Water Use
Replenishing The Water We Use
We try to use water in a manner that takes account of the needs of the communities around our sites and the environment in general.
In Great Britain we respect the fact that our use of water is part of a bigger water cycle. In 2006, for example, we introduced a second borehole at our Edmonton site. This draws water directly from the water table, 100 metres below ground where supplies are plentiful. As a result, there’s less demand on the municipal water supply.
Global Water Stewardship Strategy
The world has a finite amount of fresh water but, if managed properly, there is enough to meet our personal, agricultural and industrial needs, as well as those of nature. To that end, The Coca-Cola Company has developed a strategy with four core focus areas:
- Plant performance.
- Watershed protection.
- Community initiatives.
- Global awareness and action.
Our strategy is built on a comprehensive risk analysis of water resources in the Coca-Cola System – an analysis that provides a clear understanding of our water risks on a global and local scale, enables business units to define and prioritize water risk mitigation actions, and allows us to track progress in water stewardship.
Making Good on Our Commitments
Our Pledge
On June 5, 2007 at WWF’s annual meeting in Beijing China, TCCC’s Chairman and CEO, E. Neville Isdell, announced an ambitious pledge to replace the water we use in our beverages and their production. Our pledge has three core components: reduce, recycle and replenish.
Reduce: We will set specific water efficiency targets for our global operations by 2008. These targets will build on improvements already made in water-use efficiency over the past five years.
Recycle: We are committing to return safely to the environment all water used in our manufacturing processes.
Replenish: We will expand support of a wide range of locally relevant initiatives, including watershed protection, community water access programs and promotion of efficient agricultural water use.
Our Partnership
Building on our previous efforts to be good stewards of freshwater resources, The Coca-Cola Company and WWF have combined our international strengths and resources to help conserve and protect fresh water around the world – in our Company’s own facilities, in those of our bottling partners and in communities where we operate.
While our partnership is global in scope, many of its commitments will be implemented locally.
The Global Water Challenge
In partnership with many non-governmental organizations, the Coca-Cola system has established 68 community-based water initiatives in 40 countries, including The Global Water Challenge.
The Global Water Challenge (GWC) was founded as an initiative of the United Nations Foundation with funding and support from The Coca-Cola Company. The GWC works to consolidate efforts and mobilize the international community to meet the world’s water challenges by helping to increase awareness of and investment in innovative solutions to meet the need for safe water and sanitation.
