Supermarket giant appears to be falling behind in move from climate-harming gases
International supermarket giant Ahold Delhaize appears to be lagging behind when it comes to phasing out climate-harming refrigeration – even though CEO Frans Muller was until just days ago the co-chair of the influential Consumer Goods Forum, which is committed to speeding up the transition to natural refrigerants.
Ahold Delhaize, which operates more than 7,700 stores across Europe, the US and Indonesia and generated €88.6 billion in revenue in 2023, is one of five major supermarket chains assessed in a new EIA report.
Cooling the Climate Crisis – Why investing in sustainable refrigeration is crucial for decarbonising supermarkets highlights that up to 70 per cent of a supermarket’s non-supply chain emissions come from cooling, driven by energy consumption and the use of potent greenhouse gas refrigerants.
Jerónimo Martins, Metro AG, Carrefour and Tesco were also assessed, with Carrefour marked down for high emissions and Tesco for poor transparency.
To support decarbonisation in the sector, EIA Climate campaigners have produced a Net Zero Supermarket Cooling Pathway, a practical guide outlining key steps retailers must take to reduce cooling emissions. Investors are also encouraged to engage with companies in their portfolios to drive this transition.
In 2018, the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) committed to overcoming barriers to enable the purchase of new equipment relying on natural or ultra-low Global Warming Potential (GWP) refrigerants by no later than 2025.
And in a statement on Ahold Delhaize’s own website in 2023, CEO Frans Muller identified “Supporting faster decarbonization progress” as one of his key goals while serving as co-chair of the CGF and promised to “help ramp up activity across CGF’s membership to support decarbonization progress across the value chain”.
Releasing the report today, EIA Senior Climate Campaigner Fionnuala Walravens said: “As a major retailer in the EU and US, Ahold Delhaize could use its European progress to drive change in the US, where it still lags behind. In EIA’s 2024 Scorecard, it scored just 24 out of 100, with under one per cent of US stores using low-GWP refrigerants.
Frans Muller
“With CEO Frans Muller until recently co-chairing the Consumer Goods Forum, the company has both the visibility and responsibility to lead and must act on the CGF’s 2025 natural refrigerant resolution”
Frans MullerEIA asked Ahold Delhaize to comment on our assessment that it was lagging behind other supermarkets on accelerating the drive to net zero decarbonisation in its cooling systems when its own CEO was, until standing down on 13 June 2025, the co-chair of the CGF. The company denied it was not doing as well as others, pointing out that 40 per cent of refrigeration systems in its EU stores operate on natural refrigerants.
“EIA’s analysis shows that investing in sustainable cooling is a no-brainer,” added Walravens. “Supermarkets that continue to buy new HFC-based equipment risk stranded assets due to spiralling refrigerant costs and potential regulatory penalties.”
Key recommendations in the report include halting installation of new HFC-based refrigeration across all supermarket stores and committing to a total HFC phase-out by 2030 in Europe and by 2040 globally.
Other key findings in Cooling the Climate Crisis include:
- despite the availability of cost-effective, energy-efficient, sustainable cooling alternatives, such as natural refrigerants (CO2, ammonia, hydrocarbons, water and air) and their widespread adoption in Europe, many retailers, particularly in the US and developing markets, are lagging in their transition away from HFCs
- investing in natural refrigerant systems offers strong financial returns with payback periods of 4-10 years and these systems continue to cut operational costs well beyond repayment due to their 15-year lifespans and significant energy savings
- retailers that delay transitioning away from HFC-based systems face increasing operational costs due to soaring HFC refrigerant prices (some of which have risen by more than an 800 per cent in Europe in the past four years) and significant regulatory penalties.
