Page 310 - Design for Environment A Guide to Sustainable Product Development

286 Cha pte r F i f tee n

bottles. Recycling plastic for reuse yields financial benefits, requires
less energy than producing bottles with virgin materials, and reduces
waste and greenhouse gases. Over the next ten years, the Spartanburg
recycling plant is expected to eliminate the production of one million
metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions—the equivalent of removing
215,000 cars from the road.

Sustainable Refrigeration
Since refrigeration equipment is the largest contributor to Coke’s cli-
mate footprint, the company has established a sustainable refrigera-
tion program as the cornerstone of its energy management and climate
protection efforts. Coke’s engineers and suppliers have been working
to develop technologies that not only improve overall energy effi-
ciency, but also reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions like hydro-
fluorocarbons (HFCs). The achievements of this program include

• Transitioning to HFC-free insulation foam for new equip-
ment, which will generate 75% fewer direct GHG emissions
than traditional equipment
• Deploying more than 8,500 units of HFC-free equipment by
2007 using CO as the refrigerant—a more eco-friendly alter-
2
native with 1,300 times less potent GHG emissions than HFCs.
Coke is committed to the deployment of 100,000 HFC-free
units between 2008 and 2010
• Developing a proprietary energy management system (EMS)
for coolers and vending machines, which have been deployed
in over one million units of equipment and delivers energy
savings of up to 35%

With the support of Greenpeace, Coca-Cola announced that 100%
of the coolers and vending machines provided to the 2008 Beijing
Olympic Games—more than 5,600 units—would feature an HFC-free
natural refrigerant as well as the proprietary EMS technology (see
Figure 15.3). This resulted in the reduction of greenhouse gas emis-
sions by approximately 40,000 metric tons—the equivalent of taking
more than 194,000 cars off the road for two weeks.
Coke is also working with industry partners and nongovernmental
organizations to encourage broader adoption of environmentally-
friendly cooling systems. Currently CO equipment is more expen-
2
sive because of limited demand and high production costs, and
many companies have been slow to make the shift. Coke has joined
with Unilever, McDonalds and others to create the “Refrigerants,
Naturally!” initiative—an industry alliance to promote HFC-free
refrigeration.
Taking a life-cycle perspective, Coke is collaborating with suppli-
ers and customers in the practice of DFE. The company works very