When one billion people on the planet lack access to safe drinking water, a company that consumes 290 billion litres of water a year has certain responsibilities. 

 

In July 2007 The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) pledged to become water neutral - - through a Reduce, Recycle and Replenish programme.

 

TCCC had previously been operating water conservation schemes.  Between 2002 and 2006 the company reduced total water consumption by 5% while increasing finished product volumes by 15%.  The target is to be the most efficient user of water among its peer companies by 2008.

The Recycle commitment is to return, by 2010, all water used in manufacturing processes to the environment at a level that supports aquatic life and agriculture.  TCCC believes its internal requirements are more stringent that many local standards and estimated that nearly 85% of facilities had implemented them by 2007.

The Replenish commitment means that, globally, the company will support healthy watersheds, and sustainable community water programmes to balance the water used in finished products.

 

Critics:
Critics argue that the programme should extend to water efficiency requirements for its agricultural suppliers.  Without making a specific commitment, TCCC are working with WWF on opportunities to address this, starting with sugar.

In addition, TCCC has entered a five-year partnership with WWF to conserve and protect freshwater resources including the river basins of the Yangtze, Mekong and Danube rivers and of Lake Malawi.

 

TCCC was also a founder signatory of the CEO Water Mandate, which provides a strategic framework to help companies address the issue of water sustainability.  This initiative grew out of collaboration between the United Nations Global Compact, the Government of Sweden, a group of committed companies and specialized organizations dealing with the problems of water scarcity and sanitation.The framework covers the areas of: direct operations; supply chain and watershed management, collective action; public policy; community engagement; and transparency.

 

 

This is a good example of Why we need force for good companies because it shows that companies can make a difference - to people and the environment. It is also a good example of What that looks like in Coca-Cola's case, and How to achieve a challenging target (in some cases ahead of schedule) by redefining success and working together through new frameworks.

 

 

Further details of TCCC's Water Stewardship programme can be found on the Coca-Cola website here.

 

Background to the CEO Water Mandate and other associated resources can be found on the UN Global Compact website here.

 

And a ten-page pdf UN document describing the CEO Water Mandate can be downloaded here.