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EIA Investigator Summer 10 www.eia-international.org
This year EIA’s Chilling Facts campaign has gone from strength to strength, with more supermarkets committing to go HFC-free. HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons) are potent greenhouse gases used in refrigeration and air-conditioning. In the UK the supermarket sector is the largest single source of HFC emissions. The second Chilling Facts survey was released in February and created a stir in the media with coverage on “Sky News” and in “The Guardian”. Despite some positive commitments, the results also revealed that some supermarkets are falling behind the pack by failing to take their environmental responsibilities seriously. Top of this year’s table was Waitrose, which impressed EIA’s judging panel with a commitment to go HFC-free in all new stores and a pledge to phase out HFCs in all stores by 2020. Sainsbury’s, which ranked fourth, also made a commitment to stop using HFCs in all new stores. Tesco came second due to its ambitious near-term roll out of HFC-free refrigeration. Marks & Spencer, last year’s winner, came third this time, based on its continuing expansion of climate-friendly refrigeration in its stores. Not all supermarkets were so proactive about addressing their use of HFCs. Aldi came bottom of the table for failing to complete the survey. Iceland just avoided bottom rank, as it participated in the survey but showed a total unwillingness to adopt HFC-free freezers, despite many of its competitors having already made the switch. The biggest surprise came from the Co-operative Group, which came a lowly ninth due to its recent heavy investment in HFC-based technology and reliance on ozone-depleting HCFCs, which are subject to increasingly stringent control in Europe from January 2010. EIA was disappointed with Asda’s response. The UK’s second biggest retailer has been trialling HFC‑free refrigeration for several years now but has decided not to switch to these climate‑friendly alternatives across the board. Clearly, this is a step in the wrong direction.
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Campaign news Chilling Facts report card – supermarkets must do better
Despite some impressive HFC phase-out commitments in Chilling Facts II, the climate change impact of supermarket refrigeration is still unacceptably high. Our research found that emissions from leaking refrigeration in eight of the supermarket groups were the equivalent of