The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), Silver Spring, Md., announced the successful closing of its 2010 Board Resolution on Refrigeration, which installed low carbon refrigeration systems in over 4,000 supermarkets, 4 million ice cream and drinks chiller units worldwide and industrial plants with the majority being natural refrigerants. This work provides insight into low carbon technology options, deployment costs, energy demands, performance in hotter climates and the availability of skilled installers and maintenance engineers. 

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, known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), are powerful greenhouse gases.

“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,” says Emma Coles, vice president, responsible retailing at Albert Heijn and Royal Ahold, a grocery retailer based in The Netherlands, and Andre Fourie, senior manager, environmental value at SABMiller plc, a London-based brewing and beverage company; Coles and Fourie are also co-chairs of CGF’s refrigeration working group. “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.”