Raley’s Supermarkets said Tuesday it is close to completing the rollout of a new environmentally friendly cleaning and sanitation program.
The program is designed to save approximately 4 million gallons of water, lower energy consumption by 7.5-million kilowatt hours, save 100 tons in shipping materials and reduce labor by over 23,000 hours a year, the West Sacramento, Calif.-based company said.
Implementation, which began at the end of 2014, is scheduled to be rolled out to all stores by the end of April, Raley's noted.
“The program is just one of the ways we are leveraging innovation to help us reduce our overall environmental impact," said Megan Burritt, the chain’s director of wellness and sustainability. "New solutions help us achieve significant water and energy savings and meaningful shipping and waste reductions.”
Toni Hofer, Raley’s senior manager of food safety, quality assurance and retail compliance, added, “Ensuring that we provide our customers the cleanest and safest shopping experience possible is critical to what we do at Raley’s.

"[This] program helps make cleaning easier and faster for our team members, which not only translates into saving on labor and utilities but also ensures we have as much time as possible throughout the day to focus on serving our customers in the safest way possible.”
The program was developed by Ecolab, St. Paul, Minn., which said Raley’s is the first North American retailer to implement its entire offering that focuses on simplifying food safety processes to ensure proper cleaning and delivering operational savings through the use of less labor, water, energy and waste.