San Francisco-based EOS Climate, which incentivizes the complete life cycle management of harmful refrigerants, on Tuesday announced the launch of its Refrigerant Asset System™ (RAS), the first cross-sector business model that focuses on refrigerants as assets.
Refrigerants are potent greenhouse gases and significant contributors to global climate change when released to the atmosphere. They have traditionally been treated as consumables in a linear model, in that they are produced, used, leaked, and replaced on an ongoing basis. The Refrigerant Asset System allows businesses to manage refrigerants as assets, investing in their conservation and maintenance, and monetizing them when they have reached the end of their useful life. Major U.S. retailers and refrigeration service contractors are currently deploying the new platform on a pilot basis, with official launch of the Refrigerant Asset System (RAS) this week.
"Refrigerants have long been viewed as a compliance and financial burden for business. Our new system is a fundamental shift in approach, treating the hundreds of millions of dollars that businesses like supermarkets have tied up in refrigerants as a valuable commodity. And, because businesses protect assets and don't allow them to vanish into thin air, the environment benefits as well. It really is a win-win for everyone, " said CEO Matt Jones, CEO of EOS Climate, which was a semi-finalist in this year’s SB Innovation Open.
The Refrigerant Asset System (RAS) provides refrigerant-intensive industries, such as supermarkets, hotels and manufacturers of refrigeration and HVAC equipment with multiple asset optimization paths for their refrigerants. The system deploys integrated technology across the refrigerant value chain to track every pound of refrigerant from the point of purchase through to the end of life. The unprecedented, real-time transparency into refrigerant movement delivers information seamlessly for compliance reporting, advanced sustainability metrics, and enables refrigerant owners to capture value from their assets
Because assets get managed, the Refrigerant Asset System will revolutionize refrigerant use. Deployed at scale, it can prevent millions of metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent from reaching the atmosphere.
EOS says it is piloting the RAS platform with a few large partners such as Whole Foods, which last month scored 15/40 in an Environmental Investigation Agency report highlighting U.S. grocers and retailers that have not taken substantial action to phase out HFCs or reduce the amount of HFC emissions leaking from their refrigeration systems.
Earlier this year, EOS Climate and DuPont Refrigerants announced a buyback program to incentivize the return of recovered chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) refrigerants by paying contractors and business owners for the safe disposal of the polluting substances. The program is being offered through the nationwide network of DuPont refrigerant distributors and reclaim centers as an expansion of the current reclaim program provided by DuPont, according to the companies.
Get the latest insights, trends, and innovations to help position yourself at the forefront of sustainable business leadership—delivered straight to your inbox.
Published Nov 13, 2013 5pm EST / 2pm PST / 10pm GMT / 11pm CET