While refrigerants cool commercial and industrial facilities they heat up the atmosphere. The refrigerant gases leak and while they stay in the atmosphere for a shorter term than carbon dioxide, they heat up the atmosphere to a much greater degree. This Catch 22 problem will become worse in a heating world.

Luckily solutions exist. One solution is to move to natural refrigerants (air, water and chemicals such as ammonia, butane, carbon dioxide and propane). To enable companies to effectively manage their refrigerants three steps are required. First, measure what is used and where it is used and how much is used. Second, mitigate and manage leaks. An equipment that is leaking refrigerants is also using more energy so plugging leaks also saves costs. Third, personnel will also have to learn about refrigerants. So far it is mostly relegated to the corner of the basements.

Listen to this podcast from Adrian Bukmanis to explain all this and also discuss what investors should look out for. First, there would be investments in the production of natural refrigerants. Second, there will be opportunities to support companies as they install monitoring software and make the switch. Finally, there will be a need for investment in safely disposing off the current generation of refrigerants when they come to the end of their life. These last opportunities will emerge as regulations tighten.