Freon Exit Program
One of the important points of climate agreements was the reduction in the production of chlorine-containing varieties of freon, which affects the destruction of the ozone layer of the Earth. Freons are hydrocarbons that are actively used in various areas of production. Most often, freons are used in the manufacture of refrigeration units (refrigerators, air conditioning systems, freezers).
Phasing out the use of freon, which destroys the ozone layer of Earth, is one of the company's priorities. Additionally, it leads to energy savings and reduced water consumption.
Purpose and implementation of the program
METRO is implementing the FEP (Freon Exit Program) project, the purpose of which is to phase out the use of freon. In 2020, a project was implemented in a store in Orenburg as part of the program. The old refrigeration system was replaced with a new CO2-based system, which meets all corporate standards and energy efficiency class. This system saves 30% of electricity compared to the old system.
There are 17 of such "optimized" in METRO Russia, including Odintsovo, Solntsevo, Aparinki, Orenburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Ulyanovsk, Lipetsk, St. Petersburg, Tyumen. Another 18 stores have been using modern equipment with environmentally friendly refrigerants from the time the stores were launched.
In 2021 refrigerated display cases were equipped with doors in 18 stores, which also minimized the use of freon and reduced electricity costs. The annual savings of all stores participating in the program amounted to about 20 million rubles̆.
Reduction of water consumption
Although water is a renewable resource, it is important to use it carefully - only after a long time the water used by a person returns to the water supply system, and a lot of non-renewable resources are spent for its purification.
METRO managed to reduce water consumption by 5% from 2018 to 2020 as a result of early leaks detection and optimization of water consumption in store departments.
