The US Environmental Protection Agency has quadrupled the number of participants in its voluntary program designed to reduce use of ozone-depleting refrigerants in the nation’s grocery stores.
Launched in November 2007, the GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership has shown how EPA works with supermarkets to achieve environmental goals that also help the bottom line. The program now includes more than 6,500 stores in 47 states. In 2008, partners reduced their aggregate total emissions by 8.5%.
Compared with the supermarket industry as a whole, GreenChill partners emit fewer ozone-depleting refrigerant emissions and greenhouse gases, and save money at the same time. EPA officials estimate that if all US supermarkets reduced emissions to the current GreenChill average, the nation could save the equivalent of 22 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and 240 ozone-depleting potential tons each year—equal to the annual emissions from more than four million cars. This carries a cost savings of $108 million in refrigerant expenses annually.
To highlight the program’s top-performing participants, GreenChill recently implemented a Store Certification Awards Program. This component recognizes retail stores that achieve at least a 50% reduction in refrigerant charge and a 75% reduction in refrigerant emissions, resulting in either gold- or silver-level certification. To date, seven stores have been awarded GreenChill gold and three stores have been awarded the silver. EPA will recognize top performers during the Food Marketing Institute’s 2009 Sustainability Summit, set for August 17-19 in San Francisco CA.
For a complete list of GreenChill partners, access www.epa.gov/ozone/partnerships/greenchill/gcpartners.html. For more information on the GreenChill Partnership, visit www.epa.gov/ozone/partnerships/greenchill/index.html.
