Our Austin-area stores use 39 million kWh of renewable power each year. That's enough to power 3,240 Austin homes each year.
San Antonio stores receive between 10% and 35% of their electrical power (25 million kWh) each year from renewable sources. That's enough to power an additional 2,000 homes annually.
Refrigerated case fans in several stores are being modified with energy efficient fans. Energy savings amount to over 50% per fan.
138 H-E-B stores have received the ENERGY STAR label. Stores that have earned the label demonstrate excellent energy management performance and generally use 35% less energy than other facilities in the same category.
Four stores have achieved LEED® (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) green building certification, and many LEED criteria are met by our design standards for new stores.
215 stores are being fitted with Night Blinds for open refrigerated cases to retain cooled air over night.
Energy management systems that replace traditional thermostats with centralized electric controls will reduce our energy use by almost 8% per store, per year.
Since 2000 our utility usage per square foot has been reduced by 13.3 kWh/SF—or 18.9%.
Lighting
- We use energy efficient fluorescent high-bay light fixtures that will reduce harmful carbon dioxide from the air by more than 29 million pounds.
- Lighting in our freezer and display cases as well as half of the interior lights turn off at closing.
- Our outdoor H-E-B signs have been refitted with LED lights. In San Antonio alone, this saved 13 million kWh per year.
- We replaced all of the fluorescent light bulbs in our corporate headquarters with high efficiency T8 bulbs that typically use 32% less energy than regular bulbs. To save even more electricity, we installed occupancy sensors that automatically turn off the lights when no one is in the room.
Landscaping
- The landscaping at our stores is designed to conserve water, filter run-off water, and promote native plant life. We use a large percentage of drought resistant and native plants meeting or exceeding local requirements for use of those types of plants in landscaping.
Equipment and materials
- The steel we use in our buildings is produced with a minimum of 65% recycled content. Our wallboard is made from recycled materials, and we also use highly energy efficient heating and air conditioning units and ENERGY STAR compliant roofing material in all new stores.
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