Oct 2, 2007 9:14 AM

Earth's ozone hole as seen in 2003. Photo courtesy of NASA.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) honored Carrier Corp recently with its Best-of-the-Best Stratospheric Ozone Protection award in recognition of the firm’s achievements in helping restore the Earth’s protective ozone layer. Carrier is a unit of United Technologies Corp.

John Mandyck, Carrier’s vice-president of government and international relations, accepted the award during ceremonies in Montreal. The presentation coincided with the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Montreal Protocol, which calls for a global elimination of ozone-depleting substances such as chlorofluorcarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) used in air-conditioning and refrigeration products.

In 1994, Carrier phased out CFCs from air-conditioning systems worldwide—two years ahead of requirements in the United States and 16 years ahead of mandates in developing nations.

Carrier Transicold’s environmental innovations for trucking include Deltek hybrid diesel-electric refrigeration technology, which has a sealed refrigeration circuit that requires only half the refrigerant of conventional equipment, and the ComfortPro APU, which reduces diesel emissions from idling vehicles. For the shipping industry, Carrier’s container refrigeration products all use non ozone-depleting R-134a.