High tech 3D vending machines have been introduced in Japan by the Coca Cola Company in 2009. This eco friendly equipment uses mini solar panels along with energy-saving LED lighting. Instead of using Freon, non-CFC refrigerants are used as well as heat pumps. This sustainable refrigeration program is designed in partnership with BMW Group’s DesignworksUSA.

Coca Cola’s new climate protection initiative is likely to boost the Japanese green movement. The company has set a goal to improve the energy efficiency of cooling equipment by 40 to 50% by 2010. The company announced that it would install about 1,500 solar machines around the country in 2010, which are powered almost entirely by solar energy.

The new design cuts overhead costs, allowing the company to offer products at lower prices. Coca Cola will install 75,000 new machines in 2011. The company has plans to replace all existing Coca Cola vending machines in Japan with 3D units by 2020.

It has been said that carbon emission reduction will exceed 52.5 million metric tons over the life of the vending machine with the implementation of the program.

Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre at Ecovative Design have started producing an amazing product called Mycobond. This is a product they have developed using conventional waste products such as seed husks, and bind them together using mycelium (mushroom roots). “We don’t manufacture materials, we grow them” stated McIntyre to the media recently. The result is a white material that looks and feels a lot like Styrofoam. Since the materials are all natural and fully compostable (they can be tossed into the garden to begin composting), high performance and low cost is the result.

Mycobond uses 1/8^th the energy and 1/10^th the carbon dioxide that standard foam materials require.

They have gotten a lot of support from various sources such as the EPA, the NCIIA (National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance) gave them a $20,000 grant and they recently won $250,000 from the Post Code Lottery Green Challenge.

Their goal is to completely eliminate all petroleum based foams and packing materials. Foam waste takes up the highest mass in our landfills- but it doesn’t break down, and we’re running out of landfill space.

GO GUYS!

EcovativeDesign.com

Ecovativedesign- greensulate insulation