September 19

Thrifty Foods Tuscany Village: Vancouver Island's First Carbon-Neutral Grocery Store

Victoria, BC, September 19, 2007 - - - "Thrifty Foods will completely offset the greenhouse gas produced by our new Tuscany Village store," said Milford Sorensen, President and CEO, at the Grand Opening Ceremony for Thrifty Foods' newest grocery store, located in Tuscany Village on McKenzie Avenue in Victoria.

In partnership with Tree Canada, Thrifty Foods will plant 1,500 trees along the boulevard on McKenzie Ave. in the vicinity of Blenkinsop Rd., and streamside plantings along Mt. Douglas Creek in Mt. Douglas Park. This is enough trees to retire the carbon emissions that will likely be generated by the store. This makes Thrifty Foods Tuscany Village the second carbon-neutral grocery store in Canada. The first was Thrifty Foods Coquitlam that opened in 2006.

Planting trees may sound simple, but it's also a sound strategy to combat the effects of global warming through "carbon sequestration." That's just a fancy way of saying that planting trees, shrubs or other green, growing things increases the absorption of carbon dioxide and the production of oxygen, which occurs as a nice side benefit when plants turn light into energy. "We thank Tree Canada for helping us determine how to offset our own carbon emissions and we encourage others to do the same," said Sorensen.

"We are proud that Thrifty Foods has chosen Tree Canada to help it lessen its carbon footprint," said Michael Rosen, R.P.F, Tree Canada President. "We urge other companies, suppliers and individuals to follow Thrifty Foods' example and offset their operating emissions by planting trees with us."

Tree Canada is a charitable organization established to encourage Canadians to plant and care for trees in urban and rural environments. To date, Tree Canada has engaged more than 60 Canadian companies and government agencies to support the planting of more than 75 million trees, the greening of more than 400 schoolyards, seven national urban forestry conferences, and other efforts to sensitize Canadians to the benefits of planting and maintaining trees. More information about Tree Canada is available at www.treecanada.ca.

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For more information, please contact:

Suzanne Valiquet
Communications, Tree Canada
Tel: (613) 567-5545 Ext.224
Email: svaliquet@treecanada.ca

Charity Hobbs
Communications Coordinator, Thrifty Foods
Tel: (250) 483-1659
Email: chobbs@thriftyfoods.com