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:

• Improving our water efficiency: we work hard to reduce the amount of water needed to produce our beverage.
• 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, minimising 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.

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. Our three bottling plants in Croatia all have on-site wastewater treatment plants, or utilise the municipal water treatment resources. 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 Croatia 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.

In partnership with the Croatian Ministry of Regional Development, Forestry and Water Management, and local tourist associations, we work to increase awareness of the local population and responsible authorities about the protection of Danube and its tributaries, so they can be used and enjoyed by the generations to come. Danube Day celebrations represent a completion of all our previous activities starting in May with Our Beautiful Sava project, which consists of numerous local business, ecological and tourist activities aimed at promoting awareness of the importance of Sava river.

Additionally, Coca-Cola HBC Croatia, Coca-Cola Adria and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) have been conducting a joint project under the name 'Every drop is important – let's revive the Gacka River', dedicated to the protection of water resources in the Gacka River basin and the promotion of water preservation in Croatia.

We also support public policy initiatives to promote sustainable water management.

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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