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 results from the survey are not just disappointing but shocking given that climate-friendly alternative technologies are available in the marketplace,” said Allan Thornton, President of EIA, a US and London based non-profit committed to exposing environmental crime. “Although momentum for reducing super greenhouse emissions is growing worldwide, even Walmart, the world’s largest retailer has failed to show leadership by taking meaningful action to protect the global climate from further damage.”

While Costco and Meijer scored the lowest and Delhaize America scored the highest, none of the stores received a passing grade even though a majority of the retailers are members of the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF). The CGF is an international network of the world’s largest retailers, which in 2010 committed to begin phasing out HFCs in 2015.

“The survey results confirm that voluntary measures have failed to persuade the ‘Dirty Dozen’ to phase out outdated HFC refrigeration technologies,” said Danielle Gagne, HFC & Climate Policy Analyst.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.