February 2, 2009
Supermarket fridges and freezers are environmentally unfriendly, spewing out bad gases that make up more than a quarter of the companies' total carbon footprint.
The HFCs (hydrochlorofluorocarbons) can have as much as 4000 times more impact on global warming than carbon dioxide, say green campaigners.
None of the 10 high-street stores fared well in a survey that had Iceland scoring an alarming -1 out of a hundred, closely followed by rivals Lidl (0 points) and Aldi (+1).
The chains all refused to provide information about what they were doing, and Iceland was given a minus mark for going back on a 1999 commitment to address the issue.
Points were awarded or deducted for refrigeration in-store, behind the scenes and for transport, as well as for leakages, energy-efficiency, training of refrigeration engineers and future plans.
Somerfield was also awarded nothing for failing to participate.
Waitrose scored worst among the major players, with just 12 points putting them seventh in the list.
Their responses were "vague and uninformative giving the impression they were apathetic and didn't take the issue seriously".
The Chilling Facts report, the first of its kind, said Morrisons (17) also seemed to be lagging "because they refused to participate in the survey".
Campaign co-ordinator Fionnuala Walravens, of the Environmental Investigation Agency, said: "The HFCs make up a quarter or more of a supermarket's total carbon footprint, in some cases up to 30%. And this is before you take the energy they use into account.
"To say their response has been lukewarm would be an understatement, although a few are beginning to address it. The biggest problem seems to be that climate-friendly fridges seem to require more highly- skilled engineers, and Marks & Spencer and Tesco are starting training programmes so they will have these.
"We had no choice but to score the budget supermarkets zero because they would not co-operate but Aldi got a point for the work they have been doing in Germany on the issue.
"There is also no information on their websites about energy efficiency targets, unlike the others."
Ms Walravens added: "This is the first time supermarkets have been scored against each other on this and our survey results are hugely disappointing."
Although Britain's biggest supermarket Tesco came second mainly because of their investment in climate-friendly refrigeration they only scored 32 points.
Marks & Spencer were at the top with 42 points for their "ambitious plans for replacing HFCs".
League Table
1. M&S 42/100
2. Tesco 32/100
3. Asda 24/100
4. Co-op 23/100
5. Sainsbury 20/100
6. Morrisons 17/100
7. Waitrose 12/100
8. Aldi 1/100
9. Lidl 0/100
9. Somerfield 0/100
10. Iceland -1/100
Source: Environmental Investigation Agency
Posts
