Supermarket Sainsbury’s Reducing Fridge CO2 Emissions

British supermarket chain Sainsbury’s is poised to unveiled CO2 emission reduction plans, Enviro-News has learnt.  On Tuesday 10th November 2009, it is set to propose reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by more than 30 per cent over the coming two decades, and this will be achieved through implementing new refrigeration technology.  The introduction of this technology will spell an end for the ‘f-gases’ currently used to keep Sainsbury’s in-store fridges cool. 

Details of Sainsbury’s new environmental initiative are set to emerge at a conference to be held by the Environment Agency.  Here, the company’s chief executive, Justin King, is expected to highlight the impact of fridges on the environment, describing them as a supermarket’s largest individual source of carbon dioxide emissions.

Refrigeration Technology

By 2030, Sainsbury envisages that all of its UK stores (800 of them) will boast new, reduced-emission refrigeration technology.  Its shorter-term goal is to have carried out 135 fridge conversions by 2014. 

According to Sainsbury’s, if every supermarket in the UK mirrored its actions in this instance, they could achieve an overall CO2 emission reduction comparable to the emissions created by a city the size of Birmingham. 

“We welcome the initiative – it's a big step for Sainsbury's”, Friend of the Earth’s campaign director, Mike Childs, stated in response to the news.  He added, however, “...supermarkets' carbon footprints extend far beyond their stores.  Big retailers like Sainsbury's have their own products and they could do far more to make sure those are produced with a minimum carbon footprint.”

Supermarkets: Environment

In other news related to supermarkets and the environment, earlier this month, Sainsbury’s announced that 11 of its London-sited stores would be receiving electric car recharge stations, geographically arranged to make them easily accessible to drivers in all parts of the British capital city. 

“This will turn London into an electric vehicle superhighway, giving electric car drivers greater freedom”, the firm’s commercial director Neil Sachdev stated in a press release published on the Sainsbury’s website.

He added: “Electric vehicles create less noise and help keep the city's air clean.  More of these cars will appear on our streets as the technology improves, meaning convenient recharge points will become increasingly important. 

“In ten years time, we envisage that recharge points will be available at all of our stores in large cities.”

See also:

People-Powered Checkouts: a European First for Sainsbury's