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PROFILE RETAIL SUSTAINABILITY AWARD WAKEFERN/SHOPRITE
chain. “Sustainability goes back a long time support the local community,” he says.
with energy savings, and while we never talked much about sustainability, these measures evolved,” he says.
“Wakefern was very interested in helping me learn the business,” he says. “We have an engineering department that works closely with members and supports us with vendors, but it’s always up to the members; it’s their money and their deci- sion,” he emphasizes, “We’ll talk to other members to share best practices and assist each other. Often times, we work with repeat vendors. We have a lot of Glass Garden Stores in New Jersey, and we can always recommend suppliers,” he adds.
Glass Garden’s venture into solar panels involved more than two years of extensive research and cost benefit analyses. “We discussed and evaluated our findings with Wakefern executives, who were involved with other solar energy projects. The sharing of information put us on the road to the best systems and how to best finance them,” he says. “In 2009, we built a system through an outside vendor solar power finance agreement,” he says, noting, “Eventually, we chose to purchase the whole system ourselves. Glass Gardens looks at solar as a long-term investment.
“Our initial program pays off in seven years; in essence, we did it with certain benefits from the New Jersey State Energy Smart Program. The state works with us, and a good portion of the cost is actually supplied by the utility companies, which are encouraged to participate.”
The state provides a tax break for using more sustainable energy sources, he explains, and the utility is obligated to pay these renewable energy certificates. “We’re into the program since April/May of 2009 (five years now), and the costs have gone down. Many more companies got into the program, and the market is saturated by the amount of energy.”
The solar system Glass Gardens installed in 2009 has 1,666 panels — one of the largest solar energy systems in New Jersey, says Henning — covering about 70 percent of the roof. It produces about 350 kilowatts, and has reduced energy in the store by about 10 percent,” he says, adding, “Everything is under warranty for more than 25 years.”
Glass Gardens partnered with a local New Jersey company to install the system. “It’s nice to work with a family business and
interested, not only that we were doing business in town, but also helping the envi- ronment.”
The retailer also received funds from the
city and the community. “The city was
interested in our solar energy project and
already campaigning to reduce carbon
footprints, but we had to get their approval.
The town manager was working on these
programs for the county, and a big part of
the enterprise was informing the public,”
he continues. “We put up large banners in
the store, and our customers were very upfront and it takes along time to recoup
From a financial aspect, solar is still very expensive. Tax benefits were reduced substantially, according to Henning. “Even for home owners, there was a time when the state of New Jersey encouraged people to get on the solar panel bandwagon,” he says, adding, “Solar is a big investment
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