PepsiCo will be testing 30 “green” vending machines in Washington DC. They are considered green because they use less energy than typical vending machines and they do not have hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants. HFCs have one of the highest GHG potential, much higher than CO2. This basically means that for the same amount of HFC, there is more impact on GHG than CO2.
Moreover, PepsiCo said it was the first in the industry to mandate that the foam used to insulate its vending machines and coolers must be free of HFCs. From this initiative alone, PepsiCo, which has 4 to 5 millions of vending machines worldwide, has reduced GHG emissions from its refrigeration equipment by 282,000 tonnes/year.
Some facts:
- the new machines use 5.08 kilowatt-hours of energy per day, 15% lower than the nationwide average (6 kWh)
- the machines emits about 12% less GHG
- refrigerant used in these vending machines is CO2 (instead of HFC)
Some interesting facts on vending machines in general:
- On average, 2008 model vending machines all meet EPA Energy Star requirements, use 51% less energy than 2003 models,
- 2008 coolers consume 44 percent less energy than their 2004 counterparts.
Like Wal-mart’s sustainable 360 initiatives I blogged about last week, PepsiCo is doing this for money saving and good PR just happens to come with it. By the way, if all 4.5 million (average) PepsiCo vending machines worldwide are replaced with these energy efficient ones, 4,140 MWh saved!
And - do you know what else I’m thinking? PepsiCo should investigate the opportunity of selling carbon offset credits by storing CO2 in vending machines as carbon sinks! Maybe I should patent this idea =p
So the earth hour came and went by rather quickly. We live in a condo downtown and when we looked out of the window during earth hour, to be honest, I barely noticed any change…. Just as bright as I remember =).
According to BC Hydro - the province of BC had recorded a 1.1% power consumption reduction. This is unfortunately lower than last year, where 2% power consumption was reduced.
Some facts to share:
- Vancouve recorded a power reduction of 1.3%, slightly above average
- Pemberton recorded the highest power reduction - 4.6%
- New Westminster and Richmond had the lowest power reduction - 0.1% and 0.3% respectively
- Amount of energy saved: 72.67MWh, equivalent to powering 2,400 homes for an entire year
What are your thought of earth hour? There are a lot of (valid) criticism of this activity. The truth is this is more of a awareness campaign as supposed to an act of actually saving energy. This is because even though electricity used on the demand side (i.e. after the electricity meter) was decreased, the supply side was unchanged (i.e. before the meter: generation and transmission). To make it easier to understand - basically even if you have participated in earth hour and turned of the light and have reduced the energy consumption by 72.67MWh, the grid still produced just as much electricity. So where did the extra electricity go? You may not want to know but the electricity just got wasted, as there is no current storage facility for the Grid!!
Personally i think it’s a good event - but to make any practical use of it, we need to conserve energy all the time, and not just one hour out of the year!
From April 2 to April 5 this year, you can screen any of the 14 films about sustainability at 5th Ave. Theater on Burrard and 5th. The schedule is here. If you attend the opening viewing/after party, you’ll even get to meet David Suzuki! I haven’t finished watching the trailers but would love to attend at least one or two of them. Running the Sahara and Addicted to Plastic are two that I’m quite interested in.
I read about the three guys running across Sahara quite a while ago and I feel connected because the three runners are from Taiwan (where i’m born/raised), Canada (where i studied and currently live in), and USA. They ran to raise awareness of water issue in Africa, which receives very little attention in places like Canada where water is much more abundant.
Addicted to plastic is just something I’d like to watch. I have to admit that i certainly AM addicted to plastic….. but trying to “limit” my plastic addiction to my current level….
I really enjoy this cartoon from CounterThink, especially since the lighting technologies are advancing leaps and bounds on a daily basis! Take fluorescent lights for example, there has been huge advances! I heard that recently a new ballast has been developed/commercialized for use inside the cooler! If you don’t know, the ballast typically only works well in ambient temperature. Want to know more about ballasts? see the Wiki article..
I suppose we can save the planet one bulb at a time….
Do you know the entertainment book? It’s a coupon book that encourages people to buy things or try out restaurants with discount. Now people have come out with a “green” entertainment book called the Green Zebra guide! Examples of discount coupons include $10 off $50 or more purchase at Choice, 30% off some clothing store, and so on. Unfortunately it feels like another gimmick to make money in the “green” field…
I think we are better off reusing and conserving as supposed to buying new and buying cheap(er)….
Big Green Big Deal | flo | 
April 1, 2009 4:00 am | 
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