WASHINGTON, July 9, 2013- The Coca-Cola Company and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) announced new 2020 environmental goals for the Coca-Cola system today, including efforts to sustainably source key agricultural ingredients.
Goals focus on sustainable management of water, energy, and packaging use as well as sustainable sourcing of agricultural ingredients through 2020.
“We are witnessing unprecedented demands on natural resources around the world. Continuing with business as usual puts everything at risk, including the viability of business,” said Carter Roberts, President and CEO, World Wildlife Fund. “These problems can only be solved by working together, and our work with Coca-Cola has proven that collaboration can amplify and accelerate the impact we need.”
Coca-Cola and WWF began collaborating in 2007 to form conservation goals for the Coca-Cola Company and its nearly 300 bottling partners in more than 200 countries.
“As we face a resource-stressed world with growing global demands on food and water, we must seek solutions that drive mutual benefit for business, communities and nature,” said Muhtar Kent, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Coca-Cola Company. “Working with WWF will continue to challenge our Company to advance our sustainability programs, and WWF’s expertise will be instrumental in reaching our environmental performance goals, some of which they help us set.”
New 2020 environmental sustainability goals for include:
-Improve water efficiency by 25 percent. This target complements the 21.4 percent improvement in water use efficiency achieved from 2004 through 2012, according to the announcement.
-Expand water conservation efforts to 11 regions across five continents, including river basins of the Amazon, Koshi, Mekong, Rio Grande/Bravo, Yangtze and Zambezi; the catchments of the Great Barrier Reef and Mesoamerican Reef; and key regions in the Amur-Heilong, Atlantic Forests and Northern Great Plains.
-Reduce CO2 emissions by 25 percent.
-Use up to 30 percent plant-based material for all PET plastic bottles by 2020.
-Sustainably source key agricultural ingredients, including sugarcane, sugar beet, corn, tea, coffee, palm oil, soy, pulp and paper fiber, and orange. In addition, the announcement said Coca-Cola is working to sustainably source lemon, grape, apple and mango.
In addition to the goals jointly developed and announced with WWF, Coca-Cola reaffirmed its goals to replenish 100% of water used and reach a 75% recovery rate of bottles and cans in developed markets.
#30
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