In its latest Environmental performance report, the Coca Cola Company has confirmed once again its commitment to introduce CO₂ refrigeration to reduce emissions and increase the efficiency of its cooling equipment. By the end of 2006, the report points out, the company had already placed 6,000 units with carbon dioxide refrigeration in markets throughout the world, with the trend increasing continuously during 2007.

Coca Cola also confirmed that it is no longer purchasing any new cold-drink equipment using hydro-fluorocarbons in the insulation materials. Concerning vending machine equipment, the focus on CO₂ refrigeration is proving successful, with promising results to reduce energy consumption.

--image1--Progress by the world's largest beverage company can encourage suppliers and component manufacturers of R744 equipment to provide the needed solutions, thus helping the whole industry to move towards “greener” and more efficient refrigeration.

Background

The Coca-Cola Company released its annual environmental performance report on 26 July 2007. It evaluates progress on three key areas of environmental management by the American giant: water stewardship, sustainable packaging and energy and climate protection. Sustainable refrigeration features among the top priorities for Coca-Cola, with a clear focus on CO₂ to replace current HFC-based applications. Efforts to improve the efficiency of cooling equipment, with the introduction of energy management system, have also helped to reduce over 250 million kilowatt-hours, equivalent to a reduction of more than 100,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases.