CO₂ as standard refrigerant: Obstacles and lessons learnt from the MIGROS experience

Migros group is composed of more than 40 companies and cooperatives, with over 600 supermarkets across Switzerland. The group’s refrigeration systems cause and release significant amounts of GHGs. Migros has decided to replace fluorinated refrigerants with CO2 as a standard, because CO2 is: sustainable, energy efficient, and cost neutral in comparison to traditional systems. Today the company has over 100 installed CO2 systems, with the CO2 plants also offering effective heat reclaim. The company has gained many insights from their experience with CO2 and are now collaborating with the Swiss refrigeration sector to produce specific training material and opportunities.