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Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Tshidi Ramogase, the Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) Chief Public Affairs, Communication, and Sustainability Officer has reechoed the firm’s commitment to operate business while protecting the environment to achieve its sustainability agenda.
“Our sustainability strategy is centered around people—consumers and our employees—and driving sustainable solutions that build resilience into our business to respond to current and future challenges while creating positive change for the planet,” she said in a statement sent to The Independent.
“Water is a priority for the Coca-Cola system because it is the first ingredient in all our beverages and is essential to the communities we serve,” Ramogase said.
Her remarks are aligned with the company’s 2030 Water Security Strategy which focuses on increasing water security.
She said: “We do that by contributing toward sustainable, clean water access that improves livelihoods and wellbeing while protecting against water-related disasters. Inside our operations, we are committed to regenerative water use. This means using less water as well as re-using and treating wastewater.”
She cited Kenya where she said they recently opened a new wastewater treatment plant at their Equator Bottlers plant in Kisumu, which will promote more sustainable water use and help reduce the factory’s environmental impact.
The new plant will enable the company to treat and recycle wastewater generated from the production facility, which will be used for non-potable purposes such as irrigation and cleaning.
In Botswana, the company signed an agreement last year with the Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources to donate water from its newly installed water treatment plant for agricultural irrigation at the campus.
For our packaging, the executive said, they seek to drive a circular economy because to help reduce waste and carbon emissions.
“We’re working to use more recycled content in our packaging, to expand our use of refillable bottles, and to collect packaging for recycling through Coca-Cola’s World Without Waste initiative. We also partner to design new packaging solutions.”
Coca-Cola and other industries came together in 2004 to set up the PET Recycling Company (PETCO) in South Africa to promote and regulate the recycling of PET plastic, taking responsibility for recovering and recycling beverage PET plastic bottles.
The PETCO model has proven so effective and has been extended to three other markets, Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia, with plans to include additional countries like Namibia and others on the continent.
