ZUG, Switzerland — Coca-Cola HBC has again been rated Europe’s most sustainable beverage company, and for the 11th consecutive year has been ranked among the top three beverage industry performers globally. The news was disclosed in S&P Global’s Annual Yearbook, which confirms the 2021 Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), one of the world’s leading sustainability benchmarks. Coca-Cola HBC was also given a Silver Award by S&P Global.
Commenting, CEO Zoran Bogdanovic said: “This is great recognition for the work all our colleagues do every day to build a more sustainable company and future. It is a journey we began many years ago and one we view as fundamental to our future growth. Our commitment in October last year to reach net zero emissions across the value chain by 2040, and the stark realities set out at COP26, remind us of the scale of the challenge we face and that there is much for us all still to do. We are committed to playing our full part.”
This result is consistent with the independent ratings and scores for Coca-Cola HBC from other respected sustainability surveys and indexes, including MSCI ESG, CDP, FTSE4Good, and FTSE Russell ESG.
Highlights of Coca-Cola HBC’s commitment to sustainability include*:
- Savings of 1.8 million tonnes of CO2e across the value chain and 6.5 billion litres of water in our operations in the last decade.
- Procuring more than 98% of goods and raw material from local suppliers (in the market in which we manufacture our products);
- Supporting 11.3 other jobs on average for every job in The Coca-Cola system;
- Training 480,000 young people across 28 countries since 2017 since the launch of the company’s flagship community programme, #YouthEmpowered, which aims to train 1 million young people by 2025;
- Publishing its first tax transparency policy and report in August 2020
- Ensuring 39% of management roles are held by women, with a target to reach 50% by 2025;
- Launching five mineral water brands in bottles made from 100% rPET in six of our markets, and in Italy, migrating all single serve Sparkling Soft Drinks to 100% rPET;
- Replacing hard-to-recycle plastic shrink wrap on can multi-packs with KeelClip™, a minimalist 100% recyclable and compostable, FSC-certified paperboard solution in 10 CCH markets with plan to roll out across all EU countries in 2022.
The Company’s full list of commitments and achievements can be viewed here.
*Numbers refer to 2020 unless stated
NetZeroby40
In October 2021, Coca-Cola HBC committed to achieving net zero emissions across its entire value chain by 2040. The company has created a robust action plan and will invest €250 million in emissions reduction initiatives by 2025. Via an existing, approved science-based target, by 2030 the company will reduce its value chain emissions in scopes 1,2 and 3 by 25%, with a further 50% reduction in the following decade. To address the 90% of emissions in scope 3 resulting from third party actions, CCH will broaden its existing partnership approach with suppliers. Wherever emissions cannot be eliminated entirely, the business will mitigate these by investing in other climate protection measures.
