Solar Power & Energy

Although they’re not using solar to power these new vending machines, PepsiCo has announced a new pilot program which looks like an excellent step in the right direction.

Under a new pilot program, they’re placing 30 Pepsi-Cola vending machines in high-consumer traffic areas in the Washington, D.C. area. These new machines use less energy and generate 12% less greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than current vending machines. For the first time ever in the United States, these machines will also use a natural refrigerant: carbon dioxide (CO2) instead of the more environmentally harmful hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) which are usually used to cool vending machines.

PepsiCo has been focusing on three areas which will help them reduce the environmental impact of equipment used to sell their products. The three areas are: Improving energy efficiency; eliminating HFCs from the insulating foam used in their vending machines; and using green refrigerants instead of HFCs.

They’ve made great progress with these goals over the last 6 years too.

On average, 2008 model vending machines, which all meet EPA Energy Star requirements, use 51 percent less energy than 2003 models, and 2008 coolers consume 44 percent less energy than their 2004 counterparts. In addition, PepsiCo was also the first in the industry to mandate that the foam used to insulate its vending machines and coolers be free of HFCs. Through these improvements, PepsiCo has reduced greenhouse gas emissions from its refrigeration equipment by 598,000 metric tons, an average of 282,000 metric tons/year — the equivalent of removing 52,000 cars from the road in a year or planting 125,000 trees annually.
Source: PRNewswire