Wales Retail Forum commitment to install doors on supermarket fridges and freezers

The Wales Retail Forum’s recent decision to encourage supermarkets and retailers to install doors on their fridges and freezers has been welcomed by Friends of the Earth Cymru and Senedd Member for north Wales, Carolyn Thomas.

The decision aligns with the retail industry’s commitment to reducing its carbon footprint and moving towards net-zero emissions.

According to the ‘Together for Retail – A Wales Retail Forum Action Plan Delivery Plan’, the Forum will explore avenues to aid small business premises in adopting renewables and decarbonisation initiatives.

A significant part of this strategy involves retrofitting doors on fridges and freezers, a measure that promises to reduce the retail sector’s carbon footprint significantly.

The Forum’s announcement marks a critical step forward in the battle against climate emissions in Wales, considering supermarket fridges alone account for approximately 1% of the UK power supply each year.

[Senedd Member for north Wales, Carolyn Thomas.]

Installing doors on these fridges can significantly reduce their energy use, cutting down supermarkets’ energy bills and reducing their climate emissions.

Welcoming the decision, Carolyn Thomas MS remarked, “It is a welcome step forward to see a commitment to fit doors onto supermarket fridges in Wales.”

“This announcement should now act as a catalyst for both government and the retail sector across the UK to reap the economic and environmental benefits of fitting fridge doors.”

Joe Cooke, spokesperson for Friends of the Earth Cymru, echoed these sentiments, stating, “Retrofitting doors on supermarket fridges is one of the easier things we can do to save energy and reduce Wales’s climate emissions. This one simple measure could cut a supermarket’s energy use by up to a staggering 40%.”

As energy costs across the UK continue to soar, the move towards more energy-efficient practices in the retail industry seems more crucial than ever.

Friends of the Earth Cymru and Carolyn Thomas MS hope that this initiative will serve as a prompt for other regions in the UK to follow suit.