Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Asahi Soft Drinks is rolling out carbon offset vending machines across the country.
Beginning this month on an all-Japan scale, passersby may begin to notice that some machines have been slapped with a “Green Power” logo and an explanation, in Japanese, that these are “Carbon Offset Vending Machines.”
What it means is that the vending machine is part of the Green Power Certificate scheme, introduced by Japan Natural Energy Company, which verifies that the electricity used to power the machine has been offset elsewhere by investments in carbon reductions.
This system was established to enable companies which do not possess their own green power generation capacity to demonstrate responsible behavior, and thus contribute to increased business sector demand for solar, wind, and other renewables.
Asahi Soft Drinks last month switched over about four hundred vending machines at its own company offices, and it expects to cover almost all of them across Japan by 2025.
Some international environmental organizations question the degree of effectiveness of carbon offsets in addressing the climate crisis.
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