Our approach
We have a global goal to safely return to the environment the equivalent amount of water we use in our drinks and their production. Our approach covers four key areas:
- Protect: protect our local sources of water
- Reduce: continually improve our water efficiency
- Recycle: return wastewater to the environment at a level that supports aquatic life
- Replenish: Invest in programmes to replenish and protect water sources in areas of water risk
We use large volumes of water - in Great Britain this amounted to approximately 3.4 billion litres from a combination of municipal and groundwater sources during 2010. That accounts for all water used in the production of beverages - including for washing, rinsing, heating and cooling.
This translates to 1.36 litres of water per litre of drink produced in Great Britain, which is actually one of the lowest water use ratios in the entire global Coca-Cola system.
Protect
To protect our water sources successfully, we first need to know what risks and challenges they face. So in 2009 all GB sites carried out Source Water Vulnerability Assessments (SVAs). These investigated water quality and scarcity risks to our business, local communities and local ecosystems.
In Great Britain, 89% our water comes from municipal sources and the remainder comes from groundwater sources, meaning our water sources face a low level of risk. As a result our SVAs found no critical issues.
Protection plans
Following our vulnerability assessments, we have developed Source Water Protection Plans (SWPPs) in conjunction with water providers, government agencies, and community organizations for each of our sites. The exception is our Schweppes Abbey Well site at Morpeth, which will complete its SWPP in 2011. We will start implementing these technical action plans in 2011.
