Aldi earns EPA honors
Aldi has garnered recognition from the Environmental Protection Agency. The Batavia, Ill.-based discounter has received the 2020 Green Power Leadership Award, as well as a 2019 GreenChill Store Certification and a Re-Certification Excellence Award for several stores.
“We are proud to receive these honorable recognitions from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” said Aaron Sumida, Aldi vice president. “As one of America’s largest retailers, it’s important for ALDI to prioritize our adoption of green power usage across our operations, showing others that it’s an affordable, accessible choice that can help reduce air pollution and other emissions. We look forward to continuing our sustainability journey by taking intentional and strategic steps to make our stores and warehouses more environmentally friendly.”
The EPA’s annual Green Power Leadership Awards are part of the agency’s Green Power Partner recognition program, focused on celebrating leaders in green power use. Aldi was one of just four organizations who received this award for its efforts in advancing the U.S. renewable energy market.
“ALDI has prioritized its people, its communities and the environment since day one,” Sumida said. “We are dedicated to reducing our overall environmental impact. From recycling and using solar power to building environmentally friendly warehouses and stores, ALDI is committed to being a more sustainable business.”
Currently, Aldi uses more than 980 million kilowatt-hours of green power every year, enough to meet its entire organization’s electricity use. The company also ranks sixteenth on the EPA’s National Top 100 list of participating companies, sitting at No. 3 on the retailer list and No. 15 on the list of businesses using on-site renewables, based on overall renewable electricity use as of July 2020.
The GreenChill Partnership is focused on getting industries to shift toward environmentally friendly refrigerants while reducing emissions of harmful refrigerants and adopting green refrigeration technologies. Aldi’s Store Certification Excellence Award was given for achieving the most GreenChill store certifications in the past year. The Store Re-Certification Excellence award was for renewing GreenChill store certifications on certain New York locations for five consecutive years. As of December 2019. Aldi had more than 300 GreenChill-certified stores in the United States.
"For the second year in a row, ALDI has demonstrated their exceptional leadership in food retail refrigerant management," said Kirsten Cappel, GreenChill program manager. "In this annual recognition cycle, ALDI certified 331 stores all at the Platinum level — the highest possible certification. This achievement exemplifies the ALDI commitment to sustainable refrigeration management and the use of advanced refrigeration technologies that are better for the environment."