Unsung Heroes of the Environment, Food & Health Care

Refrigeration professionals are a special kind of worker, and for World Refrigeration Day June 26, 2022, we at Matelex US want to call out and honor them.

Technicians and engineers who specialize in refrigeration respond to calls quickly and manage proactively to ensure that food stays fresh, health care products work like they’re supposed to, and businesses deliver on high-stakes promises. They are, when you stop to think about it, the world’s important unsung heroes. 

First, refrigeration pros who stay on top of new technologies are becoming heroes of the environment.

Refrigerant leaks comprise a total of 10% of all global warming emissions, so stopping them sooner can have a real impact*.

Moreover, 90% of refrigerant emissions occur at equipment’s end of life, where they can be reclaimed through proactive maintenance. Optimizing equipment throughout a refrigeration installation can also reduce energy consumption by 20%, which further shrinks its carbon footprint.

Second, our global food supply requires a secure cold chain, in which reliable refrigeration and refrigeration maintenance play a key role. When an installation breaks down, it must be repaired, and more quickly the better to avoid spoilage and loss of product.

Since leaks grow over time, methods that enable detection as early as possible offer the best protection against such food waste. Refrigeration pros are often on call 24/7, traveling to a site at 3am to discern issues with the system. Grocery stores that have many locations are among the first to test out new products that enable remote visibility. This way, proactive maintenance visits can be scheduled at 3pm instead, on an efficient route. 

Lastly and most important, the Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the mission-critical status of cold chain security and reliability in our healthcare system. Several of the approved Covid-19 vaccines must be stored at specific temperatures to work properly, so even a temporary breakdown in a refrigeration installation can actually threaten people’s lives.

Likewise, medicines many people depend on to stay well, like insulin and antibiotics, must be refrigerated. Lifesaving organ donations and blood products also require storage at specific, low temperatures, as do tissue samples and disease strains useful to medical research. Forward-thinking refrigeration specialists are always training in the latest technologies, so that they can be a part of the solution in these healthcare settings. 

Matelex salutes these essential workers for their climate smart practices. We also honor them for their contributions to global food security. And we look forward to working with them more and more on proactive solutions to avoid leakage and breakdowns, reduce energy consumption, and extend equipment life.

*Source: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20201204-climate-change-how-chemicals-in-your-fridge-warm-the-planet#:~:text=The%20cooling%20industry%20is%20important,for%20cooling%20will%20increase%20too.