Swire Coca-Cola’s, the third largest independent bottler in the US, has implemented several water management initiatives as part of its ongoing effort to return to nature an amount of water equivalent to what the company uses in the production and bottling of its beverages.
The company, which produces and distributes Coca-Cola products, Minute Maid, Dasani, Powerade, vitaminwater, Monster and Dr. Pepper, has partnered with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, Trout Unlimited and The Nature Conservancy on three restoration projects.
The first, located in Utah’s Chalk Creek watershed, removed a fish migration barrier, which opened up about 23 miles of stream habitat and helped conserve water by upgrading an irrigation system for a local rancher. This effort will restore stream flows of up to 11 million liters to the lower quarter-mile of the South Fork of Chalk Creek.
A second project on Wyoming’s upper Bear River will ensure safe passage for Bonneville Cutthroat Trout and restore several miles of river and riparian habitat. Funded partly by the Coca-Cola Company, this project will restore up to 3.86 billion liters of water to the river annually.
At Jesse Creek, located in the source watershed for Swire’s Fruitland, Idaho plant, Swire has supported a project led by The Nature Conservancy that reconnects natural stream flow to a section of the creek that has been dewatered for decades. Rejuvenated water flow should allow up to 1 billion liters to pass through the previously dewatered section of the creek. The project will be completed in the fall of 2014.
Additionally, Swire’s 585,000-square-foot Draper building was awarded Silver LEED certification.
The Coca-Cola Company has set a goal to replenish 100 percent of the water used in its beverages and their production by 2020. As part of that goal, Coca-Cola committed in June to improving water efficiency in its manufacturing operations by 25 percent by 2020 compared with its 2010 baseline.