The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) has successfully closed its 2010 Board Resolution on Refrigeration and has published its first-ever refrigeration booklet.
In addition, the CGF Board has called on the Sustainability Steering Committee to develop a potential resolution to show how the industry will further scale up low carbon refrigeration in the future.
In 2010, the CGF made a commitment to tackle the growing climate impact of the refrigeration systems used by its members. The refrigerant gases used in the majority of systems (hydrofluorocarbons - HFCs) are powerful greenhouse gases. At the time, the low carbon technologies to replace HFCs were unproven and so the decision was taken to commit to trialling new approaches to refrigeration by 2015.
Today, CGF members have installed low carbon refrigeration systems in over 4,000 supermarkets, four million ice cream and drinks chiller units worldwide and industrial plants with the majority being natural refrigerants. This work has taught the industry valuable lessons about issues such as low carbon technology options; deployment costs; energy demands; performance in hotter climates; and the availability of skilled installers and maintenance engineers.
These learnings have been captured in the all-new Refrigeration Booklet, which highlights more than a dozen real life examples from the CGF’s retailer and manufacturer members on how they are phasing out HFCs and successfully piloting and implementing natural refrigeration alternatives. The CGF applauds the engagement of its members on this critical issue and hopes the booklet will help inspire others to take up the baton.
Emma Coles, vice president, responsible retailing at Albert Heijn and Royal Ahold, and Andre Fourie, senior manager, environmental value at SABMiller plc, co-chairs of CGF’s Refrigeration Working Group, said: “The CGF has been a leading voice on phasing out harmful HFC refrigerants since 2010. And, although 2015 is now over, we remain committed to helping members amplify the impact of their solutions and in bringing the entire industry forward. With this in mind, the board has called on the CGF’s Sustainability team to look forward and discuss how best to drive scale-up beyond 2015, including the possibility of a new resolution”.
The CGF also today published an updated version of its Climate Change Booklet, which includes over 20 examples of how members are making business changes to have a positive impact on the climate through various activities on food waste, recycling, sustainable sourcing and energy efficiency.