ASDA FIRST TO LAUNCH ECOFRIDGE IN IT'S FLEET OF FOOD DISTRIBUTION TRAILERS

Supermarket trial set to cut carbon emissions by circa 860 tonnes!
Today ASDA announced market leading plans to replace its traditional diesel-fuelled fridges in its transport fleet with an emission free, silent running alternative -reducing carbon and eliminating noise pollution from deliveries made to stores.

The aptly titled 'ecoFridge', which is being trialled in seven articulated vehicles at ASDA's Skelmersdale depot, will reduce the overall amount of carbon emitted by its fleet transport by around 860 tonnes, putting the supermarket on course to hit their commitment in reducing the amount of carbon produced by 80,000 metric tonnes by the end of 2008.

If the trial study is successful, the ecoFridge, which runs off liquid nitrogen rather than diesel, may be rolled out to its entire fleet of temperature controlled distribution trailers. By switching all of its fleet transport to nitrogen powered refrigeration, ASDA estimates it could reduce overall carbon emissions by 70,000 metric tonnes in the next five years.

The ecoFridge, designed by Ukram Industries, works by using emission free, liquid nitrogen as the accelerant in the cooling process. In comparison, traditional diesel-fuelled fridges emit high levels of carbon dioxide and hydro fluorocarbons (HFCs), both renowned for their contribution to global warming and depletion of the ozone layer. 

Not only will ecoFridge eliminate carbon emission – calculated by the Department of Transport to be 2.6304 kgs per litre of diesel burned – but, owing to its engineering simplicity, maintenance costs are reduced by at least 65%.

Chris Hall, ASDA's network transport manager, said: "This is a major step towards ensuring that our fleet transport reduces costs, cuts carbon emissions and lowers the overall environmental impact of food distribution. It also solves the problem of delivering chilled goods to our stores in residential areas - especially at night, due to the silent running nature of the technology."

The ecoFridge scheme is the latest in a long line of on-going initiatives introduced by ASDA to minimise carbon emissions. Last year all 1000 lorries used in ASDA's fleet distribution were converted to run on a bio-diesel mix reducing carbon tail pipe emissions by 3%.

Furthermore, the supermarket has sought planning permission to install five two mega watt wind turbines and aim to have all fully operational by the end of next year.