Refrigerant gasses are powerful, growing, and overlooked drivers of climate change. Many refrigerant products in widespread use today can trap thousands of times more heat in the atmosphere than CO2. Collectively, refrigerants are also the world’s fastest growing category of greenhouse gasses. As a result, Project Drawdown estimates that reducing and better managing high global warming potential (high-GWP) refrigerants could avoid .5 C of warming by 2100. However, policy action on refrigerants is currently far too slow to meet international climate targets, and businesses are only beginning to pay attention to the topic.

While almost every corporation operates buildings that rely on cooling and heat pump technology, very few track the carbon equivalent of refrigerants under management (entrained carbon), or their annual rate of leakage. Studies suggest refrigerant emissions could account for up to 50% of Scope 1 emissions for building operators, making the gasses a huge liability for companies and a significant opportunity to make early progress on corporate climate goals.

We envision a world in which there is zero climate and environmental impact from refrigerants used in cooling and heat pump technologies.

We inspire and drive business action on Scope 1 refrigerant emissions, as a means to transform the broader refrigerant landscape toward zero climate and environmental impact.

Three major obstacles stand in the way of business action on refrigerants: a lack of understanding of the problem; limited measurement and reporting; and a dearth of economical climate-friendly alternatives. To address these challenges we:

• Educate business decision-makers and key partners on the magnitude, impact, and urgency of the refrigerant challenge;
• Empower businesses to take action on refrigerants in their own operations, often via peer-to-peer learning; and
• Engage businesses in using their collective buying power and voice to accelerate development of climate-friendly refrigerant technologies and supportive policy