Shaw’s Star Market at Chestnut Hill in Newton, Mass., yesterday became the first grocery store in the nation to receive the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenChill Partnership platinum store award for its advanced refrigeration technology, which cuts the use of refrigerants by 85 percent compared with the typical supermarket, according to EPA.

“Supermarkets and their customers know that it’s cool to earn the EPA’s GreenChill Store certification, but the only way to describe the first platinum-level GreenChill supermarket in the nation is ‘wicked cool,’” said Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, using the well-known New England expression. “This store shows that smart design and advanced technologies help us right now to better protect our climate, the ozone layer and our health.”

The GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership is an EPA cooperative alliance with the supermarket industry to promote advanced technologies, strategies, and practices that reduce refrigerant charges and emissions of ozone-depleting substances and greenhouse gases.

GreenChill partners emit about 50 percent fewer emissions than the industry average, and have pledged to continually lower them as part of the program. EPA estimates that if every supermarket in the nation joined GreenChill and reduced emissions to the current GreenChill average, the U.S. would prevent 22 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and 240 tons of ozone-depleting substances annually, and save $108 million in refrigerant costs each year. GreenChill has 46 partners, with more than 6,500 retail food stores, in 47 states.

For more information on the GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership, visit www.epa.gov/greenchill.