“Climate-friendly refrigerants are the number one way that we can prevent further climate damage,” said Fritz Troller, CEO and co-founder of Therm. “The increasing price of carbon credits and the undisputed permanence of RCCs put them at a market premium, and help our retail grocer customers and food distributors by providing meaningful financial incentives.”

The credits were developed for five mid-sized grocery locations in California for supermarkets Grocery Outlet and Raley’s, two members of the NASRC. They chose to install climate-friendly refrigeration systems and forgo the use of traditional synthetic refrigerants.

“We have many clients throughout the world who are looking for innovative new approaches to reducing emissions reaching ambitious climate goals,” said Saskia Feast, managing director of global client solutions at Climate Impact Partners. “We are delighted to have partnered with Therm, NASRC, Grocery Outlet, and Raley’s in order to demonstrate how this type of credit can make a real impact right now.”

Cooling and refrigeration system upgrades are typically associated with high capital costs, limiting viable options to reduce climate-polluting refrigerants. RCCs function as a type of rebate for stores, enabling them to lower the capital required to make the change.

“The success of our pilot program is a vote of confidence from the carbon market,” said Danielle Wright, executive director of the NASRC. “We are seeing more and more grocers of this size who are interested in switching to climate-friendly refrigerants but can’t find the capital. This creative structure opens the door for even the smallest stores to finance their refrigerant upgrades.”

Therm works with grocers and foodservice providers of all sizes to implement climate-friendly cooling and refrigeration upgrades through Refrigerant Carbon Projects.