Coca-Cola machines to be HFC-free by 2015

The Coca-Cola Company has announced that it will have switched entirely to hydrofluorocarbon (HFC)-free vending machines by 2015, in a move designed to reduce direct greenhouse gas emissions from the equipment by 99 per cent.

The announcement, made jointly with Greenpeace, is the culmination of work between the two organisations designed to identify an alternative to the potent HFC greenhouse gas.

The company said it will now use hydrocarbons to refrigerate smaller equipment, and CO2 in larger units, which it says is 1,430 times less damaging to the climate.

The introduction of the HFC-free units will be phased in from next year with the company investing in a minimum of 150,000 units of HFC-free equipment in 2010, doubling its current rate of purchase for new machines.

As an interim goal, it aims to purchase 50 per cent of all new coolers and vending machines without HFCs by 2012 before completing the project by 2015.

Coolers and vending machines make up the largest percentage of the Coca-Cola Company's climate impact, the company said. However, the purchases will not instantly replace all the units in play. It currently has 10 million units installed worldwide.

This announcement represents an ongoing relationship with Greenpeace, the two organisations said. Greenpeace challenged the Coca-Cola Company to instill HFC-free equipment at previous Olympic Games, which it did during the Torino games in 2006 and the Beijing games in 2008. In 2006, the company also completed the transition to HFC-free insulation foam.