May 27 2009

Fresh Choice Makes a Smart Climate Choice

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

For energy consumers who want to go green and save money at the same time, there's no better way than investing in energy efficiency. But when you've squeezed out every kilowatt of savings, what then? The logical next step is to reduce your remaining carbon footprint by enrolling in PG&E's ClimateSmart™ program, which lets its customers support environmental projects that balance out the greenhouse gas emissions from their home or business energy consumption.

Fresh Choice, a restaurant chain based in the East Bay city of Newark, believes that promoting good health through fresh, wholesome food goes hand-in-hand with protecting the health of the planet. It recently enrolled in the ClimateSmart program to augment the environmental benefit of its many energy-saving investments.

With 28 restaurants and a central kitchen in Northern California, Fresh Choice lights, heats and cools nearly 140,000 square feet of restaurant space for up to 12 hours a day. Regional Director Elena Fortuna said, "Our continuous energy improvement plan includes implementing the most energy efficient lighting, heating, cooling and cooking equipment in our restaurants and evaluating our production systems to maximize our energy efficiency."

Having already taken advantage of many of PG&E's energy efficiency solutions, Fresh Choice was looking to do even more to minimize its impact on the environment. With the money it is saving in monthly natural gas and electricity bills, Fresh Choice decided to balance out its remaining monthly energy usage through PG&E's ClimateSmart program.

By enrolling in the ClimateSmart program, Fresh Choice now makes voluntary, charitable contributions that fund greenhouse gas capture and reduction projects, such as forest preservation programs, that make its Northern California restaurants' energy usage carbon neutral.

By joining the program, Fresh Choice will offset more than 8.8 million pounds of greenhouse gases every year, equivalent to taking 731 cars off the road each year. The company will donate approximately $43,000 annually to balance out the carbon emissions produced by its restaurants' energy use.

Fresh Choice CEO Sandy Boyd calls the program a simple, local solution to a global problem: "The ClimateSmart program is an easy solution to an ongoing problem. Our contributions not only balance out our restaurants' greenhouse gas emissions, but also help preserve the environment for future generations."

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