2Sustain

Forming a partnership that illustrates the current trend towards non-profit/for-profit sustainability alliances, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has teamed up with The Coca-Cola Company to improve the water quality of the Yangtze River in China.

In many ways, the Yangtze has taken the brunt of China’s colossal economic growth, and even though the river provides China with 35 percent of its fresh water, it now ranks number one on WWF’s list of the ten most-threatened rivers in the world. For Coca-Cola, which operates 39 bottling plants in China, the partnership with WWF represents an opportunity to strengthen its commitment to water stewardship while mitigating its water risks.

A recent post at Knowledge@Wharton explains how non-profit/for-profit partnerships such as this one can be mutually beneficial: (more…)

Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) recently consolidated three facilities in the Northwest (Tualatin, The Dalles and Woodland, Washington) into a single plant in Wilsonville, Oregon, and the company says this move has helped it maximize efficiencies in its supply chain while minimizing its environmental footprint overall.

How? The company points out that by creating additional storage space for Coca-Cola products in Wilsonville, it can ship Dasani water directly from the bottling facility instead of having it bottled, shipped to other facilities for storage and then shipped to retailers. According to CCE, reconfiguring this part of the production cycle will save an average of 112 truckloads and 79,000 truck miles every year. (more…)

The Coca-Cola Company’s PlantBottle received a gold award at the 22nd annual global DuPont Awards for Packaging Innovation held this week.

Honored for its demonstrated breakthrough packaging innovation, the PlantBottle topped a field of more than 160 global entrants in the overall program. The prestigious DuPont Award is the packaging industry’s longest running, independently judged global award program. Leading international industry and sustainability experts judged entrants on their excellence in innovation, sustainability and cost/waste reduction.

Coca-Cola’s PlantBottle wins on all accounts. It is made from up to 30 percent renewable plant-based material. Plus, it is 100 percent recyclable, like traditional PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic. (In other words, PlantBottle packaging can be recycled in the existing commercial recycling infrastructure.) (more…)

The Coca-Cola Bottling Company is donating empty 55-gallon concentrate barrels to the Nose Creek Watershed Partnership so that they can be reused to collect rainwater.

The Nose Creek Watershed Partnership, a longstanding advocate of water conservation, says these rain barrels will save money on water bills, conserve water during dry periods and prevent polluted run-off. In addition, the reuse of these 55-gallon barrels will also avoid the energy consumed when the barrels are otherwise recycled. (more…)

What’s the most sustainable beverage wildly available to Americans today?

According to Greenopia.com, it’s Honest Tea of Bethesda, MD.

In fact, Honest Tea was the only mass-distributed, retail beverage to earn the coveted Greenopia 4-Leaf Rating in the website’s latest green beverage ratings research project.   Steaz and Santa Cruz Organic Sodas rounded out the top three. (more…)