Sprouts Farmers Market’s Round Rock, Texas store yesterday became the first in the state to earn the EPA’s GreenChill Gold-Level Store Award for green refrigeration technology.

The Round Rock store is one of just 13 in the nation to achieve gold certification from the GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership, a voluntary business-government program managed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The partnership’s chief goal is to reduce emissions of refrigerants that damage the Earth’s protective ozone layer and contribute to global warming.

“Sprouts Farmers Market shares the EPA’s commitment to decreasing refrigerant emissions through innovative refrigeration design and leak-tight practices in our existing and future stores,” said Jerry Stutler, VP of construction and facility engineering at Sprouts. “We are committed to being an environmentally conscious neighbor and grocer.”

To achieve “gold” certification, a store must meet stringent environmental criteria, including the following steps:

—Using refrigerants that don’t damage the Earth’s protective ozone layer
—Reducing the size of its refrigerant charge by at least 65 percent from the industry average
—Reducing annual refrigerant emissions to 15 percent or less of total store capacity
—Testing refrigeration systems for adherence to GreenChill’s leak-tightness guidelines

Phoenix-based Sprouts, which has 44 stores in four states, joined the GreenChill partnership last May.