Coca-Cola cans HFC vending machines

Around the world Coca-Cola machines are as ubiquitous as mail boxes. Every town or community has at least one. That’s why Coca-Cola’s announcement that they’re abandoning vending machines and coolers that use hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) is big news.

Coca-Cola currently has 10 million vending machines and coolers operating worldwide that use HFCs to cool their tasty beverages. The company plans on phasing out those machines and coolers by 2015 in favor of those that use natural refrigerants like hydrocarbons and CO2. CO2 is a pollutant but it is 1,430 times less harmful than HFCs.

This green move has some serious heft behind it including a fifty million dollar investment in greener cooling technology by Coca-Cola. Along with their bottling partners, the beverage titan is set to buy 150,000 HFC free machines next year. According to a press release the new machines will cut their direct greenhouse gas emissions by 99% or the same as taking eleven million cars off the road for a year.

One unnamed manufacturer has already stepped up offering to build a facility dedicated solely to CO2 machines. This is a good sign for the rest of the food and beverage industry looking to lower their carbon emissions. If a company as big as Coke can spark innovation on the manufacturing side, smaller companies could take advantage of the greener alternatives offered in the marketplace.

Coke’s noted that the move away from HFCs was a “direct result of work with Greenpeace that began in 2000.” They worked on finding HFC free alternatives for their machines that weren’t outrageously expensive. The partnership resulted in HFC free machines for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino and the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, both of which Coke was a  major sponsor.

It’s great to see Greenpeace taking a different route to help the business sector see the benefits of being green. In the past they have relied on loud PR stunts to get the attention of companies like using William Shatner to punk HP employees. These methods were great for grabbing headlines but didn’t spur a whole lot of change. By educating rather that berating, Greenpeace may put 1.6 billion daily drink servings in more responsible cooling units. Cheers to that.