Global Awareness & Action

In 2006, the Global Water Challenge (GWC) was founded with start-up support from The Coca-Cola Company. The GWC works to consolidate efforts and mobilize the international community to meet the world's water challenges. Its mission is to generate a global movement to meet the urgent need for safe water and sanitation by spurring awareness and investment in innovative solutions that work. One of the first GWC programs is "Water for Schools," a program that provides safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene education to thousands of students in Western Kenya. Learn more about the SWASH+ program.

TheThe CEO Water Mandate, represents a call to action for companies seeking to address water sustainability in their operations and supply chains. It shares some tangible steps for action. As members of the CEO Water Mandate, we support its focus on:

For the transparency requirement, we have worked to report on our efforts in all areas of the Mandate's focus in this 2007/2008 Sustainability Review and on our Company website. For information on the CEO Water Mandate, visit www.unglobalcompact.org.

Our Role in Public Policy
We believe that we can play a powerful role in helping to advance key public policy issues by using our leadership voice. On May 2007, we signed a letter in conjunction with several signatories of the CEO Water Mandate urging the leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) countries -- in advance of the upcoming annual summit in Japan -- to achieve the commitments of the UN Millennium Development Goals. The letter called on the leaders of the G8 to live up to government's responsibility and commitments to make the emerging water crisis a global priority. The letter also stated that we see water as not just an environmental issue but also as a poverty and development issue, an economic issue and therefore, a business issue. Additionally, our government relations department lobbied in support of the "Water for the Poor Act" with the U.S. Congress.

Community Engagement
On a local level, we are partnering with the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) to build the capacity of our Company's staff and bottling partners to more effectively engage with community stakeholders in their water resource management activities. Specifically, the project partners are creating tailored written materials and conducting a series of capacity-building workshops to provide comprehensive training on stakeholder engagement in water resources management.

We realize the need for collective action in communities and plan to roll out the workshops globally in the years to come.