Coca-Cola HBC named world’s most sustainable beverage company

THE 2022 DOW JONES SUSTAINABILITY INDEX – ONE OF THE WORLD’S LEADING GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY BENCHMARKS – HAS RANKED COCA-COLA HBC AS THE WORLD’S MOST SUSTAINABLE BEVERAGE COMPANY AFTER ITS SCORE IMPROVED BY SIX POINTS ON LAST YEAR TO A RECORD 93 OUT OF 100.

It is the 12^th consecutive year that Coca-Cola HBC has featured among the top three performers, and the sixth time it has been named the industry leader.

Commenting, CEO Zoran Bogdanovic, said: “Our goal is to deliver a more sustainable future while continuing to build value for our stakeholders. This endorsement from the DJSI demonstrates that we’re on the right track and it is further recognition of the work and unrelenting effort by all at Coca-Cola HBC to put sustainability at the heart of our company. Last year, I made the ambitious announcement of our aim to reach Net Zero emissions by 2040 and I believe wholeheartedly that if we continue as we are, we’ll make this aim a reality.”

This latest recognition is in line 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. 

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Highlights of Coca-Cola HBC’s commitment to sustainability include:

• We’ve reduced the amount of water needed to produce our products by two billion litres since 2011 and improved our water use ratio by 9% in 19 water priority locations since 2017.

• We’ve saved more than 800,000 tonnes in absolute carbon emissions across our direct operations since 2017.

• Procuring more than 98% of goods and raw material from local suppliers (in the market in which we manufacture our products) which is €3.5 billion spend

• Issuing our first Green Bond in September 2022

• Supporting 10 other jobs on average for every job in The Coca-Cola system

• Training 753,000 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 for the second year in a row its tax transparency policy and report

• Ensuring 39% of management roles are held by women, with a target to reach 50% by 2025

• By 2025, at least 35% of the PET we use to make our bottles across our Group, and 50% in EU countries and Switzerland will be recycled plastic. In 2022, Switzerland moved all its locally produced portfolio in plastic bottles to 100% rPET, and Italy** and Austria are expected to move their portfolios to 100% recycled locally produced PET in 2023.

• KeelClip innovation has allowed us to eliminate plastic packaging from our can multipacks in 22 countries so far, removing 2,000 tonnes of plastic film annually. 

• To help us reach our rPET goals, we are investing in in-house rPET facilities. This includes our Gaglianico plant in Italy, which produces PET bottle preforms with a carbon footprint that is up to 70% lower, compared with virgin plastic. We have also introduced similar rPET production technology at plants in Poland and Romania. Our total investment in these technologies is more than €50M.

*Numbers refer to 2021 unless stated 

** Excluding water

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.