The Coca-Cola Company

Company Hosts Global Forum On Sustainable Packaging

May 5, 2006 edition

The Coca-Cola Company recently hosted the spring forum for the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC), an industry working group focused on promoting strategies that reduce the environmental footprint of packaging.

Representatives from companies like Target, Unilever, Nike, Starbucks, MeadWestvaco and Dupont convened April 20-21 at the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center in Atlanta to discuss global trends and share perspectives on sustainable packaging topics ranging from bio-based packaging and green marketing to performance metrics and post-consumer recycling strategies.

On the day before the forum, the Company worked with supply chain partner Owens-Illinois (O-I) to arrange a tour of O-I’s glass container manufacturing facility in College Park. The tour included a visit to our Atlanta Office Complex for presentations on the Company’s contour glass bottle innovation work and current efforts to integrate sustainability messaging into the new World of Coca-Cola.

Introduced in 2000, the Ultra Glass contour bottle is designed to improve impact resistance, and reduce weight and cost. The innovative Ultra Glass bottles are 40 percent stronger, 20 percent lighter and 10 percent less expensive than traditional contour bottles. Use of the Ultra Glass design has eliminated 52,000 metric tons of glass -- resulting in a CO2 reduction of 26,000 tons or the equivalent of planting 8,000 acres of trees.

"We envision a world in which our packaging is no longer seen as waste, but as a valuable resource for future use," said Scott Vitters, senior manager of Environment & Water Resources, The Coca-Cola Company. "Through enhancing the resource efficiency and effectiveness of our packaging and partnering with community partners on sound post-consumer recovery solutions, we are making significant strides toward realizing this vision. And with rising energy costs and concerns over access to raw materials, these actions not only help the environment, they also help to ensure our long-term competitiveness."

Added Anne Johnson, director, SPC: "Packaging is undergoing an evolutionary change from a time of abundant resources and cheap energy to an era of scarcer resources, higher energy costs and a planetary ecosystem under threat. Companies in the packaging supply chain that begin moving toward sustainability are seeking to adapt and prosper in this emerging environment. Fundamentally, they are helping to sustain their own -- and their customers’ -- future success."