PepsiCo tests green vending machines

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