News Release
THE COCA-COLA SYSTEM ANNOUNCES NEW GLOBAL TARGETS
FOR WATER CONSERVATION AND CLIMATE PROTECTION IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
WWF
Extends Partnership with WWF to Protect Freshwater Resources
ATLANTA, October 30, 2008 -
The Coca-Cola Company, in partnership with World Wildlife Fund
(WWF), today announced ambitious new targets to improve water efficiency
and reduce carbon emissions within its system-wide operations, while
promoting sustainable agricultural practices and helping to conserve
the world's most important freshwater basins.
"Our sustainability as a business demands a relentless focus
on efficiency in our use of natural resources. These performance targets
are one way we are engaging to improve our management of water and
energy," said Muhtar Kent, president and CEO of The Coca-Cola
Company.
"In this resource constrained world, successful businesses will
find ways to achieve growth while using fewer resources," said
Carter Roberts, president and CEO of WWF-US. "The Coca-Cola Company's
commitment to conservation responds to the imperative to solve the
global water and climate crisis."
The partnership, announced by WWF and The Coca-Cola Company in 2007
with $20 million in funding, has now been extended an additional two
years (through 2012) with the Company providing $3.75 million in new
funding.
The Coca-Cola Company also joined WWF's Climate Savers program in
which leading corporations from around the world work with WWF to
dramatically reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. By 2010, Climate
Savers companies will collectively cut carbon emissions by 14 million
tons annually - the equivalent to taking more than 3 million cars
off the road each year.
Water Efficiency -- Saving 50 billion liters in 2012
The Coca-Cola system will improve its water efficiency 20 percent
by 2012, compared to a baseline year 2004. While water use is expected
to increase as the business grows, this water efficiency target will
eliminate approximately 50 billion liters of that increase in 2012.
To support this efficiency target, The Coca-Cola Company and WWF
have developed a Water Efficiency Toolkit to help reduce water consumption
within bottling plants. This software-based instruction manual has
been distributed to managers and operators throughout the Coca-Cola
system, providing strategies to shrink the water footprint of their
operations.
Climate Protection -- Preventing 2 million tons of CO2 emissions
The Company has set two emissions reduction targets: 1) grow the business,
not the carbon system-wide and 2) a 5 percent absolute reduction in
Annex 1 (developed) countries. The emissions targets apply to manufacturing
operations in the year 2015 compared to a baseline year of 2004.
The Coca-Cola Company and its bottlers anticipate substantial volume
growth globally during this period, thus growing the business without
growing the carbon is a significant commitment. Without intervention,
emissions would grow proportional to volume and reach 7.3 million
metric tons in 2015. Thus, the global commitment will prevent the
release of more than 2 million metric tons of CO2 in 2015 - the equivalent
of planting 600,000 acres of trees.
Supply Chain Sustainability
The Coca-Cola Company also will work with WWF to promote more sustainable
agricultural practices in an effort to reduce the impact of its supply
chain on water resources. This work will initially focus on sugarcane
production. The Coca-Cola Company and WWF are working with the Better
Sugarcane Initiative to establish standards, evaluate suppliers and
set goals for the purchase of sugar. The Coca-Cola Company will identify
two additional commodities on which to work in 2009.
Freshwater Conservation
The Coca-Cola system and WWF are working together to conserve some
of the world's most important freshwater resources, including the
Yangtze, Mekong, Danube, Rio Grande/Rio Bravo, Lakes Niassa and Chiuta,
the Mesoamerican Reef catchments, and the rivers and streams in the
southeastern region of the United States. More than a dozen production
plants and /or bottlers in the areas surrounding these rivers are
developing and implementing water stewardship plans to serve as models
throughout the Coca-Cola system.
"Water and energy conservation are areas where we can truly
make a difference. Last year, we set a goal to return to communities
and to nature an amount of water equal to what we use in our beverages
and their production. These targets support our work to achieve that
goal," said Kent. "The expansion of our partnership with
WWF demonstrates our shared dedication to achieving large-scale results,
and a grounded understanding that collaboration is key if we are to
help address the world's water challenges."
To learn more about the partnership, please visit www.thecoca-colacompany.com
or www.worldwildlife.org.
For more information about this announcement, please visit the multimedia
news release.
About The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company is the world's largest beverage
company, refreshing consumers with more than 450 sparkling and still
brands. Along with Coca-Cola®, recognized as the
world's most valuable brand, the Company's portfolio includes 12 other
billion dollar brands, including Diet Coke®, Fanta®, Sprite®,
Coca-Cola Zero®, vitaminwater, POWERade®, Minute
Maid® and Georgia® Coffee. Globally, we are the No. 1 provider
of sparkling beverages, juices and juice drinks and ready-to-drink
teas and coffees. Through the world's largest beverage distribution
system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the Company's beverages
at a rate of 1.5 billion servings a day. With an enduring commitment
to building sustainable communities, our Company is focused on initiatives
that protect the environment, conserve resources and enhance the economic
development of the communities where we operate. For more information
about our Company, please visit our website at www.thecoca-colacompany.com.
About World Wildlife Fund
WWF is the world's largest conservation organization, working in 100
countries for nearly half a century. With the support of almost 5
million members worldwide, WWF is dedicated to delivering science-based
solutions to preserve the diversity and abundance of life on Earth,
stop the degradation of the environment and combat climate change.
Visit www.worldwildlife.org
to learn more.
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