GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership is a program recently introduced by the EPA to assist those in the hospitality industry by alleviating the guesswork in making the transition to more environmentally friendly refrigerants in the upcoming years. The EPA describes GreenChill as an “EPA Partnership with food retailers to reduce refrigerant emissions and decrease their impact on the ozone layer and climate change.” The ultimate goal of this partnership it to help improve air quality through the reduction of emissions that contribute to ozone depletion.
This team effort was brought about by The Montreal Protocol, which began in 1987 as means to reduce and eliminate the use of CFCs and HCFCs. This includes a globally mandated ban on Freon, and other CFC and HCFC gases, set to be at 99.5 percent below the determined baseline by the year 2020. We are currently at 75 percent below the determined baseline. These numbers alone can prove confusing, as well as the acceptable options for complying with The Montreal Protocol, so the EPA initiated GreenChill.
To date several well known corporate giants have climbed on board to help promote cleaner air through the use of less harmful refrigerants. Local retailers that participate and are corporate partners include: Jewel, Target, Whole Foods, and Albertsons.
To become GreenChill Certified a business must follow specific guidelines and submit an application to the EPA. Any business may apply and “GreenChill’s Store Certification Program for Food Retail Stores recognizes individual stores for using environmentally friendlier commercial refrigeration systems.” Retailers can gain various levels of GreenChill certification (platinum, gold, or silver) dependent upon their refrigeration practices and policies.
To gain the highest level of GreenChill certification a retalier must adhere to the following EPA mandated guidelines:
Platinum-Level Store Certification:
To qualify for GreenChill’s Platinum-Level Store Certification, a store must meet the requirements under either A or B:
A. HFC-Based Refrigeration Systems
• The store must only use refrigerants with zero ozone-depleting potential;
• The store must only use refrigerants that have been found acceptable by EPA’s Significant New Alternatives Policy Program (SNAP) for use in retail food refrigeration end-uses;
• The store must achieve an average HFC refrigerant charge equal to or less than 0.5 lbs. of HFC refrigerant per MBTU/hr. total evaporator heat load;
• The store must achieve a store-wide annual HFC refrigerant emissions rate of 5% or less; and
• All newly constructed stores must be leak tested at installation according to the standards in GreenChill’s Installation Leak Tightness Testing Guidelines
B. Refrigeration Systems using Low-GWP Refrigerants
• The store must only use refrigerants with zero ozone-depleting potential;
• The store must only use refrigerants that have been found acceptable by EPA’s Significant New Alternatives Policy Program (SNAP) for use in retail food refrigeration end-uses; and
• All refrigerants used in the store’s commercial refrigeration system must have global warming potentials (GWP) lower than 150.
- Please support you local GreenChill retailers as they strive to make changes to improve and sustain the quality of our environment! Be sure to look for the GreenChill logo on the refrigeration equipment at your favorite retailer!
- GreenChill now has a LinkedIn group called GreenChill Partnership. You can follow updates and engage in conversation about the latest GreeChill updates and practices.
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