How supermarket freezers are heating the planet, and how they could change | 24CA News

Climate-conscious consumers could purchase native meals and attempt to reduce packaging waste, however these efforts might be negated by potent greenhouse gases leaking from grocery store fridges.

Refrigerants known as hydrofluorocarbons or HFCs are broadly used to maintain meals chilly or frozen at grocery shops and through transport. (They’re additionally used for different refrigeration functions, like ice rinks and air conditioners).

They have been initially introduced in to switch ozone-depleting refrigerants known as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which have been banned in a landmark 1987 settlement known as the Montreal Protocol, with the intention to save the Earth’s protecting ozone layer.

But HFCs are themselves highly effective greenhouse gases.

Typically, every tonne of HFCs can lure as a lot warmth within the environment as 1,400 to 4,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide over 100 years, relying on the kind of HFC.

Here’s a have a look at why that is occurring, what the options are, and the way atypical consumers may make a distinction.

How do HFCs get from supermarkets into the environment?

Supermarket fridges aren’t like your fridge at dwelling, which accommodates solely about 5 kilograms of refrigerant in a sealed unit that is unlikely to leak, says Morgan Smith, spokesperson for the North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council.

Her non-profit group has partnered with business to assist allow the transition from HFCs to extra climate-friendly refrigerants as a result of the complexity of their programs make them vulnerable to leaking important quantities of HFCs. 

Beneath and behind the circumstances of greens, dairy and frozen meals at a typical grocery store are kilometres of piping with 1000’s of valves, containing actually a tonne of refrigerant. 

“It’s so large and so complex, with so many different points of connection that those systems are inherently leaky, and so they leak about 25 per cent of their refrigerant charge every year,” mentioned Smith.

That’s one thing one other non-profit group known as the Environmental Investigation Agency has captured on video utilizing infrared cameras and HFC detectors in U.S. grocery shops. It additionally measured ranges of HFCs within the retailer utilizing chemical detectors.

It detected leaks at 55 per cent of the dozens of U.S. shops the place it took measurements. On common, it discovered a single grocery store emits 875 kilos (400 kilograms) of HFCs a yr, equal to carbon emissions from 300 automobiles. In the U.S. alone, it calculated grocery store HFC leaks trigger as a lot world warming as burning 22 million tonnes of coal. 

How huge a deal are these emissions actually?

HFCs are such an enormous drawback for local weather change that Canada and 196 different nations have signed a world settlement, the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, to scale back HFC consumption 85 per cent by 2036, relative to 2011 to 2013.

Sheli Miller, a professor who research the environmental influence of the meals system on the University of Michigan, says emissions from refrigerants could also be comparatively small in comparison with the meals system emissions total and main classes comparable to meals waste.

“But that’s also just because the food system has such a big impact,” she mentioned. 

On the opposite hand, concentrating on HFCs in supermarkets may be very efficient at curbing emissions.

“You can make fairly small changes and have a relatively large impact just because the chemicals themselves that we’re using right now have such large global warming potentials,” Miller mentioned.

While potent, HFCs are short-lived greenhouse gases, mentioned Miller, lasting not more than 30 years within the environment, in comparison with a whole lot of years for CO2. Since a typical refrigeration system lasts about 30 years, selections made now about what refrigerant to make use of can have an effect on world emissions for many years.

“We need to be thinking about the sources and the hubs of where emissions are happening. And so our grocery stores are a great way to target our overall food system and reduce emissions.”

WATCH | How the Environmental Investigation Agency measured HFCs: 

Project Drawdown is a U.S.-based nonprofit group centered on figuring out and supporting the best local weather options. It has persistently listed stopping refrigerant leaks and changing HFCs with extra local weather pleasant refrigerants amongst its prime local weather options, able to decreasing CO2 emissions by greater than 100 billion tonnes by 2050.

What can be utilized for refrigeration instead of HFCs?

The principal options are known as “natural” refrigerants as a result of they’re all chemical substances present in nature. They embrace:

While CO2 is a greenhouse gasoline, its world warming potential is a lot decrease than that of HFCs. And propane, whereas it is a fossil gasoline, just isn’t burned when utilized in refrigeration. In reality, all three of those chemical substances are thought of refrigerants with ultra-low world warming potential.

How are Canadian supermarkets progressing at switching away from HFCs?

According to Shecco, a market analysis agency centered on sustainable applied sciences, there have been 340 business CO2 refrigeration installations in Canada as of May 2020. That was far fewer than Japan, with 6,500 and Europe with 29,000, and rising extra slowly than each different area on this planet listed, together with the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.

However, Jeffrey Gingras, president of Evapco LMP, a Laval, Que.-based firm that makes CO2 refrigeration programs, mentioned he is seen an exponential progress in installations previously three years, and did a file 125 installations in supermarkets, about half of them in Canada, in 2022.

The Environmental Investigation Agency has been constructing a world map of refrigerants utilized in supermarkets because it launched its Climate-Friendly Supermarkets mission in 2019.

Two Canadian group teams, Drawdown Toronto and Drawdown B.C., have helped coordinate submissions to the map of their areas, and have added about 250 shops to the map. (Note: I volunteered for Drawdown Toronto whereas on go away from 24CA News and added one retailer. You can learn extra about that in our What On Earth e-newsletter.)

That was sufficient for the EIA to problem its first ever scorecard on Canadian supermarkets final fall.

It reported on the 5 largest meals retailers in Canada: Costco, Loblaws, Metro, Sobeys and Walmart.

The best-performing was Sobeys, which had the very best proportion of shops utilizing ultra-low world warming potential refrigerants (9 per cent), was the one listed firm that publicly stories its refrigerant leak fee (seven per cent) and has dedicated to transition to climate-friendly refrigerants for all new shops and renovation tasks beginning in 2024.

Some shops have additionally reported taking their very own actions on HFCs, together with Loblaws, which ranked third within the report and instructed 24CA News that it has reduce its greenhouse gasoline emissions by 30 per cent “in a large part” due to its technique to scale back refrigerant leaks: utilizing much less refrigerant, detecting leaks early and decreasing the emissions depth of the refrigerants it makes use of.

Walmart Canada, which got here fourth within the report, instructed 24CA News in an electronic mail that it’s putting in pure refrigerants in all new shops and through main remodels with new grocery departments, and can change all shops operating on HFC refrigerants to extra environmentally pleasant choices. It didn’t give a timeline, however mentioned its world operations are aiming for zero emissions by 2040.

The different corporations didn’t reply to CBC’s requests for remark.

EIA’s world map does present only a few inexperienced dots in Canada in comparison with the U.S. and Europe. Avipsa Mahapatra, the group’s local weather marketing campaign lead, mentioned which may be as a result of no Canadian grocery store chains haven’t submitted their very own information, not like in different nations, and there is not a lot info.

“I actually have a hunch that Canada is not very far behind,” she mentioned.

Why aren’t HFCs getting ditched sooner?

Morgan Smith of the North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council mentioned making the change to pure refrigerants is not straightforward. They could require completely different coaching and tools: ammonia is poisonous, propane is flammable, and CO2 operates underneath very excessive pressures.

Smith mentioned CO2 tends to be the pure refrigerant of selection for many supermarkets as a result of it is non-toxic and its programs work so much like HFC programs.The excessive pressures imply it does want completely different piping and completely different valves, so a system can take months to construct, and may’t simply be swapped out in a single day like components of the prevailing system when it wants repairs.

It’s best in case you have the house to construct a brand new system alongside whereas the previous system continues to be operating, Smith mentioned. Otherwise, you may need to close down the shop through the retrofit, which is tough for each prospects and the shop operator.

For smaller shops, one possibility is to change to particular person fridges much like your property fridge, with propane refrigerant in a sealed unit, Smith mentioned.

Michael Zabaneh of the Retail Council of Canada mentioned refrigerant tasks are fairly costly for supermarkets.

“They can be challenging and that’s probably the biggest barrier, the need to pay for higher capital costs to either upgrade the equipment so that it can handle natural refrigerants, or buy new equipment.”

However, he mentioned most massive grocery chains are conscious of the issues with HFCs and buyer and investor stress to scale back greenhouse gasoline emissions, and are taking motion.

The Environmental Investigation Agency’s Mahapatra acknowledged that retrofitting older shops is dear and difficult. However, she says grocery chains needs to be making all new shops use pure refrigerants.

“There is no excuse for any supermarket today to build a new store that still contains HFCs. That is just simply foolish,” she mentioned, noting that worldwide agreements to section out HFCs will ultimately drive corporations to vary the programs anyway.

What is the federal government doing about this?

The federal authorities will begin to provide carbon offset credit for tasks that reduce refrigerant emissions, together with these in supermarkets. Environment and Climate Change Canada instructed 24CA News in an electronic mail that they will go into impact “in the next few months.” Once that occurs, corporations will have the ability to apply to get credit for tasks that began way back to January 1, 2017. 

Federal rules have additionally been introduced in to adjust to the Kigali Amendment, the worldwide settlement on HFCs that went into impact in 2018, with discount targets beginning in 2019.

The rules will begin to ban the manufacture and import of sure tools containing HFCs with a world warming potential above a particular restrict.

Gingras mentioned the Quebec authorities did provide incentives for a time frame beginning 2014 that made pure refrigerant programs aggressive with HFCs, and people did result in a widespread conversion of supermarkets within the province. However, he hasn’t heard of something related in different provinces.

Is there a task for atypical consumers?

Avipsa Mahapatra says grocery retailer prospects could make a distinction by including their native shops to the climate-friendly grocery store map, being extra conscious and placing stress on grocery retailer chains, particularly in relation to new supermarkets. 

“So if it’s a new store that is being built in your community, it is our job as … residents of that community, to make sure that it is not an HFC store.”

Morgan Smith on the North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council additionally thinks the general public could make a distinction: “The more people that are aware of this topic, the more resources and support there are to actually enable this transition.”