GreenChill Refrigeration Partnership to Cool Earth

GreenChill Refrigeration Partnership to Cool Earth

November 2007 
 Sharp-eyed food shoppers will 
soon see the "GreenChill" logo on refrigeration equipment in some of their 
favorite supermarkets. Ten companies, including several large supermarket 
chains, joined today with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in a 
voluntary program to promote green refrigeration technologies, strategies 
and practices that protect the stratospheric ozone layer, reduce 
greenhouse gases, and save money. 
The supermarket, refrigeration equipment and chemical refrigerant 
industries launched the new GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership 
today with the federal agency. 
To counteract the depletion of stratospheric ozone, which protects Earth's 
residents from the Sun's ultraviolet radiation, partners guarantee to use 
only ozone-friendly alternatives and advanced refrigeration techologies in 
all new and remodeled stores. 
"As Americans make greener choices, we look for companies that support a 
greener lifestyle," said Robert Meyers, principal deputy assistant 
administrator of the EPA's Office of Air and Radiation.

"The GreenChill logo is a clear sign of a supermarket's environmental 
commitment. It shows that GreenChill members are doing their utmost to 
save the ozone layer," Meyers said. 
The EPA believes that GreenChill partners' adoption of advanced 
refrigeration technologies will lead to increased energy efficiency and 
reduce operating expenses to the industry by over $12 million annually. 
The 10 GreenChill founding partners include the natural foods grocery 
chain Whole Foods Market; the employee owned southeast chain Publix Super 
Markets Inc.; Giant Eagle, a supermarket chain with stores located in 
Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Maryland; the Hannaford Bros. chain 
in the northeastern states; and at the Harris Teeter stores in seven 
southeastern states. 
Another GreenChill partner is Food Lion, LLC, a subsidiary of the 
Brussels-based Delhaize Group with 1,300 supermarkets under the names of 
Food Lion, Bloom, Bottom Dollar Food, Harveys and Reid’s in southeast and 
mid-Atlantic states. 
The partnership is also joined by Hill PHOENIX and Kysor/Warren - both 
designers and manufacturers of commercial refrigerated display cases, as 
well as commercial and industrial refrigeration systems. 
GreenChill partner Honeywell International specializes in the development 
and manufacture of non-ozone depleting refrigerants for process and 
commercial refrigeration applications. 
Honeywell's Enovate blowing agent, a non-flammable, zero ozone-depleting 
hydrofluorocarbon liquid, is being used by appliance makers to insulate 
refrigerator and freezer cabinets and doors to achieve Energy Star® 
ratings. 
The tenth partner is the chemical company DuPont, which has a portfolio of 
non-ozone depleting refrigerants for supermarkets to replace 
ozone-depleters that must be phased out under an international treaty, the 
Montreal Protocol. 
Under the protocol, nearly 200 countries agreed in September to accelerate 
the phase-out of ozone-depleting and global warming gases. 
A recent United Nations report estimates that the atmosphere could be 
spared the equivalent of one billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions if 
countries used ozone-friendly refrigerants, such as carbon dioxide, CO2, 
which is actually the main greenhouse gas when released into the 
atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels. 
The natural refrigerant CO2, known in the industry as R744, is neither 
ozone-depleting nor does it contribute significantly to climate change, 
having a Global Warming Potential of only 1 compared to that of 1,700 of 
the common refrigerant Freon. 
Most of the 34,000 supermarkets in the United States use what is generally 
referred to as a “direct expansion refrigeration system” to chill their 
products, the EPA explains. 
"These systems typically use large charges of refrigerant, and they can 
have high leak rates, often leaking in excess of 20 percent of their 
charge per year," the agency says. 
According to DuPont, there are about six million display cases for food 
preservation in supermarkets, restaurants and convenience stores across 
the United States. Many of those systems still use 
hydrochlorofluorocarbons, HCFCs, which deplete the ozone layer. The 
company says DuPont™ Suva® and ISCEON® alternative refrigerants have been 
used to retrofit existing systems and for new equipment. 
These partners, as well as those in the future, must pledge to go above 
and beyond regulatory requirements by establishing an inventory of current 
refrigerant emissions that may affect climate change and the stratospheric 
ozone layer, and then setting reduction targets for these emissions, 
explains Meyers of the EPA. 
Partners will participate in a joint industry-government research 
initiative to assess the performance of green technologies in terms of 
energy efficiency, reduction of ozone-depleting refrigerant charges, and 
minimization of refrigerant leaks. 
The EPA estimates that widespread adoption of advanced refrigeration 
technologies, best practices, and improved equipment design and service 
could reduce refrigerant emissions by one million metric tons of carbon 
equivalent per year, the equivalent of taking 800,000 automobiles off the 
road every year. 

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