SAINSBURYS has pledged to switch to CO2 fridges in all its stores by 2030 and plans to retrain and hire 200 engineers to do the work.
Sainsbury's has earmarked the first 135 stores for conversion by 2014. From 2010, Sainsbury's says all its major new developments will use CO2 refrigeration as standard.

During his announcement of the retail giant's refrigeration plans, Sainsbury's chief executive Justin King criticised the government for failing to address skills shortages in the green sector. Speaking at the Environment Agency conference in London today, King said: 'If all supermarkets in the UK switched to this sort of refrigeration, the reduction in CO2 emissions would amount to around 2m tonnes a year. A serious barrier preventing other companies from following our lead, is a lack of skilled engineers to build and maintain these units'.

He added: 'We are doing our bit - this initiative will lead to 200 green jobs in the UK through the re-training and hiring of specialist engineers - but business alone can't ensure a sufficient supply of people with the right skills and training. Government needs to seize the opportunity here by helping people re-train to work in the rapidly expanding green sector. We'd like to be in a place where we can use more home grown expertise to reduce UK carbon emissions in line with future targets, instead of looking to other countries for knowledge and innovation.'