Appliances

Industrial Consumer

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Suggested

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Info on this product category: Appliances

Why Go Green

Even Energy Star fridges can have refrigerants with polluting hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).  HFCs are super-greenhouse gases (GHGs), some of which have global warming potentials (GWPs) thousands of times higher than carbon dioxide (which is also a refrigerant).

HFCs are produced and emitted in high volumes.  Project Drawdown listed refrigerants in the top 10 list of climate solutions.

Most polluting GHG emissions happened during maintenance and end-of-life of fridges and air conditioning.  

Tips

Prevent a lot of refrigerants from emitting pollution by safely recycling fridges and other refrigerant products with Recology or US EPA’s Responsible Appliance Disposal (RAD) partners. RAD partners go beyond federal requirements.

If the sticker in a refrigerator says “R600a” or “R290,” it’s much more climate-friendlier than ones with refrigerant types R-134a or R-404A.  Also check Energy Star to see if it's energy-efficient. 

Criteria for Appliances

Criteria for Suggested products:

Appliances should be listed at ClimateFriendlyCooling.com or meet specifications in Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council's (SPLC) and the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development's (IGSD) contract language for climate-friendlier products at bit.ly/2Wtp0Hb. In that link's Table of Contents, click Specifications. 

Other appliances should be Energy Star certified.

Last updated

Last updated: 
November 13, 2020