Water stewardship

Demand on the amount of freshwater around us is increasing and climate change is impacting traditional rainfall patterns. As the world’s population grows, the demands being placed on freshwater are rising, rapidly.

Our ability to grow is directly related to the availability and quality of local water resources. As a result, we place a major focus on our water stewardship efforts, and an integrated approach to this critical resource:

• We have installed high-pressure washing systems and, thus, reduced water consumption significantly; the water used for PET rinsing is collected and reused for improving our water efficiency: we work hard to reduce the amount of water needed to produce our beverages
• Working in partnerships: to protect local watersheds and promote sustainable water management, we work in a growing number of partnerships

Improving our water efficiency

In our bottling plants, we closely monitor our water sources, minimizing the amount of water we withdraw. By incorporating water savings technologies on our production lines, we have managed to improve the efficiency with which we use water. For example: we have installed high-pressure washing systems and, thus, reduced water consumption; the water used for PET rinsing is collected and reused for non production purposes such as flushing; we have started a programme in the Syrup Room in which the rinsing water is collected and reused; in the water treatment unit we have installed devices which measure water consumption on each production line hence we improved the water consumption monitoring systems in production.

Each bottling plant regularly conducts risk assessments. We study the quantity and quality of local water supplies, as well as environmental, regulatory and other concerns. Based on these assessments, we develop action plans to mitigate risks.

Although we have significantly improved our efficiency, we cannot reduce the amount of water in our beverages. As we produce greater volume of beverages, we will use more water. It is therefore increasingly important to further improve water efficiency. We therefore invest in emerging technologies.

We ensure that all water returned to the natural environment is treated to a level that supports fish life. Coca-Cola HBC Serbia owns a Waste Water Treatment Facilities situated in the factory area, while Vlasinka and Fresh & Co use public services for water treatment. Treated water released into the environment is suitable for use in agriculture as well as supporting plant and aquatic life.

Working in partnership

To address water-related issues, we work in a growing number of partnerships.

The Green Danube is our most longstanding partnership. Together with the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River, we conduct conservation and awareness-raising activities in Serbia and nine other countries lying in the river basin. These include annual Danube Day celebrations, which see the participation of tens/hundreds of thousands of people. We organize the Danube Day celebration mainly in partnership with the Republic Directorate for Waters of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Resources Management,and many others such as the Belgrade City Assembly, the Secretariat for environmental protection of the Belgrade city area, the Agency for Recycling of the Republic of Serbia, the Secretariat for communal and residential operations of the city of Belgrade, the Belgrade Tourist organization, the Faculty of Applied Ecology, Belgrade University, the non-governmental organisation “Svet and Dunav“ and many other associations, representatives of relevant Ministries and our media partners. Furthermore, we have also sponsored the first Conference on Underground Waterways and initiated a project aiming to protect the river Vlasina.

At an international level, Coca-Cola Hellenic is a founding signatory of the CEO Water Mandate of the UN Global Compact. This initiative aims to address water sustainability issues in operations, supply chains and communities; and to work with government and NGOs to shape public policy. To better understand water use in our supply chain, Coca-Cola Hellenic is also working with the Water Footprint Network.

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