Owning Earth Day

This just slid across my inbox, a news release touting Fresh & Easy's Earth Day initiatives. From the release:

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market today announced a series of initiatives in celebration of Earth Day. On Tuesday, the company plans to give away reusable “bags for life” at all Fresh & Easy stores and unveil a dedicated green building Web page. The company also announced it recently joined a national greenhouse gas disclosure group, The Climate Registry, as a “founding reporter.”

Bag for Life. In celebration of Earth Day, Fresh & Easy will bag customers’ groceries in reusable “bags for life” for free on Tuesday. The “bag for life” is larger and more durable than a standard grocery bag and, if damaged, the company will replace the bag for free, forever. These bags are made with recycled material and are 100% recyclable. Fresh & Easy offers its customers two different types of reusable bags, including a $2.50 canvas bag and the plastic “bag for life,” which retails for $.20.

Green Building Web Page. On Tuesday, Fresh & Easy will also launch a Web page dedicated to the company’s green building initiatives. The site will highlight Fresh & Easy’s green building practices and incorporate a real time green energy meter from its 500,000 sq. ft. solar panel on its Riverside, CA distribution center. The installation was built by Solar Integrated, a Los Angeles company, and is one of the largest of its kind in the world. The solar panels power about 30% of the energy used at the entire facility. www.freshandeasy.com/greenbuilding

The Climate Registry. Fresh & Easy has joined The Climate Registry (TCR), an organization that builds and expands the greenhouse gas measurement and accounting work of the California Climate Action Registry, a California-based voluntary greenhouse gas reporting organization of which Fresh & Easy is already a member. TCR extends a common carbon footprint reporting standard across North America. For more information on TCR, please visit www.theclimateregistry.org.

“We all have a responsibility to put thought into our impact on the environment,” said CEO Tim Mason. “At Fresh & Easy, we take this responsibility seriously, and strive to be good stewards of the environment. Collectively, we all can make a big difference.”

Fresh & Easy is also partnering with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) to demonstrate its commitment to build energy efficient and sustainable buildings. www.usgbc.org\LEED

More information on Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market can be found at www.freshandeasy.com.