Princeton, N.J., and Austin, Texas —Whole Foods Market has teamed up with NRG Energy, Inc., the country’s leading integrated competitive power company, to install rooftop solar at up to 84 Whole Foods stores and distribution centers across nine states to generate renewable energy onsite.
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Indio, Calif. — Dickey’s Barbecue Pit plans to open its 100th California location and has begun rolling out new eco-friendly initiatives. Dickey’s already has more than 530 locations in 43 states. After Texas, the state of California has the most Dickey’s locations with new stores opening every week across the state.
Fremont, Calif. — The 100th EVgo Freedom Station in California is now open and is the nation’s largest publicly-available multi-standard fast charging site. Located in the hottest electric vehicle (EV) adoption area of the country, the Lucky Fremont location features four 50kW DC Fast Chargers equipped with CHAdeMO and DC Fast Combo; the station is also pre-wired for as many as four more chargers, which can be added in just days as demand requires.
Cincinnati — According to its recently released 2015 Sustainability Report, Kroger has reduced overall energy consumption in its stores by 35%. The company saved 2.4 billion kWh of power, which is the carbon equivalent of taking 334,000 cars off the road for a year.
Emeryville, Calif. — IKEA has officially ‘flipped the switch’ on a fuel cell system installed at its retail location in Emeryville, Calif. The project represents the first IKEA endeavor globally to convert biogas into electricity through a clean electro-chemical process.
Spokane, Wash. — Ecova, a total energy and sustainability management company, has been selected by Houston-based Mattress Firm to help the company reduce waste-related costs and improve environmental performance. Ecova will consult with the retailer on monitoring and reducing waste at approximately 630 locations.
Conshohocken, Pa. — IKEA plans to install a fuel cell system manufactured by Bloom Energy at its location in Emeryville, Calif., which is one of two San Francisco-area stores for the Sweden-based home furnishings retailer. The fuel cell system will be installed, commissioned and activated by summer 2015.