Canadian Climate-Friendly Supermarket Scorecard

Today, EIA released an updated Canadian Climate-Friendly Supermarket Scorecard assessing major Canadian supermarket chains on actions to reduce hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) – potent greenhouse gases used in cooling with climate impacts thousands of times higher than CO₂.

Despite the widespread availability of climate-friendly technology, of the five largest food retailers by revenue in Canada evaluated – Costco, Loblaws, Metro Inc., Sobeys, and Walmart – none of the companies even received 60% of the total score possible. While all five companies increased their score from 2022, some of these improvements were minimal while others were more moderate, yet still show a need for greater ambition to transition away from HFCs.

The Canadian Supermarket Scorecard follows our 2024 U.S. supermarkets scorecard release, which revealed that although there has been an increase in commitments by companies, there has been a slow adoption of climate-friendly, ultra-low global warming potential (<10 GWP) refrigerants in stores and limited details about implementation plans to meet these company goals.