Albertsons/Safeway, Whole Foods and Trane among 2021 Solstice Award Honorees for World Refrigeration Day

MORRIS PLAINS, N.J., June 21, 2021 -- Honeywell today announced its inaugural Solstice Awards program, designed to honor companies around the world who are visibly demonstrating their commitment to sustainable air conditioning and refrigeration by adopting refrigerants based on its proprietary Solstice technology to maximize efficiency and reduce their carbon footprint.

“With World Refrigeration Day and the summer solstice occurring in the same week, it seemed fitting to honor the recipients of our first Solstice Awards,” said Ken West, vice president and general manager, Honeywell Fluorine Products. “We are proud to play an integral role in helping so many companies around the world achieve their sustainability goals.”

Recipients of the Inaugural Solstice Award include:

Albertsons/Safeway: American supermarket chain adopted Solstice N40 (R-448A) lower global-warming-potential refrigerant in more than 640 stores in the U.S. Solstice N40 is the most widely accepted, lowest GWP, non-flammable refrigerant replacement for R22 and R-404A globally.

“At Albertsons/Safeway, we are committed to responsible refrigeration practices that lead to a healthier planet,” said Wade Krieger, Refrigeration and HVAC manager, Albertsons/Safeway. “The lower GWP of Solstice N40 supports our environmental commitments while also improving overall energy performance and meeting our budget requirements.”

Danfoss: Danfoss adopted Solstice N15 (R-515B) or Solstice® ze in its new Turbocor® TGS Series of centrifugal compressors, which have the flexibility to be used in air-, water, or evaporative-cooled chillers operating in wide range of applications such as comfort cooling, low-temperature process, ice storage, and heat recovery. Thanks to this flexibility, more than 70,000 Turbocor compressors are installed in jobsites around the world.

 “At Danfoss, we play an active role in sustainable global development, where social responsibility, environmental, and climate considerations go together with sound business development, “ said Drew Turner, Global Marketing Manager, Danfoss. “Honeywell’s Solstice refrigerants allow us to offer our customers compressors that not only meet our sustainability requirements, but theirs as well.”

Majid Al Futtaim Retail: Majid Al Futtaim Retail, the operator of Carrefour in 17 countries across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, adopted Solstice N40 (R-448A) for their newest stores in the UAE.

“We adopted Honeywell’s Solstice N40 in transition to a reduced global-warming-potential refrigerant with better efficiency,” said Philippe Peguilhan, Carrefour UAE Country Manager at Majid Al Futtaim Retail. “Majid Al Futtaim has taken this measure as a step towards achieving its net positive commitment for carbon.”

7-Eleven: 7-Eleven standardized its refrigerated cases in the U.S., Canada and Japan with Solstice N40 to support its sustainability goals.

“In an effort to reduce our carbon footprint, we’ve introduced several innovative measures, such as LED lighting, energy management systems, wind energy in select stores and high-efficiency HVAC units,” said Ann Scott, 7-Eleven senior director of Energy, Engineering and Store Planning. “The use of Solstice N40 is an environmentally preferable alternative for 7-Eleven. Joining forces with Honeywell, which also embraces a mindset and goal to serve as environmental stewards, was a natural fit.”

Trane Technologies: The global climate innovator, Trane Technologies (NYSE: TT) provided two chiller heat pumps (CHPs) using Solstice® ze (R-1234ze) in a groundbreaking district heating network in Scotland. The technology was the first of its kind in the UK to use sewage and wastewater heat recovery technology alongside a CHP engine to generate heat and electricity in a single, highly efficient process.

”In Europe, buildings are responsible for 40 percent of energy consumption and 36 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, and almost half of the energy used in buildings is on heating and cooling,” said José La Loggia, president of the Trane® commercial HVAC business in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. “As a next-generation refrigerant, Solstice ze was a perfect fit for this project, which replaced fossil-fuel based heating with our advanced, more sustainable heat pumps.”

Whole Foods: The world’s leading natural and organic food retailer, Whole Foods Market adopted Solstice N40 in more than 100 of its U.S. stores as it seeks to reduce refrigerant emissions under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenChill program.

“In the past decade, we’ve implemented several innovative measures to reduce our CO2 emissions, and the use of Honeywell’s refrigerant to retrofit our stores will contribute significantly to this goal,” said Mike Ellinger, Principal Program Manager-Engineering, Compliance and Sustainability, of Whole Foods Market. “After reviewing all of our available retrofit options for our refrigerated cases, Solstice N40 was the clear winner, based on its performance, energy efficiency, reduced GWP and ease of conversion.”

In keeping with World Refrigeration Day’s theme of “Cool Careers”, Honeywell is also highlighting some of its many employees who contribute to the success of Honeywell’s refrigerants business every day.

“We encourage anyone who has an interest in a career in the HVACR industry to take this opportunity to learn about the importance of these technologies are to sustaining human life,” said West. “We need only look to the pandemic to see how refrigerants kept food safe in transit to our supermarkets,  kept ICUs clean and germ-free, and maintained vaccines at cryogenic temperatures until ready to use.”

Honeywell continues to see growing interest from customers around the world in the industrial and commercial A/C and refrigeration industries, including equipment manufacturers and end-users like supermarkets and convenience stores. Solstice refrigerant technologies meet performance requirements while staying ahead of changing environmental regulations.

Honeywell is a world leader in the development, manufacture and supply of refrigerants that are sold worldwide under the Solstice® and Genetron® brand names for a range of applications, including refrigeration and building and automobile air conditioning.  Honeywell and its suppliers have completed a  billion dollar investment program in research and development, and new capacity based on Honeywell’s hydrofluorolefin technology. Worldwide adoption of Solstice products has resulted in the reduction of more than 210 million metric tons of CO2 to date, equal to eliminating the emissions from more than 44 million cars from the road for a year.

Honeywell recently committed to achieve carbon neutrality in its operations and facilities by 2035. This commitment builds on the company’s track record of sharply reducing the greenhouse gas intensity of its operations and facilities as well as its decades-long history of innovation to help its customers meet their environmental and social goals. About half of Honeywell’s new product introduction research and development investment is directed toward products that improve environmental and social outcomes for customers.

Honeywell (www.honeywell.com) is a Fortune 100 technology company that delivers industry specific solutions that include aerospace products and services; control technologies for buildings and industry; and performance materials globally. Our technologies help everything from aircraft, buildings, manufacturing plants, supply chains, and workers become more connected to make our world smarter, safer, and more sustainable.  For more news and information on Honeywell, please visit www.honeywell.com/newsroom.