18 September 2007 - International
— All drinks at the Olympics are on us,
kind of. Soft drinks giant Coca-Cola today
announced a commitment to use coolers and
vending machines free of HFC gases in all
official venues of the 2008 Olympic Games,
demonstrating climate-friendly technology
developed by Greenpeace. Getting to here
has been an amazing journey over 20 years
involving the most unlikely characters and
situations -- even George W. Bush makes
a last-minute appearance.
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 11000'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.
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.
