Coca-Cola reveals progress of sustainability strategy
The news was revealed by its latest Sustainability Stakeholder Report, which has provided information on its sustainability action plan This is Forward.
CCEP revealed that it accelerated the use of recycled plastic (rPET) in 500ml plastic bottles in Great Britain (GB). The result meant that CCEP increased the amount of recycled plastic material in smaller bottles from 50% to 100%. The company said this would help save more than 29,000 tonnes of ‘new’ non-recycled plastic across operations in GB every year.
CCEP also said it extended its partnership with Loop, a zero waste shopping platform extending the trial to 10 stores as part if its sustainability strategy.
The drinks company also revealed that production of new shrink to board packs has meant plastic shrink wrap will be replaced with sustainable cardboard across all multi-packs in GB – part of a plan to remove a further 4,000 tonnes of plastic from circulation across the Western Europe region.
Emissions reduction target
For the supply chain the company saw a science-based emissions reduction target set by 47% of its ‘carbon strategic’ suppliers in Europe.
In GB, it expanded our solar farm in Wakefield as part of a wider 250m (£213.8m) investment programme, delivering 20% of the site’s electricity to reduce carbon emissions.
It has also started trials to transport soft drinks by rail, taking lorries off the road and reducing the business’ carbon footprint.
The transition from gas to battery powered forklift trucks has also started across its production facilities which will reduce CCEP GB’s carbon emissions by more than 1,500 tonnes each year.
CCEP also revealed it removed 232K tonnes of sugar from our soft drinks in Europe.
On water it said it had replenished 3.7bn litres of water in 2021 as a result of projects in partnership with WWF, The Rivers Trust and Norfolk Rivers Trust.
Carbon neutral
From an international perspective the company revealed it had also made progress.
Three of its manufacturing sites in Europe have been certified as carbon neutral, with five more sites aim to follow by the end of 2023. The sites were certified as carbon neutral according to the international standard PAS 2060.
In Australia and Indonesia, CCEP invested in joint ventures to build three PET plastic recycling plants to expand the supply of recycled PET plastic in those markets.
The report also revealed that CCEP has introduced newly designed lighter weight necks on PET bottles for its carbonated soft drinks in Germany. The new bottles will be implemented across Europe saving 6,800 tonnes of plastic a year by 2024.
The report contains a full year of data from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021.
