So in a nutshell: Lightweight plastic packaging delivers more goods with significantly less waste, energy use, and
global warming potential.
The German groups Daimler and Volkswagen and their equipment makers are also working on a cleaner refrigerant using a carbon dioxide derivative, R744, which has a
global warming potential of only one.
Honeywell's non-flammable, non-ozone depleting Solstice Propellant has a
global warming potential of 6.
Concrete homes did have a higher embodied
global warming potential (GWP) associated with the pre-use phase of LCA when raw materials are harvested and turned into construction materials, transported to the site, and assembled into the finished home.
Although carbon dioxide gets all the recognition, methane is actually a much more potent global warming gas--with 21 times more heat-trapping,
global warming potential. As the 2006 United Nation's report "Livestock's Long Shadow" showed, methane is the second-most important greenhouse gas, and livestock, worldwide, are major contributors to global warming, not only through methane, but also through the nitrous oxide (296 times the
global warming potential of CO2) in manure and the deforestation that provides grazing for livestock (livestock accounts for the largest human use of land worldwide).
The second phase will expand these services to include reclamation and banking of all ODS including Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) refrigerants, and in addition Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) that are high in
Global Warming Potential (GWP).
The new refrigerant, called an HFO, has a
global warming potential of just 4 compared to over 1,400 for the current refrigerant, HFC-134a.
The statement added: "Refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment contains Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases, such as HFCs, which have a very massive
global warming potential relative to carbon dioxide.
The overall goal of mixtures is to match performance parameters of low global warming refrigerants to those that we are used to without increasing the
global warming potential (GWP) of either the fluids themselves or their indirect contribution.
Second Nature Medium Temperature systems--designed to keep refrigerated foods at optimum temperatures--replace R404A, a halogenated fluorocarbon (HFC) and contributor to greenhouse gases, with a 35% aqueous propylene glycol fluid and R407C, a non-halogenated refrigerant with less than half of the
global warming potential of traditional HFC refrigerants.