December 4th, 2009
By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now
Coca-Cola has announced that by 2015, 100% of their new vending machines and coolers will be hydroflourocarbon-free (HFC-free). The new equipment will have HFC-free insulation and HFC-free refrigerant, which combined will reduce the equipment’s direct greenhouse gas emissions by 99% when compared to traditional equipment.
Coca-Cola has 10 million coolers and vending machines in use all over the world. With eliminating HFCs in all of their equipment, carbon emission reductions will exceed 52.5 million metric tons over the life of the equipment – the equivalent of taking more than 11 million cars off the road for one year.
Coca-Cola has invested over $50 million in research toward climate friendly cooling technologies, the company says in a news release. In the place of HFC, Coca-Cola will use two solutions, hydrocarbon for smaller refrigeration equipment and carbon dioxide for their larger equipment. As a refrigerant, there are multiple positive characteristics of carbon dioxide. It is safe, reliable, does not delete the ozone layer, and it is many more times less damaging to the environment than typical HFC, according to a company spokesperson.
If every single commercial refrigeration system eliminated HFCs, that would be equivalent to eliminating all of the greenhouse gases of Germany or Japan, the company estimates.
Coca-Cola has been partnering with Greenpeace to reduce their environmental impact since 2000. By the Toronto Olympic Games in 2006 and the Beijing Games in 2008, Coca-Cola was using all HFC-free equipment at those venues.
“At Coca-Cola, we are deploying our scale and working with suppliers to deliver cost effective alternatives to HFC, for us and for others.” said Rick Frazier, vice president, Supply Chain, for Coca-Cola, in the press statement.
Already, as a direct result of the announcement, one of Coca-Cola’s major suppliers has communicated its intention to build a dedicated carbon dioxide compressor production facility, helping to meet the growing demand for HFC-free refrigeration options throughout the industry.
Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media
