Case Studies

Creating scenic hiking trails in Serbia

Visitors to Lake Vlasina, an area of extraordinary biodiversity and beauty in south-east Serbia, can now use 47 kilometres of new hiking trails. We partnered with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Ministry for the Development of Underdeveloped Municipalities and the Municipality of Surdulica to create the new trail. Our natural spring water plant is located in Vlasina – an area of national significance due to its endemic flora and fauna, unforgettable gastronomy and rich historical and cultural heritage.

Our ambition is to establish Vlasina as a regional must-see tourist destination, while supporting local businesses and our neighbours to grow in a sustainable way. Visitors can now learn about the lake and biodiversity along the trail or by visiting digital trails on the Serbia Trails portal. Vlasina hosted the nation’s largest hiking event, ROSA Hiking Day, when the trail opened in September 2023. New waste bins to separate packaging for recycling were also installed along the Vlasina Lake and in restaurants and cafes, in partnership with local waste management operator Sekopak.

Renovating a mineral water spring for local communities in Poland

Caring for local biodiversity

Zero Waste Project in Hungary

Coca-Cola Hungary joined forces with the water management authorities and civil society to help clean up Hungary’s second largest river, the Tisza. More than 100 tonnes of waste have been removed since 2019 as part of the initiative. GPS-based tracking maps the amount of plastic waste and the path it takes to help find solutions for the future. A lot has been done to improve waste collection and treatment in Subcarpathia and a new water purifying container has been developed to make clean water more accessible to the local population. This initiative brings together the Plastic Cup team and the General Directorate of Water Management (OVF) with support from The Coca-Cola Foundation.

Sourcing our energy in Nigeria

In Nigeria, our commitment to sustainability shines brighter than ever. Our eight manufacturing plants now have solar panels and source 14% of their electricity from renewable energy sources. We had increased our Nigerian renewable and clean energy supply from 58% in 2022 to 73% by the end of 2023. All the electricity supplied from the public grid is renewable for our Nigerian operations.

This year, we started using cleaner sources such as solar energy from rooftop panels in our production plant in Challawa. We also continued to extend these sources in our production plants in Ikeja and Abuja.

Manna drones in Ireland

Drones offer fast, safe and quiet home delivery, and can deliver to a five-kilometre radius in less than three minutes. They can also be up to eight times more efficient in terms of CO2 emitted during delivery when compared with conventional petrol vehicles, according to a report from Maynooth University in Ireland in 2022.

We are pleased to have invested – through our Ventures arm – in Manna Aero, an Irish start-up leading the way in food and beverage drone deliveries. We believe this partnership will help us drive profits, deliver better customer service and, importantly, reduce harmful CO2 emissions. We are looking forward to Manna Aero expanding its operations and bringing drone deliveries to more cities in the EU and elsewhere.

Delivering our drinks in more sustainable ways in Ireland

We can reduce CO2 emissions by changing the types of transport we use. In the first pilot of its kind on the island of Ireland, we are using three best-in-class electric Heavy Goods Vehicles (e-HGVs) with a range of 300km. We expect the e-HGVs to reduce carbon emissions by 229 tonnes each year – the equivalent of charging over 25 million smartphones¹.

We’ve collaborated with a customer and transport supplier on this initiative. This type of partnership along the value chain aims to showcase how important it is for the industry to work together and share insights so we can reach our shared and individual sustainability goals.

_{1. US Environmental Protection Agency comparison.}

Tackling water scarcity for impact in Greece

Water scarcity is a threat to farmers, local communities and tourism in Crete’s largest city, Heraklion. In 2023 we improved irrigation and water supply systems at five locations to save 14.5 million litres of water a year through our Zero Drop programme, which we funded with The Coca-Cola Foundation. The water resources protection programme is locally implemented by the Global Water Partnership– Mediterranean (GWP-Med) in collaboration with the Municipality of Heraklion.

In Profitis Ilias, we replaced old leaking pipes to secure the water distribution network for irrigation while in Voutes, we upgraded two major pumping stations, saving energy, reducing CO2 emissions and preventing water losses.

We shared water-saving advice with the local community and a team of environmental educators taught schoolchildren about saving water. Educational displays at Chalkiadakis stores offered water-saving tips on promotional displays and leaflets. Consumers received discounts on purchases, strongly connected with our customer’s ESG agenda.  

Delivering almost 5 billion litres of clean water in Nigeria

Providing access to clean and safe water in local communities is an important part of our work in Nigeria. In 2023, we built sanitation and water facilities in Benin, Kano, Lagos, Maiduguri and Owerri as part of our €1 million commitment to celebrate our 70th anniversary in Nigeria. The facilities, which include a block of toilets, new boreholes and overhead tanks, aim to improve people’s lives through access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services in communities where we operate.

Together with our stakeholders and local communities, we also want to make sure that people in these water risk zones have access to safe, good quality water. Over five years, our community water stewardship projects in Nigeria have delivered an estimated 4.8 billion litres of clean water.  

Protecting precious water resources in Cyprus 

In 2023, we completed the final phase of our ‘Zero Drop’ programme in Cyprus, a partnership between us, the Global Water Partnership Mediterranean (GWP-Med) and Municipality of Aglantzia, with funding from The Coca-Cola Foundation. New water piping network replaces old pipes, preventing leaks and irrigating nearby agricultural areas. This change is expected to save over three million litres of water annually and enhance green spaces, benefitting the 10,000 residents of Aglantzia. It builds on the success of a previous ten-year effort to protect water resources in Cyprus, which has saved millions of litres of water annually.

REMOVING TONNES OF RIVER LITTER IN ROMANIA

Trapping litter on four rivers flowing into the Danube is helping to reduce pollution in Romania. The innovative cleaning system spreads over the entire width of the river in specific areas that were chosen after a technical evaluation of where it would be most effective. The traps collect litter that’s floating on, and one metre below, the surface to stop it from going any further. The River Water Interceptors project brings together the private and public sector. We are in partnership with the CSR Nest Association, a non-governmental organisation that is managing the project, The Romanian Waters National Administration and local municipalities. Since it was set up in February 2022, the traps have stopped over 11 tonnes of waste from flowing into the River Danube and on to the Black Sea. This has included 1.5 tonnes of recyclable PET and 8.5 tonnes of wood, which we donated to local communities to use.

Expanding reusable packaging in Austria 

In Austria, we’ve introduced a state-of-the-art energy and water-efficient returnable glass bottling line (co-funded by the European Union, NextGenerationEU). For the first time in any of our markets, this facility will manufacture an innovative 400ml refillable, returnable, and resealable glass bottle for the Austrian market. This initiative represents another stride towards fostering a circular economy for packaging.  

We’re making innovations like this as part of our efforts to meet our 2025 Sustainability Commitments. We’re focused on reducing our direct CO2 emissions rate by 30%.

Outstanding collection results from DRS in Slovakia

PET collection rates in Slovakia soared from 50% in 2022 to 92% in 2023, after a new Deposit Return Scheme was introduced in 2022. In its second year of operation, the scheme had 3,250 collection points and high levels of consumer engagement.

This demonstrates how effective a well-designed and properly implemented DRS can be in increasing collection rates.

The scheme gives a right of first refusal to all registered producers on the market to purchase their fair share of the collected post-consumer materials, supportingcircularity and high-quality bottle-to-bottle and can-to-can recycling.

ESTABLISHING A CIRCULAR PACKAGING ECONOMY IN ROMANIA

Romania is a great example of successful collaboration with stakeholders and the broader industry in establishing a circular economy for packaging. In October 2023, our recycled plastic (rPET) production facility opened there. This initiative ensures a steady supply of high quality rPET for its 100% recycled bottle portfolio.  

Romania is the first market in our Group to combine all three key ingredients of plastic packaging circularity:

• A 100% rPET local bottle portfolio
• An in-house rPET facility
• A Deposit Return Scheme

This achievement positions us to achieve 50% rPET in our plastic bottles across our portfolio in EU markets and Switzerland by 2025. 

Read the full story

Donations to Food Banks in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy and Ireland

We want to support people in need and tackle food waste as part of our sustainability commitments. Here are some of the initiatives we were involved with in 2023. 

• Donated 70,000 meals in December 2023 in the Republic of Ireland. We collaborated with our customer partner Tesco and FoodCloud, a not-for-profit social enterprise working to tackle food waste and food security.
• Co-operated with food banks in the Czech Republic and Slovakia to donate more than 800,000 litres of beverages to food banks worth more than €360,000.
• Supported Banco Alimentare (National Food Bank) in Italy to distribute over 1.5 million meals during the Christmas period. We also took part in its National Food Collection Day with 55 colleagues volunteering. Our seven local family days donated the proceeds of their Christmas markets to Banco Alimentare.

Community support in Ukraine

We continued to offer practical help and support to people in Ukraine and our employees affected by the conflict in 2023. With The Coca-Cola Company and NGO partners, we provided water and beverages to affected regions, offered humanitarian assistance, restored infrastructure, and installed electricity and heat generation equipment. Since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, the Coca-Cola System and The Coca-Cola Foundation have committed US $35 million to support people in Ukraine.

Co-operation, Creativity, Communication, Critical Thinking and AI

More than 4,000 young people from Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined our 2023 #Skills4Future hybrid event hosted by Polish influencer, Natalia Sisik.

The theme of the 2023 event was cooperation, creativity, communication and critical thinking – and the role of AI in youth development.

We invited 17 experts and business practitioners to talk about each skill and share their experiences, including the role of personal branding in the job market and combining creativity with new technologies.

During the event, Natalia presented the results of a survey carried out on behalf of Coca-Cola HBC in Poland. These showed that 3 in 4 young people believe that using modern technologies will translate into their future in the labour market.