Addressing Refrigerant Emissions in Food Retail

Driven by new sustainability goals and evolving cooling technology, grocery and convenience retailers are reimagining their strategy behind refrigeration, investing in and implementing refrigerants with lower global warming potential (GWP). The overhauling of commercial and industrial refrigeration equipment has become a focal point as operators stand up more aggressive corporate sustainability initiatives.

Commonly used in commercial refrigeration, Hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants (HFCs) are powerful greenhouse gases that trap thousands of times more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide and are growing faster than any other greenhouse gas on the planet, according to the North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council.

Certainly, the grocery industry is moving quickly toward more sustainable refrigeration. But a new report from the green group Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) shows that while grocers are making an effort to address refrigerant emissions in the United States, little has been done in terms of actual results.

The EIA’s bi-annual Climate-Friendly Supermarkets Scorecard shows that of the 16 companies graded on technology adoption, refrigerant management and policy and commitments, only three—Aldi, Target, and Whole Foods—were given passing scores.

While there is still much to be done, tackling HFCs is an important strategy as the convenience-store industry as a whole takes steps toward reducing its carbon footprint.

The following sections speak to both the current status of HFC reduction in foodservice retail, and also new products that are being developed that can help in that mitigation.