For the 10th year in a row, Nationwide Marketing Group (NMG) has received the 2024 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year: Sustained Excellence Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), making it the only company in the Retail category of the program to achieve this milestone. NMG has been recognized as an ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year for 17 years overall
“This is an honor that is a direct result of the attention and care our members show to the ENERGY STAR program and their passion to not only stock but also push their shoppers toward purchasing those products that are ENERGY STAR certified,” said Frank Sandtner, senior director of business and financial services for Nationwide. “We have, for years, understood the importance of the ENERGY STAR mission and their goal to promote a healthier, greener planet. It’s the buy-in from the rest of the independent channel that has helped us collectively achieve this recognition.”
The Partner of the Year: Sustained Excellence Award is the highest honor bestowed by the ENERGY STAR program. Winners are part of a distinguished group that has made a long-term commitment to fighting climate change and protecting public health through energy efficiency and are among the nation’s leaders in driving value for the environment, the economy and the American people.
Nationwide’s efforts to support the ENERGY STAR program date back nearly 30 years to when the EPA first introduced the blue mark. The promise of the program was championed within Nationwide and the broader independent retail channel by longtime Nationwide employee Rick Weinberg.
“We were fortunate that the Nationwide leadership, along with our members and vendor partners, recognized early on that the ENERGY STAR program and the energy efficiency story represented a tremendous opportunity for the independent retail channel,” says Weinberg, who retired at the end of 2022. “That opportunity, which has allowed our industry to grow over the past three decades, has since evolved into one of great importance to the consumers who hope to make an impact on the environment and the retailers and manufacturers who want to assist those consumers on their journey toward an energy-efficient home. What’s most encouraging, though, is that this journey is really only just beginning.”
Each year, the ENERGY STAR program honors a select group of businesses and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to energy efficiency and the transition to a clean energy economy. ENERGY STAR award winners lead their industries in producing, selling and adopting energy-efficient products, homes, buildings, services and strategies. These efforts have saved more than 5 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity over the past 30 years.
“President Biden’s Investing in America agenda creates an unprecedented opportunity to build a clean energy economy, and private sector partners through programs like ENERGY STAR are leading the way,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “I congratulate this year’s ENERGY STAR award winners for their innovation and leadership, in delivering cost-effective energy-efficient solutions that create jobs, address climate change and contribute to a healthier environment for all.”
Winners are selected from a network of thousands of ENERGY STAR partners. For a complete list of 2024 winners and more information about ENERGY STAR’s awards program, visit energystar.gov/awardwinners.
To learn more, visit nationwidegroup.org.
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