October 28, 2008

Coke Improves Water Use Efficiency 2%

The Coca-Cola Company released its fifth annual Sustainability Review, “Act. Inspire. Make a Difference. A dialogue of progress and possibility” (PDF).

The company’s total water use increased four percent against its 2006 numbers, but Coke reported a two percent improvement in water use efficiency, with Coca-Cola plants using an average of 2.47 liters of water to make one liter of beverage. Since 2002, the company says it has improved water use efficiency by more than 20 percent, saving more than 160 billion liters of water.

In Coca-Cola Enterprises CRS report released in July, the company said it achieved its target of a three percent improvement in water use ratio over the previous year, using 1.77 liters of water to produce one liter of product.

According to Coca-Cola Amatil, the company’s bottling facility in Australia has become the most water-efficient bottler in Coke’s global system.

Coca-Cola says it has invested $40 million to build the world’s largest PET bottle-to-bottle recycling plant. The plant is expected to produce about 100 million pounds of PET plastic for reuse annually, the equivalent of 2 billion 20-ounce PET bottles. The South Carolina recycling plant is expected to be operational in 2009.

The company has also increased its supplier audits by 28 percent, with a total of 1,313 audits in 2007, compared with 1,029 audits in 2006.

In September, the company unveiled its first rain garden at the company’s Lexington facility.

Coca-Cola rolled out ‘green’ coolers during the Beijing Olympics. The company says the more than 5,600 “eKOfresh” units were free of hydrofluorocarbons.

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