Did you know that refrigerants used in fridges, industrial coolers, and HVAC can have thousands of times the global warming impact of carbon dioxide?
With the help from Sustainability & Flood Mitigation Board Secretary and long-time volunteer Aliza Bensimon, Hallandale Beach is now one of five cities in Florida with grocery store refrigerant data uploaded in the Climate Friendly Supermarket program.
Back in the 1980s, the world rallied around eliminating ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and replaced them with hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Unfortunately, HFCs have global warming potentials thousands of times higher than the same amount of carbon dioxide, and HFCs are now the fastest-growing greenhouse gasses in the world. Unfortunately, almost every supermarket on the Climate Friendly Supermarkets Florida map uses HFCs.
What is something you can do? Next time you replace your fridge or HVAC equipment, look for models with the lowest global warming potential possible. Here is a
fridge buyer's guide to help you out. You can also learn more about refrigerants: we recommend
this podcast episode.
Big thanks to Aliza for doing the Citizen Science to put us on the map!