Reducing emissions from cooling
In Great Britain, we have more than 195,000 pieces of cold drinks equipment, including coolers, vending machines and fountains used in bars and restaurants. In most cases we rent these to our customers (food service providers, newsagents, supermarkets and other retailers) so that they can provide chilled drinks to consumers.
Although we can't control how our customers use our equipment on a day-to-day basis, we can estimate how much energy the coolers use, along with the resulting carbon emissions. Our carbon footprint calculations show that cold drinks equipment represents 68% of our total carbon footprint in 2010.
We're working to minimise the environmental impact of this equipment in a number of ways:
Energy management systems:
The Coca-Cola Company has developed and licensed an energy saving device for our coolers called EMS-55. This works by learning the trading patterns in store using a movement sensor. When the store is closed it switches off and puts the refrigeration into Sleep Mode. This allows the product temperature to rise, but then it reverts to Ready Mode in time for the store to open. The result is energy savings of up to 35%.
- At the end of 2010 more than 30,000 coolers - around 41% - were fitted with an EMS
Energy Efficient Lighting:
We are replacing standard fluorescent lighting in our coolers and vendors with long-life Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)_lighting, which can be up to 80% more efficient. By the end of 2010 23,000 machines - or 15% - have LED lights.
Open-Fronted Units:
By fitting doors, we can reduce the energy use by up to 50%. At the end of 2010 over 2,200 Open Fronted Units (OFUs) were fitted with doors.
Cooler Condenser Filters:
In normal use, the condenser (part of the refrigeration unit) of a cooler can become blocked with airborne dirt and dust. Until it is cleaned, this blockage will result in the cooler consuming up to 30% more energy.
So we have invented a self-cleaning, maintenance-free condenser filter. When fitted to a cooler, this patented filter reduces the build-up of dirt and the resulting increase in energy consumption. We have already installed over 4,000 of these on open-fronted coolers and have plans to install many thousands more.
Milton Keynes:
This is our site dedicated solely to the recycling, repurpose and cleaning of our cooling stock.
Equipment disposal:
We have programmes in place to dispose of refrigeration equipment responsibly. This prevents refrigerant gases such as HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons) - which are potent greenhouse gases - from escaping into the atmosphere.
HFC-free refrigerants:
All of our cold drinks equipment is fitted with HFC-free insulation, which does not release greenhouse gases during its life. We are committed to moving to HFC-free refrigeration systems. In 2010 we placed over 15,000 HFC-free coolers into the marketplace.
Refrigerants Naturally Partnership
The Coca-Cola Company has been working hard to bring about changes in refrigeration technology and find alternative, HFC-free refrigeration equipment. With this in mind, in 2004 The Coca-Cola Company formed the Refrigerants Naturally Partnership - together with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Greenpeace and McDonald's.
- HFCs represent only 2 percent of the climate change problem. But they are forecast to grow to 8 percent by 2050.
- If just the commercial refrigeration sector moved to climate-friendly alternatives by this date, the corresponding emission reduction in that year alone would be 1.2 billion metric tons -- about the same as the total annual emissions of Germany or Japan.
Coca-Cola remains committed to working with the wider refrigeration market to develop cost effective and sustainable HFC-free solutions.
Refrigerant's Naturally
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