Building & Design

Coca-Cola has announced new plans to improve its water and energy efficiency across its worldwide operations.

The plans are part of the company’s partnership with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which it began in 2007 and has now extended until the end of 2012.

According to its recent sustainability report, the company uses 2.47 litres of water for every litre of drink it produces. Through its partnership with the WWF, Coca-Cola has already seen a 2% improvement in water efficiency since 2006 and is undertaking initiatives to return the same amount of water that it uses to communities or nature.

Now the company has pledged to improve its water efficiency by 20% over the next four years. To help make these efficiency improvements, Coca-Cola and WWF has developed a toolkit to help bottling plans reduce water consumption.

But Coca-Cola expects its drinks production to grow in coming years so the improvement in efficiency will not result in an overall reduction in usage of water – rather an offset of 50 billion litres of that increase.

The company is also targeting energy efficiency. Despite increasing volume production by 6% between 2006 and 2007, Coca-Cola has increased energy consumption by only 2%. Overall, energy efficiency of its operations has improved by 4% over the same period.

“Water and energy conservation are areas where we can truly make a difference,” says CEO Muhtar Kent. “Performance targets are one way we are engaging to improve our management of water and energy.”

To this end, Coca-Cola has also joined the WWF’s Climate Savers programme, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emission from all its members by 14 million tons a year.

Growing its business without increasing its carbon emissions is a significant commitment, says the company. In 2007, Coca-Cola’s energy consumption was equivalent to 4.92 million metric tons of CO₂, an increase of 0.06 million metric tons over 2006. But the company has set a target of a 5% reduction in emissions compared to 2004 levels from its operations in developed countries by 2015.

“The expansion of our partnership with WWF demonstrates our shared dedication to achieving large-scale results,” says Kent.

For further information:
www.thecoca-colacompany.com
www.worldwildlife.org
www.sustainability.thecoca-colacompany.com
www.thecoca-colacompany.com/citizenship/pdf/2007-2008_sustainability_review.pdf