The SAQ Is Axing Fridges To Save The Environment — Pre-Chilled Rosé Sashays Away

For years, the SAQ has offered fresh and crisp white wine and rosé in its abundance of fridges, of which there are 2,700 currently active. Thanks to climate change, the SAQ has decided to reduce its environmental impact by removing 66 percent of its current fleet of refrigerators.

The organization conducted three pilot projects to test its new fridge regime. Apparently, these pilots "revealed that customers want to participate in the collective effort to reduce [greenhouse gases]," SAQ spokesperson Geneviève Cormier told MTL Blog over email.

"However" — and it's a big however — "they still want to be able to find some fresh products for their last-minute needs," Cormier added.

That's why 34 percent of the fridge population will survive the culling, which will take place over the course of a 15-year redevelopment the SAQ is embarking on.

Fridges will still exist in every SAQ branch, but their number is going down: only three fridges will cool the wines in Selection SAQs, and there will be one fridge in each standard SAQ and SAQ Express.

Reducing the number of fridges is overall an attempt "to minimize the environmental footprint of our activities," Cormier said.

"The reduction of in-store refrigerators will allow us to [...] reduce our energy consumption equivalent to the consumption of 125 homes over 15 years, and our environmental footprint will go from 12.6 tons of CO2 today to four in 2037, a total reduction of 83 tons over 15 years," she added.

Where will all these rejected refrigerators go, then? Cormier says the SAQ is "committed to disposing of them in an environmentally responsible manner," including by donating the appliances to food banks and other "various organizations."

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.