Discount Drug Mart, 33382 Walker Road in Avon Lake, recently made a change to its internal electrical system to make the store more environmentally friendly.
The store now sports a group of solar panels on the roof, according to Steve Ferris, director of government and public affairs for Discount Drug Mart.
The panels will take a large amount of fossil fuels and gas out of equation for the store, Ferris said.
“This is an initiative of ours, and this is the first step,” he said. “Obviously, going solar benefits the environment and decreases greenhouse gas emissions.
“I think the numbers that we heard (from) what we’re doing out there, is the equivalent of planting 600 trees every year and eliminating 50,000 pounds of coal.”
In addition to the company’s environmental initiative, the solar panel helps Discount Drug Mart save money on electricity.
While a significant investment, the solar panels will start to pay for themselves over their lifespan, Ferris said.
“Selfishly, going solar saves money, and it’s going to reduce our electric bills,” he said. “There is an initial investment, but over a period of time, over the 25- to 30-year lifespan of the solar panels, we expect to reduce our electric bills.”
Avon Lake’s location was the first of 78 Discount Drug Mart chain stores to receive the solar panel treatment, Ferris said.
The company has plans to add more over time, but the Avon Lake location roof installed earlier this year made it a prime candidate, he said.
“Avon Lake, we had just put a new roof on there, so it made sense to do it there,” Ferris said. “Our plan is to do this at stores, additional stores.
“It’s a significant investment; it’ll be sort of one at a time, one a year or something like that.”
Ferris said the Discount Drug Mart also received some help from Avon Lake Community Development director Ted Esborn on the new project.
The project has been in the works for the past few years, Ferris said.
“We’ve been having these conversations in the last few years, and we began to work with renewable energy companies,” he said. “Those conversations led to us wanting to do this in Avon Lake.
“We were told the new roof helps sort of in terms of installation.”
The Ohio-based Discount Drug Mart chain opened its first store in 1969 in Elyria.
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