Coke is going forward with their plans to turn all of their 10 million vending machines worldwide hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) free by 2015. The beverage company sells everything from soda and juice drinks to water which is all stored cold in vending machines by HFC. The surprising stat here is that the 10 million Coke vending machines release 15 millions tons of green house gasses, which accounts for nearly 40% of the company’s carbon footprint.
It is no secret that HFC are filled with greenhouse gasses that are partly to blame for global climate chance. At the rate we are going HFC are expected to make up 28 to 45 percent of carbon emissions by 2050.
So what is the trick? Well it may sound a bit ironic, but Coke plans to replace HFC’s with carbon dioxide as the new cooling agent for their vending machines. One would think well how much better can CO2 really be for the environment considering it is a greenhouse gas itself. Well, according to Coke with the switch the company expects to save as much as 53 million tons of CO2 over a 10-year period. This is the equivalent of taking 11 million cars of the road for one year, over the lifespan of the new vending machines.
Coke doesn’t stop here. They also are planning on implementing a new type of bottle for their beverages. The PlantBottle will be launched in selected markets and Coke plans to make 2 billion of them by the end of next year. The PlantBottles plan to make a difference because these bottles are a 100% recyclable. The bottles are made up of PET plastic that is 30% plant based. Coke was able to do this by turning sugar cane and molasses into a base component for the bottles. Coke also plans to have all of their bottles to have 25% recycled PET plastic in them by 2025.
This a big move on Coke’s part when it comes to implementing more environmental initiatives to their company outlines. With the growing concern for our environment and global warming there has been a lot of pressure on major companies to start accounting for their own damage to the environment. Hopefully this move by Coke to become greener will set an example for many of the major companies, so they can make some green changes to help preserve our earth.
Tags: carbon footprint, Coca-Cola
