The Coca-Cola Company partnered with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) last year and gave the fund $20 million to conserve and protect freshwater resources. Now the company is extending the partnership by two years, providing $3.74 million in new funding and setting new targets.
The company announced it will improve its water efficiency 20 percent by 2012, compared to a baseline year 2004. Water use is expected to increase as the business grows, but the new target is expected to eliminate about 50 billion liters of that increase in 2012.
Coca-Cola aims to reduce emissions from manufacturing operations by 5 percent in developed countries by 2015 compared to 2004 baseline. The company says the global commitment will prevent the release of more than 2 million metric tons of CO2 in 2015, equivalent of planting 600,000 acres of trees.
The company will also work with WWF to promote more sustainable agricultural practices in an effort to reduce the impact of its supply chain on water resources. This work will initially focus on sugarcane production and will identify two more commodities to work on in 2009. Coke and WWF are working with the Better Sugarcane Initiative to establish standards, evaluate suppliers and set goals for the purchase of sugar.
The company recently released its fifth annual Sustainability Review and announced it improved its water use efficiency by 2 percent.
