Walmart urged to cut its HFC emissions
13th August 2019
USA: Green America, a leading green economy organisation, has joined with the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) in calling on retailer Walmart to cut its HFC refrigerant emissions.
Green America’s Cool It campaign urges Walmart to release a detailed plan to phase out HFCs, monitor and repair its refrigerant leaks and practice responsible disposal.
The green group maintains that from Walmart’s own data HFCs account for roughly 46% of the company’s total direct emissions. It also claims that Walmart has made statements on the importance of refrigerant management in the past but has not released a concrete plan to cut those emissions.
“The energy equivalent of Walmart’s annual HFC emissions would power nearly every household in San Francisco. It is a glaring source of the company’s impact on the climate crisis and we are urging Walmart to take action,” said Beth Porter, Green America’s climate campaigns director.
Describing Walmart as “a company with a massive footprint and ample resources”, Avipsa Mahapatra, the EIA’s climate campaign lead said that the retailer “continues to sleepwalk while smarter companies are rapidly adopting energy efficient HFC-free technologies”.
“EIA joins Green America in once again calling upon Walmart to sever its reliance on potent super-pollutant HFCs for cooling and demonstrate that the company’s sustainability commitments are not just hollow words,” Mahapatra added.
