We are proud to be global industry leaders in sustainability. We have a clear vision and targets in sustainability and a bold and entrepreneurial mindset. We invest in technology and innovation and work in partnership with our suppliers and partners.  

Our sustainability journey so far:

• 2006: Set our first carbon reduction commitments .
• 2010: We formally established a clear sustainability strategy. 
• 2016: We were among the first companies to adopt Science-Based targets for climate. 
• 2018: We published  Mission 2025. This is our clear and ambitious sustainability strategy that focuses on the following areas: climate, packaging, water, ingredients, nutrition, biodiversity and people and communities. 
• 2021: We announced our commitment to reach NetZeroBy40 across our entire value chain by 2040. 
• 2022: We announced our net positive biodiversity commitment, making us one of the first companies to do this. 
• 2023: We integrated Egypt into our sustainability strategy – after we acquired the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Egypt in 2022 – and developed specific plans for the market. 

Our sustainability strategy focuses on seven major areas: climate, packaging, water, ingredients, nutrition, people and communities, and biodiversity. It is underpinned by a set of external commitments known as Mission 2025, further amplified by commitments to achieve a Net Zero carbon footprint by 2040 and net positive biodiversity by 2040.

Most important is our track record in sustainability: for us it is critical to make sure our communities, stakeholders, consumers, customers and employees trust our promises and feel confident in Coca-Cola HBC running the business in the right way.

Our performance has been externally recognised by the highest scores from 10 major ESG benchmarkers, including Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI), CDP and MSCI. We were once again ranked as the world’s most sustainable beverage company by the 2023 Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (scores as of December 8, 2023).

• Since 2010 we have halved direct emissions and reduced our end-to-end absolute total value chain emissions in scopes 1,2 and 3 by a third from 2010 to the end of 2023, despite volume growth and global increase in emissions.  These results come from our sustained investment and focus and highlight our consistent approach to decarbonisation.

Packaging is among our primary sustainability priorities playing a critical role in reducing emissions and waste.  We believe every package has value and life beyond its initial use and that it should be collected and recycled into a new package or reused.

• We’re committed to collecting 75% of our primary packaging for recycling by 2025, supporting the global ambition of The Coca-Cola Company to have 100% collection by 2030. In 2023, we made significant progress towards our packaging collection goal, delivering an overall collection rate of 56%, an increase of eight percentage points from 2022 (excluding Egypt). Our collection rate in the EU and Switzerland is 63%.
• To achieve our commitment, we are leading industry efforts to introduce Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) in our EU countries and efficient collection schemes in our other markets. By the end of 2023, six of our markets had launched DRS: Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia. The Republic of Ireland and Hungary launched DRS in Q1 2024. The Hungarian DRS will have a six-month transition phase. Well-designed DRS have a proven track record of delivering very high collection rates, typically over 90%. We are supporting several additional markets to launch DRS in 2025-27.

Recycled materials in our packaging

• Several of our markets have already shifted their locally produced plastic packaging to 100% rPET – Switzerland, Austria, Italy (excluding water), Romania, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
• Our strategy involves establishing our own infrastructure for in-house rPET production. To achieve this, we have invested over €50 million in dedicated facilities in Italy, Poland and Romania.
• In October 2023, with the opening of our new rPET production facility in Romania, we successfully integrated three pillars of circularity: 100% rPET portfolio, establishing an in-house rPET production facility and implementing a Deposit Return Scheme to help collect back the bottles and cans for future recycling. This is our first market to embrace this comprehensive approach.
• These efforts for creating a circular economy marked a milestone moment for the Coca-Cola HBC Group. With these initiatives, we almost doubled the percentage of rPET in EU markets and Switzerland in the last year from 22.3% rPET in 2022 to 42% rPET in December 2023. On average we have used, in 2023 across Coca-Cola HBC,16.1% of the rPET (excluding Egypt). This represented a significant increase compared with our 2022 performance (10.5%) and solid progress towards our 2025 target to have 35% rPET usage across our Group (excluding Egypt).
• Since 2022 100% of our primary packaging – glass, aluminium and PET plastic – is already recyclable by design. Packaging can only be circular if it is recyclable.

Expand reusable packaging

• 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.  

Eliminate unnecessary packaging

• We eliminated single use plastic film from multi-pack cans using an innovative KeelClipTM technology. KeelClipTM is now sold in 22 of our markets, including all our EU countries.
• In 2023 we introduced a world-first in secondary packaging with LitePac Top for 1.5 litre Coca-Cola, Fanta and Sprite. This innovative, 100%-recyclable cardboard and paper wrap could signal the end of plastic shrink wrap for large multipacks. The pilot project in Austria will initially save about 200 tonnes of plastic each year.  

Water touches every part of our business.

Protecting this valuable resource is our priority, especially in areas where water is scarce or at risk. 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.

Our Mission 2025 commitment for water risk areas is to reduce the water-use ratio in plants by 20% compared with our 2017 baseline and help secure water availability for communities in which we operate. In 2023, our overall water-use ratio reduction in plants in water priority locations was 6.8% compared with our 2017 baseline.

We continuously invest across our markets in technologies to reach our 2025 commitments. In 2023, this included implementing dry rinsers that clean without water, automated controls for reverse osmosis systems, data-driven ion exchangers, backwash filtration units, optimised chemicals for coagulation and upgrading cooling towers.

Water stewardship community projects

In our operations, we have 19 water priority areas. These regions face specific challenges such as water scarcity, limited access to water and sanitation, and declining water quality. We focus on replenishing water sources, implementing nature-based solutions and improving water quality in these locations.

In CCHBC, we commit to internal and external environmental management system certifications in compliance with internationally recognised standards, such as 14001:2015.

In 2023:

• 100% of our beverage manufacturing facilities were assessed, audited, certified and verified according to the Environmental Management System and other applicable environmental standards compliance.
• 99.8% of the total volume we produced in 58 of our manufacturing plants was certified according to the ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management System standard by external independent auditing bodies.
• The remaining 0.2% of the produced volume was assigned to a newly acquired site that has been audited and assessed for environmental compliance by our internal management system auditing team. This is a group of trained and qualified employees independent of the specific manufacturing site.

Before the start of the event, an open seminar on separate waste collection is held for teams registered for the Republican Clean-up. During the Clean-up, volunteers collect waste, sorting it into 5 types ("Plastic and Plastic wrap", "Glass", "Metal", "PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate)" and "Other Waste"), so that it can go to processing plants later. Hundreds of kilograms of waste are collected annually.

Another priority of the project is environmental education of local communities. Since 2016, a specialized ecological class “Nature of Native Land” has been working in the school of Germanovichy village, not far from the bog complex. Modern equipment and educational materials were purchased through the Coca-Cola Foundation.

The project continued with the opening of an interactive ecological path on the territory of the Republican landscape Reserve "Yelnya" in 2017. The path is 2 km in length, with infrastructure and educational stands.

Coca-Cola HBC Belarus has been supporting volunteer camps at Yelnya bog. Volunteers and Enterprise’s employees repair the peat dams and sand dams in Republican Landscape Reserve Yelnya.

With the support of Coca-Cola HBC Belarus, the Republican Water Research Projects Competition is held annually, organized by the Republican Center for Ecology and Local History.

The main task of the competition is to encourage research and innovation activities  in the field of water protection and preserving the quality of water bodies among students aged 14-17. Every year more than a hundred students from all regions of Belarus submit their works for expert evaluation.

Since 2009, the Enterprise together with partners has been successfully implementing the joint project for cleaning the grounds of the Turov Meadow biological reserve. The main purpose of this project is to protect the rich ecosystem of far-flung flood meadows along the Pripyat River. This territory is unique as it is one the largest nesting areas in Europe and an important stop for hundreds of thousands of waterbirds of over 50 during migration.

The environmental campaign for cleaning the grounds of this biological reserve, including plastic waste removal and disposal, is held annually. Schoolchildren and people from Turov, volunteers from the Enterprise take part in environmental campaigns for restoration of Turov meadow.