At this moment, I feel that there is enough reason to feel at least partially satisfied to note that the focus on eco-friendliness is no longer restricted among a few sectors of the economy, instead gradually the paradigm is shifting at all quarters.
Just to be a bit more specific, we have already witnessed the trend of transition in the hard core manufacturing industry; real estate-supply chain-hospitality-travel-tourism-retailing-healthcare et al prominent sectors are also following the same path. Now, the sports industry too is coming forward to adopt sustainable green technologies.
Just to cite an example, creating a milestone in the history of Olympic and Paralympic games, this time in Beijing, all the nine ice rinks in the seven competition venues have been built keeping in mind the eco-friendliness of the technologies used. For five rinks, natural carbon-di-oxide has been used there as refrigerant, and in another four rinks R449A has been used. As far as the environmental aspect is concerned, CO2 is a very attractive refrigerant with zero Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP) and its Global Warming Potential (GWP) is 1.
Although considering its large scale application across the globe, initially it was decided to use R507 refrigerant (which meets the requirements of the Montreal Protocol) for the purpose of making ice rinks in the Bejing Olympic venues, later after discussing with global experts, the organising committee decided to switch over to R449A, which due to its low GWP is a sustainable solution. As per Chemours, a global leader in Thermal & Specialized Solutions, Chemical Solutions and other areas, “To support the mission of being ‘green, open, inclusive and clean’ and to adopt more sustainable solutions, the venues in consultation with equipment suppliers, design engineers and service providers, selected Opteon XP40 (R-449A) refrigerant to provide reliable performance at the demanding low temperatures required for operating their facilities. Opteon XP40 provides a ~65% reduction in GWP over HFC refrigerants used previously, while cost-effectively enabling an energy efficient system design.
According to me, this is an exemplary decision in the global sports industry, what do you feel?
Pravita Iyer
Publisher & Director
