smart! NOW!

When I hop onto my bike early in the morning because we’re out of coffee or need some bread, a Giant Food grocery store is the closest option. The store recently went through a renovation and is amid a “grand opening”. Wandering through this store, however, makes this author’s head spin contrasting the store’s realities with Giant’s “green store” statement:

In 2007, we were the only supermarket chain selected by the U.S. Green Building Council (which develops and administers the nationally accepted LEED-EB standard for green buildings) to participate in a program for retailers integrating “green” technology into existing buildings.

• Green Products — We offer a variety of “green” household and cleaning products in our stores.
• Star Power! — Giant was named an ENERGY STAR LEADER in 2007 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a result of our success in improving energy performance across our buildings.
• Energy Efficient Attributes — We were recognized for energy-efficient day lighting, T5 florescent lighting systems, automatic occupancy sensors, and refrigeration systems with high-efficiency fan motors.
• Greenhouse Gas — Energy use in refrigeration and food storage is necessary to provide safe, fresh quality food, so we’ve been working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in our stores, distribution centers and transport.
• Energy Saving Innovations — Newer stores are designed with reflective roofs, which reduce heat absorption and use less air conditioning in the summer, and special dimming systems that dim lights based on the amount of daylight harvested.
• Partners in Power — We partnered with energy solutions developer EnerNOC, Inc., to help reduce stress on the electric power grid during high peak demand to help reduce power consumption and prevent blackouts.

Have to say, this looks pretty impressive … “energy efficient attributes”, “working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions”, and so on, this looks truly great. And, “great” matters because grocery stores are a ripe arena for major and fast payback energy efficiency investments.

Grocery stores and supermarkets represent one of the largest and most important customer segments in the energy services marketplace. There are approximately 127,000 grocery stores and supermarkets in the United States, with combined annual sales of over $425 billion. After labor costs, energy expenditures are the leading operating expense for most supermarkets and grocery stores.

a 10 percent reduction in energy costs for a supermarket facility can translate into as much as an eight percent increase in gross profit!

Looking at the Giant food website would lead one to believe that the Corporation was on the leading edge of that wave seeking increased profits with greater energy efficiency.

Walking the newly renovated Giant Food store, however, drives a quite different and, let us say, chilling conclusion.

• Open refrigerated sections: While the milk shelves and most (not all) frozen food shelves are behind doors, the store is filled with open refrigerated areas that make it extremely uncomfortable to walk the aisles in shorts (which are certainly the preferred biking outfit on 90 degree day). Wal-Mart has found that closing refrigerated sections behind doors drives a 70% reduction in the energy demand and significant reduced spoilage of refrigerated foods. Remember: refrigeration is the #1 energy demand in the grocery store business.
• No sky lights: Like most grocery stores, this is a one-level warehouse like space, with simply a roof (yes, it seems to be white roofed) between the store area and the sky. This space is lighted with fluorescent lights (hopefully, as per the Giant statement, energy efficient ones). Sadly, however, Giant Food didn’t invest in putting in integrated skylights that combine sunlight with fluorescents to maintain a constant level of lighting. Again, the contrast is stark with Wal-Mart, where the integrated lighting saves — on average — $250 per store, per day, in reduced electricity use. And, by the way, provides better light with higher employee morale and better sales than a store without such lights.

These are just two examples of where Giant Food’s store renovation fell far short of the website claims, left profits on the table, and unnecessarily increase the carbon footprint of my morning bowl of cereal.

And, from a shareholder’s perspective, Giant Food’s failure to live up to the promise of their website claims is leaving $s on the table in terms of higher utility bills, wasted food, and less congenial environment driving lower profits. Simply put, lower profits and higher pollution simply doesn’t seem like a winning business plan to me.

To a larger picture …

One of the theme songs for those who see solutions for our climate change challenges is making green by going green. The opportunities are there, ripe fruit on low-hanging branches waiting to harvest, for businesses to improve their profitability while cutting their carbon footprint. There are a myriad of no-brainers out there … yet, every moment, we have fruit rotting on the ground as businesses fail to take advantage of highly profitable opportunities right under their noses.

This post is not meant to be a paean to Wal-Mart as, to be clear, there are many serious problems with Wal-Mart from its impact on local communities (small businesses) to the sustainability of its overall business model (bring in cheap things from China, that won’t last long, and need to be replaced often; have to drive to the store; etc …) to how Wal-Mart treats their workers to … Yet, putting aside any question of altruism or even ‘green-washing’ or whether their organics are really organic, from a very hard-bitten, green-eye shade perspective, Wal-Mart has discovered that they can improve their bottom line via aggressive management of their energy use and aggressive investment in energy efficiency. Forget about whether it is good for the environment, it is good for their bottom line … and, therefore, their shareholders.

Now, clearly, this author cares deeply about that environmental impact … but the point is that one doesn’t need someone to care about the environment or even to acknowledge the science of climate change to bring to the table smart practices that can help to reduce America’s fossil-foolish addictions and mitigate climate change. In this arena, grocery stores, smart business practice should drive “making green by going green”.

P.S.: Look again at that Giant Food Recycling and Environment page quoted above. 2007 … hmmm … three years ago and not updated? Energy efficiency is often referred to as low-hanging fruit that is constantly growing back in a process of continuous improvement and continuous discovery/creation of new opportunities. Is Giant resting on its 2007 laurels or is there continuous improvement required simply of its website?

Now, as with any “this is my first-hand experience” perspective, there certainly could be steps that Giant Food is taking that are making steps toward greater energy efficiency and increased sustainability (or, well, less unsustainability) … above are two stark examples that stare this writer in the face whether he enters this newly renovated store.

By the way, look to their summer 2010 promotion as a sign of Giant Food’s commitment to sustainability and the environment: for ever $100 purchased, Giant customers get a discount of 10 cents per gallon of gas purchased at a Shell station. Yes, shop with us and we’ll make it cheaper for you to pollute.