If you have Wegmans Food Markets as your customer, get over to their marketing department and talk to them about all the ways you can help make their printed products - whether packaging, signage, or marketing materials - more environmentally friendly. If Wegman's isn't your customer, no worries. There are hundreds of grocers - and other retailers - who are searching for environmentally friendly solutions, including green printing. Wegmans, a 71-store East coast supermarket chain headquartered in Rochester NY, has adopted a number of strategies to reduce the carbon footprint of its stores. The list below is a great "shopping list" that can provide inspiration for your next green project. Completion of a new store in Henrietta NY included a number of initiatives; some new, others have been in place for many years:

Construction Recycling: As the new Henrietta store was being built, Wegmans recycled 223 tons of construction scrap -- primarily wood, steel, stone and concrete, as well as the cardboard in which equipment was packaged. LED lighting: Wherever practical, LED lighting has replaced less energy-efficient forms of illumination - in insulated doors of some freezer and dairy cases and in the big Wegmans sign on the outside of the store. High-efficiency fluorescent fixtures: High-efficiency fluorescent light bulbs have been used, rather than metal halide lights, to save energy. Glycol as a coolant: The Henrietta store, like all new Wegmans stores, uses environmentally-friendly glycol in medium temperature refrigerated cases. Green Acres: More than half of the new Henrietta store's 30-acre site is devoted to green space;  15.5 acres is covered with expansive lawns, wildflowers, 250 trees, 1,600 shrubs, 2,600 annual plants and a retention pond. Recycling: Company-wide, for example, in 2007 Wegmans recycled 3 million pounds of plastic bags and plastic wrapping material. Heat reclamation: The heat generated by refrigeration equipment, which would otherwise escape into the atmosphere, is captured and used to make hot water in stores, offsetting the energy needed to heat water. Rainwater: All Wegmans' parking lots are designed to capture rainwater and divert it to either underground holding tanks or retention ponds that are part of site landscaping. Food: Local food banks in each market area receive day-old bread, not-quite-perfect produce, and dairy products approaching their "sell by" date.  In 2007, Wegmans donated over 16 million pounds of food to food pantries across all its market areas.