Festival Foods storefront

Go Green with Festival Foods

There are hundreds of different ways to give back to the environment — from planting a tree to recycling to learning more about the world around us or shopping for locally grown produce.

Festival Foods is committed to environmental sustainability. Our company has taken a variety of steps to reduce our carbon footprint by investing in new, energy-efficient technology and repurposing local trees for a new store. For us, going green is a given, and we work to stay environmentally friendly in a variety of ways.

Take a look at our green initiatives, which vary throughout our stores.

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Keeping It Cool

Festival Foods takes great pride in providing fresh items in a variety of places in our stores, and that means we need quality equipment.

70%

less electricity used

You’ll find LED lights in all refrigerated display cases, cooler and freezer boxes and prep areas. We also have LED track lighting in our Bakery and Produce departments.

80%

more efficient

We have hundreds of cooler and freezer cases that have doors — these are 80 percent more efficient than open-air cases.

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Motion sensors with dimming controls on all cooler door lights save more energy than a light switch.

  • Festival Foods uses heat recovery from refrigeration systems for space heating. Need hot water? The heat is recycled from the refrigeration system!
  • Our refrigeration system has electronically commutated motors (ECMs), which use 60 percent less electricity than the industry-standard motor.
  • We’ve got refrigeration-control and leak-detection systems in place. That means leaks are immediately detected and fixed.
  • We use cutting-edge, ultra-low ozone depleting refrigerants (R-448A), which have the lowest global warming potential (GWP) of any other manufactured refrigerant. This refrigerant is 10–15% more efficient than the industry-standard.

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Eco-Friendly Equipment

You can find small ways we ‘go green’ in just about every area of the store. From our grocery carts made with recycled plastic to energy-efficient lighting, many of our stores run on eco-friendly equipment.

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We use Orion Solar Light Pipes in many of our stores, which significantly cut power usage of overhead lighting during the day — dimming when they detect sunlight.

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Only the best for our guests — we use Energy Star Certified Appliances in all departments when available.

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Wobbly wheels, loud noises and broken handles are a thing of the past. The best part? Our grocery carts are made with recycled plastic and are 100% recyclable.

  • Our sinks use low flow spray valves, which means using 20 percent less water.
  • Motion sensor lights with dimming controls in our offices and restrooms help reduce energy consumption.
  • Recycled material is endless! All of our stainless steel sinks and tables are recycled stainless steel.
  • We have a building energy management system, with HVAC controls to efficiently heat and cool the building. High efficiency fans placed throughout each of our stores circulate air to give you a comfortable shopping experience while also reducing energy from our heating and energy system.
  • We proudly install LED parking lot lights and in-store lights at all of our new locations. We are working to achieve 100% energy saving LED lights to our existing stores across the state.
  • We use non-CFC urethane insulation in walk-in panels.
  • All of our steel shelves are 30 percent recycled steel. Talk about some sturdy shelving!
  • Clean up is made easy with solar powered garbage compactors.

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Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.

Festival Foods doesn’t just think about saving energy and reducing our carbon footprint inside our stores, we’re looking outside our wall and into our communities as well.

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Grab a reusable, biodegradable cloth bag. We’ll give you a 5¢ discount when you bring it back in to shop.

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We love giving back! Our Bakery and Produce departments regularly donate to local food pantries, helping out our communities and minimizing food waste.

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No food is garbage, which is why we're composting produce in many of our stores.

  • We recycle cardboard, lots of it. More than 8,000 tons were recycled in 2016. Our cardboard also stays local and is used in local paper mills to create their products.
  • Have an eco-friendly car? Charge it up at our electric car charging stations located at some of our locations.
  • Soak up the sun! The Festival Foods sign outside of our Madison store is solar powered.
  • Our light colored roofs reflect up to 90 percent of UV rays and are manufactured with 50 percent less fossil fuel.
  • Recycle your cardboard, aluminum cans or plastic bags! Pro tip: Make a purse out of your bags!
  • We’re keeping it clean! We don’t sealcoat our parking lots, which reduces our carbon footprint and minimizes harmful chemicals from being used.
  • The ‘good stuff’ doesn’t just end with a delicious meal. Grease from our deli and bakery Departments is recycled and used for alternative environmentally friendly fuels.
  • Take a break on one of our park benches, some are made from recycled plastic grocery bags!
  • The dishwashers in the bakery and the deli reuse 60 percent of the water from the rinse cycle in the next wash.