Cold then hot, cold then hot. That's how millions of bottles of soft drink used to be filled, stored and packaged into boxes at the Coca Cola plant in Sydney's northwest before arriving on the shelf at the local shops.
Fully formed bottles had to be rinsed and filled cold, warm carbonated liquid would cause the soft-drink to spill everywhere when the bottles were filled. Then they had to be warmed because condensation would destroy the pallets they were transported on.
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How your soft drink is bottled
Clean technology is helping bottle your soft drink more efficiently than ever before.
It was the standard way of operating until a $1.2 million clean energy grant from the federal government in 2013 pushed through new technology that allowed the soft drink giant to expand test-tube sized cylinders into bottles as they were being filled, equalising the pressure and increasing the fill temperature to 15 degrees, eliminating condensation and the rinsing process.
The transformation meant an energy reduction of 40 per cent, a saving of $285,000 per year and the technology being rolled out from Australia, to New Zealand, Fiji and Indonesia.
Now, a new report from the Department of Industry's Office of the Chief Economist has found the $1.2 billion Clean Technology Program saw not only gains for Coca Cola, but 547 other projects across Australia, with a 10 per cent reduction in manufacturing emissions.
"Both employment and turnover among these firms grew about 25 per cent faster than similar firms without Clean Tech grants," the report's author economist Sasan Bakhtiari found. "Exports grew about 50 per cent faster, but only for those Clean Tech firms already exporting."
In Gunnedah the local leather processing site replaced lighting, compressed air and water heating systems to reduce the carbon emissions intensity of the facility by 13 per cent and save $95,000 in energy costs per year, while new trout smoking equipment at the Snowy Mountain Trout Farm in Blowering Dam reduced carbon emissions by 84 per cent and banked yearly savings of $3000 in energy costs.
"The majority of grants went to fully Australian-owned firms," said Dr Bakhtiari. "The program seems to have offered a lifeline to firms that [were performing badly] that eventually enabled them to turn around and start growing jobs.
![Scott Andrews, Coca Cola's National Environment Manager, at their plant in Northmead.](/web/20170326143955im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/z/d/b/9/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.guyxw9.png/1490479052674.jpg)
"Looking at the numbers it makes clear that practically every manufacturing subdivision benefited from Clean Tech in terms of increased dynamism."
The results of the Labor-initiated program have been noted by the Minister for Science, Arthur Sinondinos, after it was discontinued in 2014.
![Bottles are stacked at Coca Cola's Northmead plant.](/web/20170326143955im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/z/d/b/8/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.guyxw9.png/1490479052674.jpg)
It comes as the Turnbull government looks to find a balance between renewable energy, through initiatives such as the second incarnation of the Snowy Hydro plant, while also maintaining the need for carbon intensive fallbacks such as coal power.
"The government is keen to evaluate programs and learn from them, and is always looking to ways to assist Australian businesses to become more competitive and create jobs," said Senator Sinondinos.
![Interested: Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science Senator Arthur Sinodinos.](/web/20170326143955im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/3/v/3/b/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.guyxw9.png/1490479052674.jpg)
At the Coca Cola plant in Northmead the soft drink giant's national environment manager, Scott Edwards, stands below pallets filed to the brim with carbonated cans.
"Everybody has to play their part," he said. "Government has a role to contribute to these kinds of outcomes. Supporting business initiatives is a good thing and both have a role to play.
![Products at the Coca Cola plant in Northmead.](/web/20170326143955im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/z/d/b/6/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.guyxw9.png/1490479052674.jpg)
"But there is also a corporate responsibility to do this that is a worthwhile cause in itself but also makes good business sense," he said.
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