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“ Seven out of ten stores now use natural refrigerants that don ’ t harm the ozone layer ,” says John . “ Truth be told , the supermarket industry is probably one of the biggest contributors to global warming .
DeCicco & Sons relies on a sturdy network of vendors
“ So , having supermarkets across the country change to a natural refrigerant needs to be done , and fortunately , we ’ re seeing more and more businesses jump on board with that .
“ We ’ ve added heat recovery to heat our stores and make hot water for our systems . We added solar panels to the roofs of our new stores and we ’ re trying to become as carbon-neutral as possible . We ’ re also trying to reduce singleuse paper bags and switch our customers to reusable bags .
“ Furthermore , we ’ re looking at using recyclable and compostable containers that are made from post-consumer material – that ’ s the next big initiative we ’ re working on currently ,” John explains .
Community-minded
The business is also proud of its community support and donates one percent of its sales to local schools and other communities in which it operates . John shares that the company also participates in a few fundraising events throughout the year .
“ We just completed an initiative for multiple sclerosis , where we
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