Grocery chain seeks to cut energy use

The produce section isn't the only place to go "œgreen" at ALDI Foods these days. The grocery chain has been making a concerted effort to develop new stores that are energy efficient, as well as making some changes to older locations to do the same.

Aldi Foods has a store at 932 E. State St. in Athens, though it lacks some of the "œgreen" innovations of some of the chain's newer stores.

The ALDI media arm says that the business is committed to sustainable and environmentally friendly initiatives that help conserve natural resources while maintaining high quality and low costs.

Matt Thon, director of store operations at ALDI Foods for Southeast Ohio, said the company is changing around both the way it builds news stores and handles changes to old buildings.

"The refrigeration system, and the heating and air system, recycles its components," Thon said. "There's a lot of different things we're doing from a refrigeration standpoint [to have cold and heat] counteract each other. If one thing is heating up to make something cool, then take that heat and heat the store. Or vice versa."

A document provided by the company's media group says that the ALDI model helps conserve energy and reduce the carbon footprint. "For example, ALDI's small stores require less energy and land to operate, and we reduce waste with biodegradable materials and recycle 100 percent of the packing used to deliver products to each of our stores," it states.

ALDI also takes an environmental approach to what they call one of the biggest grocery-related polluters "“ bags. At ALDI, customers can bring their own bag or opt to purchase a reusable, long-lasting ALDI bag, which they say saves both money and precious resources. This has been a part of the ALDI business practice since opening in 1976, and many other chains have followed suit in the intervening years, by encouraging shoppers to bring their own reusable bags.

"I see little old ladies that come in with bags that they've had since 15 designs ago "“ our old coloring, our old logo," Thon said. "So I think just some of the regular ways we do business are more energy efficient, more friendly to the environment, and more cost effective to both us and the consumer."

Thon said that ALDI is now also offering an eco-friendly bag for customers.

"It's quite a large bag, and obviously very much reusable," he said. "It should last quite a long time for customers. It's the type of thing they can buy once, and they should be done for 10 years or so."

He said even ALDI's plastic bags, while not environmentally friendly in and of themselves, are made to be used repeatedly.

Thon pointed out that in other grocery stores bags are not truly free but the cost is included in the cost of the products. At ALDI, however, he said that giving the customer the option of purchasing the bags both helps the environment and keeps the cost of the products on the shelves down.

ALDI opened its first "green" store in 2008, followed by a second in Middletown, Ohio in 2009.

ALDI green stores feature a number of energy-efficient mechanisms. First is the energy-management system referenced above that controls lighting, temperature and defrost cycles.

"This is actually a computer system that is in all of our new stores that monitors and tracks all of our energy usage, our lighting and the temperature in our stores, and uses it appropriately for the time or the need that it has," Thon said.

Skylights allow for natural lighting, and restroom partitions are made of recycled material. Thon said that this has been installed in a couple stores.

The company uses energy-friendly "Xcelerator" hand dryers in the restrooms, as well as motion-sensor quick flush toilets and faucets. Also, LED lighting is installed in all refrigeration cases and signage.

The company has installed motion sensors in all of its stores to dim lights when no movement is detected.