COCA-COLA CLEANS UP
Sydney, Wednesday 28 June 2000. Greenpeace today congratulated Coca-Cola for meeting Greenpeace demands by adopting a new refrigeration policy to reduce its impact on global climate change before the world's first Green Games.
Coca-Cola today announced that it would phase out potent greenhouse gas hydroflurocarbons (HFCs) in refrigeration by the Athens Olympic Games in 2004. It will expand its research into refrigeration alternatives and insist that suppliers announce specific time schedules to use only HFC-free refrigeration in all new cold drink equipment by 2004.
"Greenpeace has been campaigning globally to change Coca-Cola's polluting HFCs," said Greenpeace Olympics campaigner Rupert Posner. "Today's policy change shows that big industry can be made to abandon dirty practices when environmental groups raise the alarm."
In May this year Greenpeace exposed Coca-Cola's use of polluting HFCs in the report Green Olympics, Dirty Sponsors. The report called on Coke to;
· Commit to 100% environmentally friendly Greenfreeze technology at the Sydney Olympics site and all future Olympic Games;
· abandon its corporate refrigeration policy of HFC use;
· specify all new equipment to be Greenfreeze and
· abandon all CFC/HCFC/HFC use by the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics.
"Today's announcement by Coca-Cola fulfils most of these demands and sets a strong environmental benchmark for other industries" said Posner.
"Greenpeace will work to ensure that Coca-Cola delivers on its new policy and provides adequate verification and independent monitoring of action.
"The policy shift is a tribute to the thousands of people around the world who have joined the Greenpeace campaign at www.cokespotlight.com. to stop Coca-Cola from using dangerous HFC gases which contribute to climate change," said Posner.
"If Coca-Cola can make this change, so too can the other Olympic sponsors such as McDonald's."
Coke is... a dirty Olympic sponsor
In 1999, Coca-Cola sold about 396 billion drinks - that's a rate of 756,000 every minute.
Coca-Cola is using the dirty greenhouse gas HFC in millions of fridges worldwide, fuelling global climate crisis.
Its intended use of HFCs at the Sydney Olympics undermines the Environmental Guidelines, which ban the use of HFCs.
A short, sharp campaign saw Olympic sponsor Coca-Cola meet Greenpeace demands for a new refrigeration policy to reduce its impact on global climate change.
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Written by: Greenpeace
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