Coca-Cola’s sustainability report covers its 300 bottling partners’ performance on the areas of energy efficiency and climate protection, sustainable packaging and water stewardship.
According to the review, direct greenhouse gas emissions for the entire Coca-Cola system dropped from 2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2008 to 1.94 million metric tons in 2009.
The company did report an increase in indirect greenhouse gas emissions from 3.26 million metric tons in 2008 to 3.45 million metric tons this year. Indirect greenhouse gas emissions refer to emissions from electricity purchased and consumed.
Coca-Cola reported installing 3.1 million intelligent energy management devices to date which reduced the company’s energy consumption by monitoring the energy use of its refrigeration units.
The company also integrated over 127,000 hydrofluorocarbon-free refrigeration equipment in its cooling systems, adding up to a total of 240,000 hydrofluorocarbon-free units. A phase-out of all hydrofluorocarbon equipment by 2015 is in the works.
Sustainable packaging
Around 2.5 billion PlantBottle packaging bottles were introduced by Coca-Cola in nine major markets.
The recyclable PlantBottle is made up of 30 percent plant-based material and is similar to polyethylene terephthalate bottles. The company aims to use PlantBottle packaging for every bottle sold by 2020.
Coca-Cola has also supported the recovery of 36 percent of its bottles and cans released into the market. Meanwhile, it’s elimination of about 85,000 metric tons of primary packaging through system-wide efforts has resulted to savings of over $100 million.
Coca-Cola reported a 13 percent improvement in water use efficiency since 2004, using only an average of 2.36 liters of water for every liter of beverage. It has also launched a system-wide water resource sustainability standard, requiring each one of its 900-plus bottling plants to evaluate the sustainability of their water resources and develop source water protection plans by 2013.
Coca-Cola has announced that it will expand its global partnership with USAID, through an additional joint investment of $12.7 million for watershed management, water supply and sanitation, hygiene promotion and productive water use.
Another $10 million will also be poured out to address water-related problems in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, through partnerships with the United Nations Development Programme.
Other areas covered by the sustainability review were beverage production, health programs, community outreach and employee support.