Energy and climate protection
Climate change is the greatest and most urgent environmental challenge facing our planet. Swift and decisive action is needed to set our society onto a low-carbon growth path. With its capacity for innovation and investment, business has a critical role to play in this massive transformation.
We aim to take a leadership position, adapting our business to the demands and opportunities of a low-carbon economy. As a result, we are accelerating our efforts in the parts of our business that use the most energy: our bottling plants, fleet and cold drink equipment.
Energy-savings programmes
In our bottling plants, we are implementing energy-savings programmes to reduce the CO2 emissions to produce each litre of beverage. For example:
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We monitor electricity consumption in all plants, forklifts’ fuel consumption and for steam production.
Although our bottling operations use more energy than our offices and other facilities, we are taking steps to reduce CO2 emissions there too. For example, our Green IT programme is changing the IT equipment that we use, as well as the way that we use it. By using audio, video and online conferencing, we are significantly reducing business travel with its associated CO2 emissions. We train our employees and run awareness campaigns internally in order to reduce our energy consumption in our buildings and operations.
We are evaluating and expanding the use of alternative fuels and hybrid vehicles in our fleet. We have been conducting trials of hybrid trucks in Europe, where the technology is not yet commercially available.
Since these initiatives are still at an early stage, we are also reducing the impact of our conventional fleet. For example, we are downsizing engines and monitoring actual fuel and CO2 emissions.
Safe and Eco-Driving
Changing driver behaviour can also make a major contribution to reducing CO2 emissions. Through our Safe and Eco-Driving programme, we are teaching drivers of our trucks and company cars such techniques as driving at optimum speed and early gear changes. Initial results are encouraging, showing the potential for significant CO2 emissions reduction across our business.
Our consumers expect to find chilled beverages available in restaurants and shops when they are thirsty. As a result, placing coolers and other cold drink equipment on customer premises is an important part of our business strategy. Although we do not operate this equipment, we still have a responsibility to reduce its carbon footprint.
We therefore work with our suppliers to improve the equipment’s energy efficiency. By developing new cooler models as well as energy management devices, we now purchase coolers up to 50 percent more energy-efficient compared to 2004. We also train our employees to ensure that coolers in the marketplace operate as efficiently as possible.
In addition, we are working to eliminate hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), the greenhouse gases widely used in commercial and domestic refrigeration. We no longer use HFCs in insulation foam and are trialing alternative refrigerant gases. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) have been almost completely phased out from our equipment through a capture and recovery programme in the marketplace. From end of 2009, all equipment that is removed from the market participates in the WEEE recycling program organised by Green Dot Cyprus.
Working in partnership
At an international level, Coca-Cola Hellenic is a founder signatory of the UN Global Compact’s Caring for Climate (link to website address), the largest global business coalition on climate.
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