According to a recent article by Joel Makower, Executive Editor at GreenBuzz, the EPA launched The GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership with ten large supermarkets and suppliers in late November. Refrigeration consumes massive amounts of energy for retailers and brands and the writer of the article on Greenbiz.com wrote that “someone once told me that Wal-Mart’s second-biggest cost (after people) is energy, and that its biggest energy cost is refrigeration.
GreenChill aims to promote technologies, strategies, and practices that protect the ozone layer, reduce greenhouse gases, and reduce energy costs. EPA estimates that “Improved equipment design and service could reduce refrigerant emissions by one million metric tons of carbon equivalent per year, the equivalent of taking 800,000 automobiles off the road every year.”
The GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership is an EPA cooperative alliance with the supermarket industry and other stakeholders to promote the adoption of technologies, strategies, and practices that reduce emissions of ozone-depleting substances (ODS) and greenhouse gases (GHGs) and increase refrigeration system energy efficiency.
Working with EPA, GreenChill Partners:
- Transition to non-ozone-depleting refrigerants.
- Reduce emissions of both ozone-depleting and non-ozone-depleting refrigerants.
- Promote supermarkets’ adoption of advanced refrigeration technologies that offer:
- Reduced ODS/GHG emissions (e.g., reduced refrigerant charges and leak rates);
- Potential for improved energy efficiency;
- Reduced maintenance and refrigerant costs;
- Extended shelf life of perishable food products; and
- Improved system design, operations, and maintenance
and Reduce the total impact of supermarkets on ozone depletion and global warming.
Joel Makower writes further “A few years ago, Coca-Cola examined its carbon footprint and found that refrigeration — in vending machines and drink dispensers in restaurants — represented the biggest portion. It formed a partnership with Pepsi, McDonald’s, Unilever, and other big companies — not to mention Greenpeace — to form Refrigerants Naturally!. Coke, for its part, estimated that by replacing its 10 million vending machines with the most energy-efficient models would save nearly a half-biliion dollars in energy costs annually, the equivalent of taking 750,000 cars off the road. That’s almost as much as GreenChill’s anticipated overall annual benefit.”
