Demonstration of Energy Efficient, Scalable, and 100% Electric Heat Pump Refrigeration at Straus Family Creamery to Be the First of Its Kind at Industrial Commercial Scale

ROHNERT PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 21, 2024--

A new technology—100% electric heat pump refrigeration— at Straus Family Creamery will contribute to a sustainable transformation of the commercial cold storage sector, reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), improving energy efficiency and demand flexibility, saving energy costs, and applying advanced defrost controls. Partners Alter Engineers, Avida Energy, DMG North, Flow Environmental Systems, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, ProspectSV, and Straus Family Creamery are proud to be working together on the project, which, funded by the California Energy Commission, is a first of its kind.

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The team will install and demonstrate Flow Environmental Systems’ ANSWR™ CO2 Heat Pump system at multiple cold storage sites used to store Straus Family Creamery’s organic super premium ice cream, yogurt, and other dairy products at the Creamery’s dairy manufacturing facility in Rohnert Park, CA. The project kicks off in September 2024 and is expected to span a two and a half year period.

Flow Environmental Systems’ ANSWR™ is a 100% electric advanced heat pump that can operate as a cooler, freezer, chiller, and/or heat pump boiler with a single power feed and simultaneous heating and cooling. This integrated solution provides low temperature and medium temperature refrigeration by reclaiming heat from the refrigeration cycle to defrost for little to no energy. ANSWR™ also replaces fossil fuel and synthetic refrigerants with safe and efficient CO2 refrigerants. While advanced heat pumps have been used in residential settings, this is a first use case at the industrial commercial scale. “Efficiency and carbon footprint reduction is at the core of Flow’s innovative heat pump design,” says Flow’s Chief Technology Officer, Sean Jarvie. “Straus Family Creamery’s use of ANSWR™ to satisfy multiple heating and cooling processes makes the technology an ideal application that maximizes efficiency and reduces peak demand, resulting in beneficial impacts on costs, grid congestion, and the environment.”

Straus Family Creamery’s Vice President, Sustainability & Strategic Impact, Joseph Button agrees. “We are tremendously excited that this project will drive operational efficiency improvements and climate impact reductions at the Creamery,” he says. “Even more, we are thrilled to help facilitate industry-wide advancement of this important climate solution through partnership, demonstration, and shared learning.”

The project exemplifies Straus Family Creamery’s long-standing commitment to a climate positive future through industrial decarbonization, while facilitating the rapid rollout of an innovative heat pump that addresses carbon and peak load challenges faced by California’s industrial refrigeration sector. It carves a path to significantly improving efficiencies and flexibility in facilities where this has historically not been possible. Design resources from the project will be shared with building owners, engineers, general and mechanical contractors, architects, and other industry professionals.

ABOUT THE PROJECT PARTNERS

DMG North, founded in 1967, is a premier independent sales representative specializing in top-tier HVAC equipment. Partnering with leading manufacturers, DMG delivers innovative solutions for the most demanding specifications. DMG collaborates with consulting engineers, contractors, developers, and facility engineers/owners to provide custom-engineered HVAC systems. Their expert team offers solutions including Custom and Semi-Custom Air Handlers, Heat Pump systems, fans, Air Distribution products, VRF systems, and more, serving sectors such as Healthcare, Laboratories, Mission Critical environments, Offices, Schools, and Hospitality. Beyond sales, DMG provides training, warranty support, troubleshooting and repairs. In 2023, DMG joined Ambient Enterprises, expanding its reach across North America.

Flow Environmental Systems is an engineering, technology and manufacturing company established to bring commercially viable and environmentally responsible HVAC&R solutions to global markets. The Flow ANSWR™ CO2 Heat Pump is a water heating and cooling solution delivering up to 180°F and down to -30°F with eco-friendly R-744 (CO2) refrigerant for all climates. It offers heating, cooling, DHW, and simultaneous capabilities for efficient, flexible performance. With high reliability, a small footprint, quiet operation, easy service, and long-lasting components, it’s a solution for today and the future.

Prospect Silicon Valley (ProspectSV) is a nonprofit cleantech innovation and impact hub focusing on decarbonization technologies, transition strategies, and deployments. ProspectSV helps solution providers and institutions take innovative approaches from pilots to full-scale implementation. ProspectSV’s deep connection to asset ownership, design, and technology development leadership offers immediate, tangible value and path to success. We approach projects differently - forging teams of experts and providing integrated support ranging from commercialization advisory to pilot implementations and program management. Since its inception, ProspectSV has collaborated with more than 60 local government and institutional partners, supported more than 70 cleantech startups, and leveraged more than $600M in public and private investment to drive innovations in transportation and the built environment.

Straus Family Creamery, the first 100 percent certified organic creamery in the United States when it launched in 1994, continues to make business decisions based on its mission to help sustain family farms, revitalize rural communities, and protect the environment. Based in Northern California, it crafts premium dairy products with high-quality organic milk and ingredients while focusing on minimal processing for superior taste. Its milk, cream, kefir, yogurt, ice cream, butter, sour cream, and various food service products are made with organic milk supplied by family farms in Marin and Sonoma Counties, including the Straus Dairy Farm, which was the first dairy farm west of the Mississippi River to become certified organic.

Founded by Albert Straus – a second-generation dairy farmer and climate action pioneer whose Straus Dairy Farm is currently on track to implement a carbon-neutral organic dairy farming model. believed to be the first of its kind – Straus Family Creamery is collaborating and innovating with its supplying dairy farms to reach carbon neutrality by 2030. The family-owned business advocates for local organic dairy farmers whose farms utilize 100 percent organic practices which regenerate soil through carbon farming.

Straus Family Creamery’s Organic Super Premium Caramel Swirl Ice Cream at the company’s organic dairy manufacturing facility in Rohnert Park, CA. (Photo: Business Wire)

Flow Environmental Systems’ ANSWR™ CO2 Heat Pump will be installed at Straus Family Creamery’s dairy manufacturing facility in Rohnert Park, CA. (Photo: Business Wire)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Young women are more liberal than they have been in decades, according to a Gallup analysis of more than 20 years of polling data.

Over the past few years, about 4 in 10 young women between the ages of 18 and 29 have described their political views as liberal, compared with two decades ago when about 3 in 10 identified that way.

For many young women, their liberal identity is not just a new label. The share of young women who hold liberal views on the environment, abortion, race relations and gun laws has also jumped by double digits, Gallup found.

Young women "aren’t just identifying as liberal because they like the term or they’re more comfortable with the term, or someone they respect uses the term,” said Lydia Saad, the director of U.S. social research at Gallup. “They have actually become much more liberal in their actual viewpoints."

Becoming a more cohesive political gtoup with distinctly liberal views could turn young women into a potent political force, according to Saad. While it is hard to pinpoint what is making young women more liberal, they now are overwhelmingly aligned on many issues, which could make it easier for campaigns to motivate them.

Young women are already a constituency that has leaned Democratic — AP VoteCast data shows that 65% of female voters under 30 voted for Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 — but they are sometimes less reliable when it comes to turnout.

Young women began to diverge ideologically from other groups, including men between 18 and 29, women over 30 and men over 30, during Democrat Barack Obama's presidency. That trend appears to have accelerated more recently, around the election of Republican Donald Trump, the #MeToo movement and increasingly successful efforts by the anti-abortion movement to erode abortion access. At the same time, more women, mostly Democrats, were elected to Congress, as governor and to state legislatures, giving young women new representation and role models in politics.

The change in young women's political identification is happening across the board, Gallup found, rather than being propelled by a specific subgroup.

Taylor Swift's endorsement Tuesday of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, after her debate against Trump, illustrated one of the issues where young women have moved to the left. In Swift's Instagram announcing the endorsement praised Harris and running mate Tim Walz for championing reproductive rights.

The Gallup analysis found that since the Obama era, young women have become nearly 20 percentage points more likely to support broad abortion rights. There was a roughly similar increase in the share of young women who said protection of the environment should be prioritized over economic growth and in the share of young women who say gun laws should be stricter.

Now, Saad said, solid majorities of young women hold liberal views on issues such as abortion, the environment, and gun laws.

Young women are "very unified on these issues ... and not only do they hold these views, but they are dissatisfied with the country in these areas, and they are worried about them,” she said. That, she added, could help drive turnout.

“You've got supermajorities of women holding these views," she said, and they are "primed to be activated to vote on these issues."

Associated Press writer Laurie Kellman in London contributed to this report.

Signs for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are posted in Jarvis Square ahead of the presidential debate between Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

FILE - Taylor Swift arrives at the world premiere of the concert film "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" in Los Angeles on Oct. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)