Whole Foods to Triple Stores Powered with Solar Energy

[jpak]

http://www.solarbuzz.com/News/NewsNAPR1474.htm

Whole Foods Market is to triple the number of stores with solar panels, extending its commitment to offset 100 percent of its use of non-renewable electricity and investing in energy reduction opportunities while retrofitting existing stores with energy efficient lighting, equipment and mechanical components.

"Whole Foods Market is thrilled to set the environmental bar even higher by pioneering the development and deployment of alternative energy sources such as solar and wind power," said Lee Matecko, Whole Foods Market Global Vice President of Construction and Store Development. "We are also reducing energy consumption in new and existing stores with some exciting innovative technologies that are making a real difference."

Whole Foods Market recently contracted to add solar to more than 20 locations; including existing installations, solar will be brought to the rooftops of more than 30 of the Company's stores nationwide.

With an installation at its Berkeley, Calif., store in 2002, the Company became the first retailer to introduce solar power as its primary lighting source.

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[luvspeas]

1. Big frickin deal...

30 stores with solar! Whole Foods has 288 stores with another 42 stores in development. They are notorious union busters, and they have one of the worst track records in terms of community giving. They won't even give left over food to the local food banks. If I remember correctly, their foundations only give about 5 million a year (that's a generous over estimate). Last time I saw Mackey (remember him? he's the guy that used a false identity to discredit Wild Oats so he could run them down to buy them), he was all over the guy from Wal-mart talking about how much they had changed and how environmentally conscious they had become.

Please don't be dazzled by the hype and shop your local Co-op instead.