Coca-Cola to champion Greenpeace cooling technology at Olympics

CFCs to HFCs: frying pan to fire  
When the dramatic discovery of the ozone hole in 1986 forced the banning of Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's), the refrigeration industry switched to hydrofluorocarbons (HFC's). HFC's don't destroy the ozone like CFC's can. But they do cause global warming. Indeed, some HFC gases are up to 11,000 times more harmful to the climate than carbon dioxide (CO2), your garden variety greenhouse gas.

Solution: Greenfreeze
To highlight the madness of this switch from CFC's to HFC's and show how it should be done, Greenpeace launched the concept of Greenfreeze in 1992. We met two scientists who pointed out how to avoid HFC's altogether. We found an old fridge factory, appealed to our supporters to pre-order enough units to finance a refit, helped build the market and Greenfreeze was born.

It uses natural gases so avoids both depleting the ozone layer and fuelling global warming. The chemical industry said it would never work and the big refrigeration users lined up with their friends in the industry to dismiss our claims.

Well that was then, and this is now. Today there are over 100 million Greenfreeze refrigerators in the world, produced by all the major European, Chinese, Japanese and Indian manufacturers. It is now available in most major markets with the exception of North America.

While Greenfreeze technology gradually gained a foothold in the domestic market in the late 1990's, large commercial users continued to use refrigeration that causes global warming. In the run up to the Sydney Olympics in 2000 we targeted big refrigeration users such as Unilever, Coke and McDonalds, all Olympic sponsors, to live up to the guidelines of the green games which excluded HFC's.

[ More on the history of Greenfreeze.]

Coke in the spotlight
Coke caved in after a concerted online campaign (CokeSpotlight.org) before the 2000 Olympics to buy green refrigeration for new units. Before the start of the games all three companies we had targeted announced phase out plans for damaging refrigeration technologies by the time of the 2004 Olympics.

Today Coke plans to install no less than 6,350 climate-friendly coolers and vending machines in the Olymic Games venues in Beijing and six co-host cities throughout China. Calculated based on an expected ten year life span of the units, they reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 4,500 metric tons.

This is the first time that 100 percent of the coolers and vending machines provided by Coca-Cola to all Olympics venues will feature HFC-free insulation, and HFC-free natural refrigerant. For good measure, Coke has also added a proprietary technology called Energy Management System (EMS) that improves energy efficiency by more than 35 percent.

"This innovative approach of combining natural refrigerants and energy efficient technology is a great example of how a business can work with other stakeholders to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We hope Coca-Cola's efforts can accelerate industry-wide actions to combat climate change," said LO Sze Ping, Campaign and Communications Director of Greenpeace China.

What's next for HFC's
Not to be outdone by Coca-Cola, the Whitehouse is rumoured to be planning an announcement at next week's UN meeting on ozone depleting substances (the Montreal Protocol), proposing aggressive targets to phase-out HFC gases.

Left unchecked, HFC's are expected to contribute up to 5.2 percent of the world's global warming emissions by 2050.

It will take much more than public pronouncements to tackle the climate crisis. But as the Montreal Protocol comes to it's 20th anniversary, and the story of Greenfreeze demonstrates, creativity, vigilance and a "can do!" attitude can transform even the most familiar/dire characters and situations.