Grocer cuts carbon footprint
Whole Foods Market has set up shop in Fairfield with a unique fuel efficient model.
The Fairfield location opened its doors June 3 and joined Greenwich, Darien, Westport and Milford as the Fairfield County towns that host Whole Foods Market locations. It is the eighth in the state. The most unique feature of the 45,000-square-foot location is the UTC Power fuel cell that will provide 90 percent of the store”™s energy.
Behind the Whole Foods location sits a PureCell System model 400. The 400 kilowatt fuel cell system”™s byproduct thermal energy will be used for store heating, cooling and refrigeration. Fairfield is the fourth Whole Foods Market in the United States to install a South Windsor-based UTC Power fuel cell.
“We are truly proud to be reducing our carbon footprint,” said Tristam Coffin, green mission specialist for Whole Foods Market”™s Northeast region. “UTC Power has been a great partner in implementing our fuel cells to help us reduce our environmental impact.”
The UTC Power fuel cell installed at the Fairfield store was supported with a grant from the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund through its On-Site Renewable Distributed Generation program.
“Because supermarkets consume a lot of heat and electricity, they provide a great application for fuel cells,” said Bryan Garcia, president of the Clean Energy Fund. “By utilizing both the thermal and power attributes of fuel cells, energy is used more efficiently and therefore contributes to the bottom line of the company.”
The store anticipates being able to prevent the release of more than 847 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, about equivalent of planting more than 85 acres of trees and save nearly 3.5 million gallons of water through reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
“We are taking a hydrogen source, which now is a natural gas, breaking the molecule apart, taking that hydrogen, combining it with oxygen in the air and making water,” said Willis McCullough, vertical market manager at UTC Power. “When you make water you get electricity and heat. We are doing more with less.”
The Austin-based grocer”™s Fairfield store has achieved a gold LEED certification and will be the first location in the north east to feature in-store “cooking” department, part of the new Whole Foods store model.
The Cooking Fairfield has designated workspaces, cookbooks, cooking tools, demonstrations and instruction areas as well as freestanding touch-screen tablet kiosks to aid customers.
The store will also feature an outdoor fish stand, where shoppers can buy seafood without entering the store. The location also has a 190-seat patio near the prepared foods section with free Wi-Fi and a children”™s playground.
The store, which neighbors Home Depot, is at 350 Grasmere Ave. in a newly constructed building. The buildingӪs stone fa̤ade is made of stones blasted from the hillside on which it sits.
Later this year the market will be joined by a neighboring building which will house a Chipotle Mexican Grill, a Five Guys Burgers and Fries, a CVS pharmacy and a bank. The two new retail developments will share a parking lot.
Five percent of the total sales for opening day were donated to Wholesome Wave, a Fairfield-based nonprofit organization that promotes access to healthy and affordable locally grown food in underinvested communities.