Sustainability at the Co-op: Big News!
In honor of Earth Day, we have big news!
The Brattleboro Food Co-op has been awarded a grant of $500,000 from the USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP). REAP helps rural small businesses invest in renewable energy systems and energy efficiency improvements. With the help of this funding, we will be replacing our entire refrigeration system to one that – unlike our current system – will have a minimal impact on our climate emissions.
If you’ve shopped at the Co-op on a hot summer day, you’ve surely seen the evidence that our coolers and freezers struggle. Even in winter, it can be a challenge. Just a few weeks ago, we moved our ice cream from the end of the line (down by the Bulk Department) to the side closer to the Seafood counter, in order to get it closer to the compressor in the back room, because, well, it kept almost melting.
Refrigeration equipment in a grocery store is always on, and day-to-day wear and tear is inevitable when equipment needs to be going 24/7. And that wear and tear, in the form of corroding pipes and valves, leads to refrigerant slowly escaping. As the system loses refrigerant, it takes more energy for the cases and freezers to maintain the correct temperatures. Given that half of a typical grocery store’s energy is spent on refrigeration, imagine how much more expensive a failing system is to keep running. Plus, when case temperatures climb too high, there’s the risk of spoiled food.
We’re currently using R404A, a refrigerant common in grocery stores, that has a global warming potential (GWP) of 3,922. This means that its impact – its total contribution to trapping heat in the atmosphere – is 3,922 times stronger than carbon dioxide (CO2), which has a GWP of 1.
Our refrigeration system contractor has calculated that our leak rate is 300% – that’s more than ten times what one should expect. In 2024, that amounted to 378 pounds of R404A drifting up into the atmosphere.
With the help of the REAP grant, we will be replacing all the coolers and freezers on the floor, as well as the equipment servicing the walk-in coolers and freezers behind the scenes, and all the piping and associated equipment. Our new system will use CO2, a natural and non-toxic refrigerant, instead. Some stand-alone components, such as prep tables in the Cheese and Deli departments, will be transitioned to use R290, a propane-based refrigerant with a GWP of just 3.
This will be a long and involved project – we have up to two years to complete it – and we’re just getting started. Stay tuned!
Sarah Brennan, Board Administrator/Sustainability Coordinator
Related articles: Recent Sustainability Accomplishments at the Co-op, My View of Sustainability as a BFC Board Member
