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Winner of a Foodservice Packaging Association (FPA) Environment Award, these single serve milk portions are 50% lighter and take up 40% less room than round milk pots, or jiggers as they are known in the trade.

In response to growing demand for ethically-traded drinks, many leading suppliers now offer teas and coffees from certiﬁed sustainable sources, such as the Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade. The Vendia Group has even set up its own brand, Café Joe, which specialises in energy efﬁcient vending machines and ethical ingredients, from Fairtrade coffees and teas to Harry’s Nuts! from Liberation, the world’s only 100% Fairtrade Nut company.

According to a recent study by the Paciﬁc Institute, bottled water consumed in the US is up to 2,000 times more energy-intensive than tap water ( Energy Implications of Bottled Water by Peter H, Gleick and Heather Cooley, Environmental Research Letters, February 2009). Producing the bottles alone is claimed to use the energy equivalent of 50 million barrels of oil. Water coolers and puriﬁcation systems that plumb straight into the mains provide a clean, low waste alternative to bottled mineral water and water bombs for coolers. Last year co2balance.com calculated that one of TanaWater’s Tami 4 plumbed-in water coolers produces 761kg less carbon dioxide per year than a traditional

Mars Drinks, the hot drinks division of Mars Incorporated, has enhanced its range of vending machines and ingredients to meet growing demand for sustainable vending products.

In May 2008 it introduced the ‘Thirsty for Change’ sustainability programme to set new standards for energy efﬁciency, ethical ingredients and recycling.

Mars Drinks keeps the energy consumption of its machines to a minimum by using energy-efﬁcient LED indicators on the displays; by only heating enough water for a few drinks at a time; and by heating water to exactly the right temperature.

Tests conducted according to The European Vending Association Energy Measurement Test protocol (version 2) show that Mars Drinks’ KLIX OUTLOOK and FLAVIA drinks machines are among the most energy-efﬁcient on the market. The KLIX OUTLOOK is:

• 40% more energy efﬁcient compared against two leading free standing vending machines; and • 29% more energy efﬁcient over a typical year compared against three leading water boilers. The FLAVIA Creation 400 is:

• 14% more energy efﬁcient than the average result for the leading bean-to-cup machines tested; and • 5% more energy efﬁcient than the average result for the range of hot water boilers tested and 71% more efﬁcient in standby mode.

To enable customers to view the energy savings they can expect, Mars Drinks has added an Energy Calculator to the KLIX website. Just enter the number of drinks machines you need for your workplace and it will instantly show the potential energy savings.

Mars Drinks offers a wide choice of ethically sourced drinks including Fairtrade, Brighter Tomorrow at Origin and Rainforest Alliance teas and coffees. It is committed to sourcing 30% all drinks from certiﬁed sustainability schemes by 2010.

Mars Drinks was the founding member of the ‘Save-a-Cup’ scheme and it continues to look at new ways to reduce waste.

Last year FLAVIA introduced the ‘N-viro cup’, the ﬁrst compostable hot drinks vending cup to be made in the UK. The cup uses pulp harvested from sustainable sources under the management of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative™. Used cup are collected by ‘Save-a-Cup’ and taken to industrial composting facilities where they break down into compost for use on farms and nurseries across the UK.

bottle-fed cooler dispensing 57 litres of water a week.

The ability to purify and dispense both hot and cold water means that these systems can be used instead of a vending machine. Some models even dispense sparkling water.

The most sophisticated, like Vivreau’s, dispense water into attractive bottles for use in canteens, restaurants and boardrooms. According to Vivreau, 80% of a typical City ofﬁce’s glass packaging waste is attributable to pre-bottled mineral water.

Like vending machines, the latest mains-fed water systems incorporate a number of power-saving features that can help reduce energy consumption by 40%. TanaWater’s T5 Fizz, for example, features a preset sleep mode that conserves energy overnight and at weekends.

This brief overview just scratches the surface of what operators are doing to reduce the carbon impact of the manufacture, supply, delivery and servicing of vending machines. To ﬁnd out more visit Avex 2009 at the NEC, Birmingham on June 10-11.