CB BureauThe Coca-Cola company’s seventh sustainability report says
that the company could not achieve a goal of returning all water used in its
manufacturing process to the environment by 2010.
The company had aimed at treating the used water up to a
level that at least supports aquatic life. However, it says that the company is
on the right track and will be able to improve its water-use ratio 20 per cent by
2012.
According to the report, in 2009, Coca-Cola released 179
billion litres of treated wastewater back to the environment, and 89 per cent
of its facilities – representing 95 per cent of product volume – were compliant
with its internal wastewater treatment standards.
The report says that in 2010 Coca-Cola achieved a water-use
ratio of 2.36 litres per litre of product produced – a 2.9 per cent improvement
from 2009. This represents a 13 per cent reduction since 2004, proving
that the company is on track to meet its goal.
The sustainability report also claims that Coca-Cola
estimates (exact data not in the report) that 94 per cent of its facilities would
have been compliant by the end of 2010, with work underway to make the remaining
plants compliant by the end of 2011.
Coca-Cola is seriously pursuing its water replenishment and
conservation goal, and claims that each of its more than 900 bottling plants will
have a source-water protection plan by 2013.
The company also says that it intends to attain a 2020 goal
of replenishing all water used in its finished beverages. Its initial estimates
indicate that the equivalent of 22 per cent of water used in its drinks was
replenished through projects completed or ongoing in 2009.
The sustainability report profiles the company’s and its
more than 300 bottling partners’ efforts to grow business in economically,
environmentally and socially sustainable ways. It was created using stakeholder
feedback and the disclosure requirements of the Global Reporting Initiative,
the United Nations Global Compact and the CEO Water Mandate.
Below are the highlights from the report:
Active healthy living
- Sponsored
approximately 150 physical activity and nutrition education programmes in
nearly 100 countries
- Committed
to place calorie information on the front of nearly all packages by end of
2011
- Announced
and implemented Global School Beverage Guidelines
Community
- Announced
the ‘5 BY 20’ initiative, a 10-year global commitment to empower 5
million women inside and outside the Coca-Cola system by 2020
- Launched
Haiti Hope Project, a five-year, $7.5 million programme to double the income of
about 25,000 Haitian mango farmers
- Launched
Project Nurture, a programme designed to enable more than 50,000 small fruit
farmers to double their income by 2014. This four-year, $11.5 million partnership
with Technoserve and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation invites mango and
passion fruit farmers in Uganda and Kenya to be suppliers to the Coca-Cola system for the first time
Energy efficiency and climate protection
- Improved
energy-use efficiency 13 per cent since 2004 and reduced absolute emissions
from manufacturing operations in developed countries by 8 per cent since 2004
- Advanced
energy efficiency of cooling equipment with installation of some 3.1 million
intelligent energy-management devices to date, reducing energy consumption by
monitoring energy use on refrigeration units
Complete report here
Photo: www.eatnoshit.org