Whether or not managers believe there’s a problem with global warming, a lot of businesses are boosting their bottom-lines by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

That’s the case with the nation’s supermarkets. They’re partnering with EPA in a program to reduce refrigerant releases, and they’re getting PR credit for protecting the ozone layer and fighting climate change. That keeps EPA happy. The bottom-line savings keeps owners happy.

The program is the GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership and six grocery chains have been recognized for their efforts to go green. Other types of business can learn from the GreenChill program because the secrets to reducing ozone-depleting compounds and GHG emissions apply to most all types of pollutant releases:

• switching to less polluting materials, in this case, alternatives to chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) refrigerants
• adopting more efficient machinery that uses less refrigerant in the first place
• increasing leak detection programs to make sure the refrigeration equipment is working at its maximum, and
• installing more energy-efficient chiller systems that require less electricity to operate.

The savings can be huge for grocery chains. Normally, a store’s refrigeration system needs about 4,000 pounds of CFC refrigerant to operate. Leak rates of about 25% are considered normal. At that rate, stores are losing about 1,000 pounds of CFCs due to leaks a year at about $6 a pound.

By adopting new technology and leak detection programs, GreenChill partners are cutting this leak rate to 12%.

GreenChill stores recognized by EPA this week include:

• Price Chopper’s
• King Kullen
• Wild by Nature
• Whole Foods
• Hill Phoenix, and
• Supervalu (parent company of Acme).

For details about the stores and the GreenChill program, click here.

Tags: CFC, GHG emissions, green companies, ozone layer