EPA Recognizes Piggly Wiggly in Columbus, Ga. for Environmental Leadership in Reducing Potent Greenhouse Gases

From U.S. Environmental Protection Agency:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 13, 2016  

EPA Recognizes Piggly Wiggly in Columbus, Ga. for Environmental Leadership in Reducing Potent Greenhouse Gases

Supermarkets Across the Country Recognized for their Achievements

Contact Information: Dawn Harris Young, EPA, (404) 562-8421 (Direct), (404) 562-8400 (Main), harris-young.dawn@epa.gov

ATLANTA – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that Piggly Wiggly in Columbus, Ga. won EPA’s GreenChill Best of the Best Award for installing refrigeration systems that use ammonia as refrigerant. Ammonia’s contribution to climate change is several thousand times smaller than many conventional refrigerants.

Nationally, EPA recognized 13 companies in the supermarket industry for their achievements reducing emissions of environmentally harmful refrigerants. Many of the refrigerants used by supermarkets are hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), a class of potent greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change when leaked into the atmosphere. EPA’s awardees are meeting the goals of the President’s Climate Action Plan by preventing refrigerant leaks, transitioning to climate-friendly refrigerants, and using advanced refrigeration technologies.

“EPA’s GreenChill awardees are meeting the President’s challenge to curb emissions of these potent greenhouse gases head on,” said Janet McCabe, acting assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation. “This year’s award winners are making the smart choice to act on climate by switching to environmentally friendly refrigerants and innovative technologies.”

EPA’s GreenChill partners own approximately 10,800 stores nationwide, representing 29 percent of the U.S. supermarket industry. If supermarkets nationwide reduced the amount of refrigerant they leak to the current GreenChill partner average, they could avoid $169 million in refrigerant replacement costs while preventing the equivalent of 29 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, roughly equal to the annual emissions of about 6 million cars.  

GreenChill partners were recognized in the following categories:

Best Corporate Emissions Rate:  Giant Eagle (Pittsburgh, Pa.) earned the Partnership’s most prestigious award for achieving the lowest refrigerant emissions rate among retail chains. Port Townsend Food Co-op (Port Townsend, Wash.) received this award in the small-independent GreenChill partner category for a second time.

Most Improved Emissions Rate:  Weis Markets (Sunbury, Pa.) was honored with the Most Improved Emissions Rate award for achieving the Partnership’s largest refrigerant leak rate reduction compared to the year it joined the GreenChill Partnership. Dorothy Lane Market(Dayton, Ohio) earned this same recognition for lowering its emissions rate more than any other partner compared to the previous year.

Goal Achievement:  GreenChill’s five Superior Goal Achievement winners voluntarily set and achieved challenging refrigerant emissions reduction goals. Winners include Buehler's Fresh Foods (Wooster, Ohio), City Market, Onion River Co-Op (Burlington, Vt.), Dorothy Lane Market (Dayton, Ohio), Meijer (Grand Rapids, Mich.), and Weis Markets (Sunbury, Pa.).

Distinguished Partner:  Target  (Minneapolis, Minn.) was honored with the Distinguished Partner award for demonstrating extraordinary leadership and initiative in support of GreenChill’s mission.

GreenChill’s Store Certification Program recognized certain stores for meeting strict performance criteria that demonstrate their refrigeration systems have minimal impacts on the ozone layer and climate. GreenChill presented the following store certification awards:

Best of the Best Award:  Piggly Wiggly and Whole Foods Market stores in Columbus, Ga., and Dublin, Calif., respectively, were honored as the “Best of the Best” for installing refrigeration systems that use ammonia as refrigerant. Ammonia’s contribution to climate change is several thousand times smaller than many conventional refrigerants.

Store Certification Excellence Award:  Hillphoenix (Conyers, Ga.) and Sprouts Farmers Market (Phoenix, Ariz.) earned awards for achieving more GreenChill Store Certifications than their peers over the past year.

Store Re-Certification Award:  Five stores were recognized for achieving GreenChill certification for five consecutive years. Winners includeStater Bros. Markets in Palm Desert, Grand Terrace, Chino, and Lake Elsinore, Calif., and Weis Markets in Bellefonte, Pa.

More about the GreenChill Partnership and award winner’s achievements: https://www.epa.gov/greenchill

Connect with EPA Region 4 on Facebook: www.facebook.com/eparegion4

And on Twitter: @EPASoutheast

###

2012 Carbon Cycle 2.0 Symposium

Video Published on Mar 6, 2012

Feb 10, 2012. Berkeley Lab Associate Laboratory Director for Energy & Environmental Sciences Don DePaolo introduces the Symposium with an overview of the Carbon Cycle 2.0 initiative and highlights of programmatic developments over the past year. 

Climate Change Science: Dr. Paul Alivisatos, Berkeley Lab Director

Video Published on Mar 6, 2012

Jan 31, 2011. As a director of a national laboratory, I'm sometimes asked about the scientific underpinnings of climate change issues and their relationship to human activities. I imagine that some of you have also been asked these questions. Government officials want to know that their policy and spending decisions are based on sound science, and ordinary citizens want to know why so much emphasis is being placed on "clean" and "green" energy. I've developed a brief exploration of the basic science of carbon dioxide's influence on the temperature of the planet, along with some of the empirical evidence behind scientists' concerns about the long-term impacts of anthropogenic carbon emissions.

Tags: human activity, carbon dioxide, Fourier, heat transfer, Keeling, oxygen, glaciation, warming, Arrhenius, feedback

What is Fracking? Daniel Schrag. Carbon Cycle 2.0 Big Questions in Energ...

California's efforts to clean up diesel engines have helped reduce impact of climate change on state, study finds

News Release:

Berkeley Lab partners in study showing clean diesel programs slashed black carbon, a powerful short-term contributor to global warming

JUNE 13, 2013

Jon Weiner 510-486-4014  jrweiner@lbl.gov

 19 

 

 

    

News Release

Sacramento — Reductions in emissions of black carbon since the late 1980s, mostly from diesel engines as a result of air quality programs, have resulted in a measurable reduction of concentrations of global warming pollutants in the atmosphere, according to a first-of-its-kind study examining the impact of black carbon on California’s climate.
The study, funded by the California Air Resources Board and led by Dr. Veerabhadran Ramanathan of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, estimates that reductions in black carbon as a result of clean air regulations were equivalent to reducing carbon dioxide emissions in California by 21 million metric tons annually or taking more than 4 million cars off California roads every year.
“We know that California’s programs to reduce emissions from diesel engines have helped clean up the air and protect public health,” said ARB chairman Mary D. Nichols. “This report makes it clear that our efforts to clean up the trucks and buses on our roads and highways also help us in the fight against climate change.”
Black carbon — tiny soot particles released into the atmosphere by burning fuels — has been linked to adverse health and environmental impacts through decades of scientific research. It is also one of the major short-lived contributors to climate change. The major sources of black carbon in California are diesel-burning mobile sources, residential wood burning in fireplaces and heaters, agricultural burning and wildfires.
The 3-year-study, titled “Black Carbon and Regional Climate of California,” was conducted by UC San Diego, UC Berkeley, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. It is the first comprehensive regional assessment of the climate impact of black carbon on California. In conducting the study, scientists used computer models and air pollution data collected by aircraft, satellite and ground monitors.
The study’s results support a growing body of scientific evidence that suggests it is possible to immediately slow the pace of climate change regionally by reducing emissions of short-lived climate pollutants, like black carbon.
According to co-author Dr. Tom Kirchstetter of Berkeley Lab, black carbon levels have decreased by about 90 percent over a 45-year period, beginning with the establishment of CARB in 1967, mostly as a result of state regulations for diesel engine emissions. Researchers found the state’s efforts to reduce diesel emissions to have lessened the impact of global warming on California, supporting earlier theoretical computer modeling by Dr. Mark Jacobson of Stanford University that reducing black carbon from diesel combustion is a potent ‘climate cooler.’

Changes in atmospheric temperature at 2 meter (left) and 2 km (right) comparing the 2000s to the 1960s, in Celsius.

The reductions occurred during a time when diesel fuel consumption increased by about a factor of five, attesting to the effectiveness of CARB regulations requiring cleaner fuels and vehicle technology.
The study took a conservative approach in examining the impact black carbon has on the Golden State. Researchers considered emissions only from diesel-powered trucks and buses, and off-road diesel equipment and vehicles to estimate the equivalent reduction of carbon dioxide.
When all sources of black carbon emissions from diesel fuel combustion are considered, including farming and construction equipment, trains and ships, the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions can be as high as 50 million metric tons per year over the past 20 years. That’s roughly equal to a 13-percent reduction in the total annual carbon dioxide emissions in California.
As ARB’s current efforts to clean up trucks and buses move forward, resulting in the continued cleanup and turnover of older heavy-duty diesel vehicles, California should continue to see declines in particulate matter emissions. Advanced engine emissions control systems and filters are expected to dramatically reduce emissions from all new diesel engines. Current diesel truck engines, for example, are over 90 percent cleaner than models from years when they were unregulated.
“If California’s efforts in reducing black carbon can be replicated globally, we can slow down global warming in the coming decades by about 15 percent, in addition to protecting people’s lives,” Ramanathan said. “It is a win-win solution if we also mitigate carbon dioxide emissions simultaneously.”
Black carbon has the effect of warming the atmosphere because it is effective at absorbing sunlight. However, it is emitted together with a range of other particle pollutants, including organic carbon, sulfur and other chemicals, some of which have a cooling effect, typically by reflecting sunlight. Reducing diesel emissions can therefore lead to a reduction of both warming and cooling particles. The report, however, is the first to confirm, based on both observations and computer modeling, that the warming effect of black carbon dominates, overwhelming any cooling effect of other pollutants. This confirms the positive impact reducing diesel emissions has on fighting climate change.
Other findings include:
·  The study found evidence to link brown carbon — a form of organic carbon aerosols — to warming. Therefore, a commonly held view that organic particles from wildfires primarily reflect sunlight, and cause cooling, was not supported by the study.
·  A finding that black carbon particles increased the number of drops of water in clouds, while decreasing the size of those drops, a condition that can reduce or delay rain.
A copy of the full study can be found here:
http://www.arb.ca.gov/research/single-project.php?row_id=64841
The National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) at Berkeley Lab, which is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, provided computing resources for the regional model simulations.
Recent Berkeley Lab Stories on Black Carbon:
http://www.nersc.gov/news-publications/news/science-news/2013/researchers-model-impact-of-aerosols-over-california/
http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2012/06/12/measuring-higher-than-expected-levels-of-methane-in-california/
http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2012/03/05/snow-albedo/
http://newscenter.lbl.gov/feature-stories/2010/12/01/lead-isotopes-air-pollution/
http://newscenter.lbl.gov/feature-stories/2010/02/03/black-carbon-himalayan-glaciers/
# # #
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world’s most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab’s scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. For more, visit www.lbl.gov.

TAGS: black carbon, clean air, climate

MIT Researchers Awarded $750,000 Grant to Study Climate Change Effects

News Release

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
New England Regional Office
August 22, 2012

Contact: David Deegan, (617) 918-1017

MIT Researchers Awarded $750,000 Grant to Study Climate Change Effects

(Boston, Mass. – Aug. 22, 2012) – The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been awarded $749,931 by the US Environmental Protection Agency to examine the ability of models to represent the presence of extreme air pollution and the weather conditions that are associated with it.

This grant was one of 14 awarded by EPA to universities across the nation for a total of $9 million to fund research on technologies that can help the public and government agencies predict and prepare for the effect extreme weather triggered by climate change may have on the nation’s air and water quality.

The project at MIT, based in Cambridge, Mass., will use advanced statistical techniques to identify the drivers and occurrence of historical and future extreme air quality events in the United States from observations and models.

“We need to know how changes in weather and extreme weather events will affect the quality of our air and water,” said Curt Spalding, regional administrator of EPA’s New England office. “Grants like the one EPA awarded to MIT furthers research that can help us understand the impact of such weather on our natural resources as well as our built environment. In turn, this information can help us take steps to reduce the harmful impact on our communities brought by extreme weather events.”

The project involves a collaboration of atmospheric scientists at MIT and the National Center for Atmospheric Research with statisticians at Colorado State University and North Carolina State University.

"We are excited that in this project we are bringing together statisticians who specialize in thinking about extreme events with atmospheric scientists who are concerned with air quality issues,” said project leader Colette Heald at MIT. “It's a great team to tackle this problem and we are looking forward to learning more about the connections between extreme air quality and extreme weather."

The other 13 grants were awarded to: Public Policy Institute of California, Mississippi State University, Ohio State University, Oregon State University, University of Washington, University of South Florida (two grants), Michigan State University, Michigan Technological University, University of Texas at Austin, Georgia Institute of Technology, Columbia University, and Cornell University.

More information on these EPA research grants (http://www.epa.gov/ncer/xevents).

#   #   #