To commemorate Earth Day (April 22), the Washington, D.C., office of the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), launched a consumer-focused interactive map that begins to show the locations of supermarkets around the world that use climate-friendly refrigerants, and enables retailers to submit information on these stores. Climate-friendly refrigerants include CO2, ammonia, propane, propylene glycol and water.
The map is located at climatefriendlysupermarkets.org, a website that EIA launched on Earth Day in 2019 to highlight stores using climate friendly refrigerants in North America. The current map expands the initiative from North America to the entire world. The global map so far features over 260 stores.
“This new interactive tool is intended to be built over time, and eventually can help consumers anywhere find a store near them that reduces climate-warming refrigerant gases, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs),” said EIA in an email announcement. This map is searchable by ZIP code, city, and state; by clicking on individual stores, consumers can also learn about the specific type of climate-friendly cooling technologies used.
While the coronavirus prevented climate advocates from gathering on Earth Day to call for environmental policy changes, “thoughtful consumerism is another way we can make our voices heard and drive powerful change,” EIA added in a blog.
The global map already includes stores in Europe such as Carrefour and Metro AG, Australia (IGA and Woolworths) and South Africa (Food Lover’s Market). The stores are using HFC-free systems (or those the meet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenChill platinum standard) like transcritical CO2, hydrocarbon units, and ammonia/CO2 cascade; some stores use hybrid systems that employ some low-GWP refrigerants.
The map continues to showcase U.S. retailers such as ALDI U.S., the leading user of transcritical CO2 systems in North America, as well as Whole Foods, Target, Sprout and Ahold Delhaize.
This new interactive tool is intended to be built over time, and eventually can help consumers anywhere find a store near them that reduces climate-warming refrigerant gases, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).
EIA
