UK Supermarkets Criticised Over Freezer Greenhouse Gases

Posted on 04. Feb, 2009 by Ross in Clarus, Food Production, Retail & Commercial

An Environmental Investigation Agency report has lambasted UK supermarkets for failing to take steps to reduce their use of greenhouse gases in their fridges and freezers, and released a ranked list of the worst - and least worst - offenders.

Despite more environmentally friendly alternatives existing, supermarket freezers and refrigerators use hydroflurocarbons (HFCs) as a coolant. A replacement for chloroflurocarbons (CFCs) which were banned for their joint effects of global warming and ozone depletion, HFCs themselves are 4,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. As a result, HFCs are responsible for around a third of the supermarket chains’ climate change impact. In 2005, the global environmental impact of leaking HFCs was equivalent to flying from London to New York 2,500,000 times!

As well as replacing leaky coolants, commercial fridges and freezers can be made more efficient with intelligent anti-sweat devices such as the Somar Clarus, which is able to save as much as 80% on the energy and carbon costs of existing anti-sweat technology. By doing so, it is also able to reduce maintenance and reduce the load on the refrigerator compressors: this in turn further reduces energy consumption and extends the lifetime of the unit, reducing the need for more coolant manufacture for new fridges.

Budget chains Iceland, ALDI and LiDL all failed to respond to the survey or submit any form of social responsibility report, therefore came bottom of the list. Worst of the participants was Waitrose, whose ‘vague and uninformative’ replies gave ‘the impression that they were apathetic and didn’t take the issue seriously’. Next came Morrisons and Sainsburys, despite the latter being included in the prestidgeous Global 100 list for the world’s most sustainable companies at last month’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Marks & Spencer came top of the tree above Tesco, ASDA and The Co-operative, but even they accrued most of their marks for future efforts to improve rather than current efficiencies.