Therm, a North American carbon offset developer, has announced the successful sale and retirement of its issuance of Refrigerant Carbon Credits (RCCs) from the North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council (NASRC) pilot program. Carbon financing allows grocery retailers and other foodservice providers to switch to climate-friendly refrigerants at lower capital costs by selling the credits created by the projects through the voluntary carbon market. These projects’ RCCs sold at a significant premium to the current rate of similar credits. Projects included refrigeration rack replacements to CO₂, as well as microdistributed and stand-alone cases.

The credits were issued by the American Carbon Registry, and purchased and retired by longtime voluntary carbon market experts, Climate Impact Partners, on behalf of an established market participant.

“Climate-friendly refrigerants are the number one way that we can prevent further climate damage,” said Fritz Troller, CEO and co-founder of Therm. “The increasing price of carbon credits and the undisputed permanence of RCCs put them at a market premium, and help our retail grocer customers and food distributors by providing meaningful financial incentives.”

The credits were developed for five mid-sized grocery locations in California for supermarkets Grocery Outlet and Raley’s, two members of the NASRC. They chose to install climate-friendly refrigeration systems and forgo the use of traditional synthetic refrigerants.

“We have many clients throughout the world who are looking for innovative new approaches to reducing emissions reaching ambitious climate goals,” said Saskia Feast, managing director of global client solutions at Climate Impact Partners. “We are delighted to have partnered with Therm, NASRC, Grocery Outlet, and Raley’s in order to demonstrate how this type of credit can make a real impact right now.”

Cooling and refrigeration system upgrades are typically associated with high capital costs, limiting viable options to reduce climate-polluting refrigerants. RCCs function as a type of rebate for stores, enabling them to lower the capital required to make the change.

“The success of our pilot program is a vote of confidence from the carbon market,” said Danielle Wright, executive director of the NASRC. “We are seeing more and more grocers of this size who are interested in switching to climate-friendly refrigerants but can’t find the capital. This creative structure opens the door for even the smallest stores to finance their refrigerant upgrades.”

Therm works with grocers and foodservice providers of all sizes to implement climate-friendly cooling and refrigeration upgrades through Refrigerant Carbon Projects.