Hey, remember when we announced that Ben & Jerry’s was bringing climate-friendly refrigeration technology to the U.S.? Well, thanks to the tireless efforts of our Greenpeace Solutions crew, Pepsi is now bringing green soda machines stateside.
These refrigerators and vending machines utilize what we call the GreenFreeze technology — refrigeration and cooling technology that eliminates the use of highly potent greenhouse gases like HCFCs and HFCs. Greenpeace developed the technology in 1992 and then open-sourced it. We have made no money off of the sale of the technology, even though, since March 15, 1993, when the first GreenFreeze refrigerator rolled off the assembly line, over 300 million units have been sold in Europe, Asia and South America by leading brands including Whirlpool, Bosch, Panasonic, LG, Miele, Electrolux, and Siemens.
The Greenpeace Solutions team has been working with various businesses and industries to bring this technology to the U.S. because the group of chemicals commonly used as refrigerants — the aforementioned HCFCs and HFCs, which are more commonly called F-gases because they all contain Fluorine — were responsible for some 17% of the greenhouse gases collected in our atmosphere as of 2005.
So we now have green ice cream coolers and green soda vending machines here in the States… You thinking what I’m thinking? Green root beer floats!
