36 // End User
Lidl France banking on propane In August 2018, Lidl France opened its first supermarket to use propane, a hydrocarbon, for 100% of its cooling needs. Since then and from now on, all the retailer’s new stores use this natural refrigerant. ― By Andrew Williams
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perating some 1,500 stores throughout France, Lidl France is acutely aware of the responsibility it shares to help put the world on a more environmentally sustainable footing. Ac tive fo r almos t 25 years , the retailer employs some 35,000 people nationwide. HVAC&R represents a significant proportion of any food retailer’s carbon footprint. In 2010, Europe’s commercial refrigeration sector represented 40% of refrigerant greenhouse gas consumption, 85% of which was attributed to large refrigeration systems in supermarkets (which primarily used R404A), according to a 2012 study conducted for EPEE by UK-based environmental consultants SKM Enviros. “This implies that supermarkets are the largest consumers of HFCs in Europe, with a share of about one third,” the SKM Enviros study says.
According to a 2016 report produced by Swedish research institute KTH for the EU -funded SuperSmar t project, 18-30% of annual equivalent carbon emissions in European supermarkets are attributed to their choice of refrigerants (data: Carr-Shand et al., 2009).
open new stores using propane,” Yassine Rami, head of department (purchasing and store investments) at Lidl France, told Accelerate Europe.
Against this background, Lidl France decided to act. In August 2018, for example, Lidl Valenton in the Paris region (Créteil) became the first Lidl France store to use propane for 100% of its cooling needs. “Since then and from now on, our strategy is for all new stores to be 100% propanebased,” Nabil Rehab, project manager – refrigeration systems, Lidl France, told Accelerate Europe.
The retailer intends to change the cooling furniture in around 100 stores per year. “In a few stores we’ll do retrofits, because they're using R404A,” Rehab explains.
By the end of the fiscal year 2018 (which ended in February 2019), Lidl France had converted the cooling furniture to propane in 40 stores. “This fiscal year, we’ll convert an additional 10% of our stores, pursue a programme of ‘store transfer’, and
“In total, we’ll have 250 propane stores by the end of this fiscal year,” Rami explains.
Lidl France is part of Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG, founded in 1930 by Joseph Schwarz and headquar tered in Neckarsulm, Germany. The parent company operates over 10,000 stores across 28 European countries and the United States. Its chairman and CEO is Dieter Schwarz, who also holds the same positions in hypermarket chain Kaufland. Lidl first used propane in 2016, when it tested a propane system in
Accelerate Australia & NZ // Autumn 2019