FEBRUARY 2019 Solar Tompkins awarded Purity Ice Cream its first HeatSmart Award for Outstanding Earth Stewardship
Solar Tompkins, according to Jonathan Comstock, director of HeatSmart Tompkins, created the Earth Stewardship award to help get the word out about how heat pumps and related technologies can reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Purity co-owner Bruce Lane has long been committed to making the business as green as possible. He was one of the first commercial property owners in Ithaca to install a PV system on the roof and he has retrofitted the store with LED lighting and high efficiency windows. Knowing how much energy ice cream operations consume, he saw ground source heat pumps as the logical next step. Not only have the heat pumps dramatically reduced Purity's greenhouse gas emissions, but they have also increased the comfort of both customers and employees.
"Geothermal is almost like magic," Lane marveled. "Most of the energy for heating comes from the earth and is available for free. And cooling with geothermal is so inexpensive that we could even afford to air-condition the kitchens, something that restaurants rarely do because of the cost."
