City supports refrigeration efficiency for Coles, one of Australia’s leading retailers

Project Overview

City is proud to support Coles’ emission reduction targets, which aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by accelerating the decarbonisation of Coles operations and supply chains by June 2025.

Aligning to the Montreal Protocol, an international agreement that encourages the phasing down of Hydrofluorocarbon (HCF) refrigerants, City is working closely with Coles to transition away from HFC refrigerants, as they have a high global warming potential (GWP) compared to CO2 natural refrigerants.

As part of Coles’ Refrigeration Asset Replacement Strategy, City is replacing high GWP refrigeration systems with updated energy-efficient, natural and compliant CO2 systems across all Coles supermarkets nationwide.

Our Approach

City’s proactive refrigeration asset maintenance approach ensures maximum asset longevity, energy-efficient and compliant refrigeration solutions that align with Coles’ overall emission reduction targets. Our team of highly skilled, licensed technicians, project managers, and engineers undertake continuous and proactive training on new equipment and plant technology to fully support Coles assets from installation to maintenance and replacement.

Before the installation of the rooftop plant commenced, our engineers and project managers audited the store site to determine the safest and most compliant location for the refrigeration plant. After a thorough assessment, it was determined that there was inadequate space for the refrigeration plant in the initial designated area. This led our team to engineer a solution that considered the store’s refrigeration requirements and aimed to streamline the design to handover a maintainable, energy-efficient solution.

Key Challenges

The store / site audit identified inadequate space within the designated area to facilitate the refrigeration plant installation. To address this, our team proposed a rooftop plant solution.

As part of the process, we engaged SCM Frigo, to design a purpose-built rooftop plant enclosure to house the refrigeration plant, which can be lifted and located on the rooftop platform. SCM Frigo is one of the top manufacturers of Transcritical CO2 systems worldwide and develops cutting-edge technologies to maximise sustainability through the lowest environmental impact.

On the day of installation, a crane was used to support the installation of the rooftop plant. Our team ensured this was used with adequate traffic management controls on site in accordance with Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) regulations. Throughout the process, our team liaised with Coles to keep them updated on the new refrigeration layouts, activities undertaken, and progress of the refrigeration asset installation.

Outcome

The successful replacement of refrigeration assets aligned with Coles emission reduction targets, while store activities remained unimpacted throughout the process. All assets were effectively installed as per store requirements and timeframes.