Piggly Wiggly’s Columbus store joins exclusive EPA GreenChill Platinum club

By Robert Davidson, Sep 11, 2015, 12:45 2 minute reading

The new Piggly Wiggly store opened 9 September, in Columbus, Georgia has been granted EPA GreenChill Platinum Certification for its installation of a CO2/NH3 cascade system, shunning HFCs and in the process becoming the tenth store to achieve the prestigious certification.

The Environmental Protection Agency GreenChill partnership has awarded certification to over 100 stores across the United States in four categories: Platinum, Gold, Silver or Bronze.

The addition of Piggly Wiggly’s Platinum store makes it just the tenth store in the U.S. to receive Greenchill’s highest accolade. The 35,763 square-foot store, located at Woodruff Farm in Georgia becomes the second GreenChill platinum-certified store in the state, the first being a Sprouts store which uses a CO2 transcritical refrigeration system.

JTM Corp., a Phoenix city-based company, which owns and operates the new Piggly Wiggly, noted that they have been working with Heatcraft and Lennox International to help install their natural refrigerant-based system.

CO2/NH3 cascade system ticks all the boxes for Piggly Wiggly

Due to the design of Piggly Wiggly’s CO2/NH3 cascade refrigeration system, the use of ammonia is minimised, with the total amount of ammonia used equating to 53 pounds (26.7 kg), all of which is confined to the roof of the supermarket.

As well as being environmentally friendly, this logistical placement eliminates the requirement of on-site engineers to monitor the system, lowering overall costs for maintenance. In addition to the improvements in safety and maintenance costs, the cascade system will also provide Piggly Wiggly with higher energy savings than a traditional HFC system.

As ammonia and CO2 are both natural refrigerants, the leak of harmful refrigerants from the system is negligible. It is dictated that GreenChill platinum-certified stores, amongst other criteria, must reduce the typical supermarket emissions of 1,000 pounds by 95%. Given the negligible global warming potential (GWP) of CO2 and ammonia, the Piggly Wiggly store has been able to reduce its emissions by over 99%.

A green store for the community to enjoy for years to come

Upon the opening of the new store, Tom Land, manager of the Washington, D.C. based EPA GreenChill Partnership congratulated Piggly Wiggly on their commitment to environmentally friendly technology:

“Piggly Wiggly’s commitment to achieve GreenChill certification standards for its new store proves that the company is serious about its role in protecting the ozone layer and preventing climate change… It is important that companies understand that helping the environment has become the business model of the future”

The installation of a CO2/NH3 system has also future-proofed the store against regulation changes due to the environmentally benign nature of natural refrigerants, meaning that the store will be immune from any potential HFC delistings or phasedowns.

This means Piggly Wiggly’s new store and its refrigeration system can continue to serve the community for years to come.


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By Robert Davidson

Sep 11, 2015, 12:45




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