America’s largest supermarkets are destroying the climate

New report urges 'Dirty Dozen' to replace HFCs

WASHINGTON, D.C. - America’s largest supermarkets and retailers, including Walmart and Whole Foods, are failing to take meaningful steps to replace climate-damaging Hydroflourocarbons (HFCs), according to a new report released today by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). HFCs are super greenhouse gases with global warming potential hundreds or thousands of times more powerful than carbon dioxide (CO₂) and the most common refrigerants used in supermarket refrigeration systems.

The report, The Dirty Dozen: How your local supermarket is killing the climate finds that Ahold USA, Costco, Delhaize, HEB, Kroger, Meijer, Publix, Safeway, Supervalu, Target, Walmart and Whole Foods have not taken substantial action to begin phasing out HFCs or reduce the amount of HFC emissions leaking from refrigeration systems.

“The survey results confirm that voluntary measures have failed to persuade the ‘Dirty Dozen’ to phase out outdated HFC refrigeration technologies,” said Danielle Gagne, HFC & Climate Policy Analyst. “We urge the Obama Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency to require supermarkets to eliminate these harmful emissions.”

President Obama recently announced that phasing-down HFCs is a top priority in his Climate Action Plan, which tasks the Environmental Protection Agency to remove some of the highest global warming potential HFCs from the market. Furthermore, more than 125 nations support proposals to phase out HFCs under the Montreal Protocol – the international treaty to protect the ozone layer and most cost effective and efficient multilateral treaty available to deal with HFCs.

Notes to Editor:

• Each US supermarket emits on average 1,556 metric tons of CO2 equivalent of HFCs annually from leaks in their systems, which is equivalent to more than 300 passenger cars.