Mlolongo – The city of Mlolongo in Machakos County benefited from a clean up and tree planting drive organised by Coca-Cola Beverages Africa in Kenya, in partnership with Climate Minders, Machakos County Government, and T3 EPZ Limited.
“Reliable access to good, safe water is essential to life, nature, and the health of our communities,” said Public Affairs, Communication and Sustainability Director, John Mwendwa.
“Across the world, approximately 2.1 billion people live in potentially water-scarce areas. Globally, over 80% of the wastewater generated by society flows back into the environment without being treated or re-used. By 2050, the global water demand will have increased by 30%.
“So, as the first ingredient in most of our beverages, safe, clean water is also critical to the long-term success of our business. Furthermore,CCBA is in a number of the countries that are water-stressed and in this context, we take our water stewardship responsibilities very seriously,” said Mwendwa.
“CCBA, together with The Coca-Cola Company, are leaders in using water responsibly in our operations and giving it back. We continue to manage water resources through country projects that reduce water use in our operations, protect local water resources and provide safe, clean drinking water to communities in need.
“Improving watershed health is one of the key pillars of our Water Strategy and planting appropriate tree species is one of the most effective ways of achieving this,” said Mwendwa.
“Plastic waste is another key concern for CCBA. Food and beverage packaging is an important part of our modern lives, yet the world has a packaging problem, which we as CCBA, together with The Coca-Cola Company, have a responsibility to help solve. Clearly, plastics are a significant global challenge.
“Our commitment is to invest in our planet and our packaging, to help make the world’s packaging problem a thing of the past, working in partnership with The Coca-Cola Company which launched a sustainable packaging initiative called World Without Waste in 2018.
“Our aim is to help collect a bottle or can for every one we sell by 2030, make all our packaging recyclable by 2025 and make 25% of our packaging reusable by 2030.
“To clean up existing packaging, we’re bringing people together through programmes like beach and river cleanups and other ongoing local activities, like today’s initiative. To encourage more people to recycle more often, we’re investing to help people understand what to recycle, how to recycle, and where to recycle,” said Mwendwa.
*Update* On December 2, 2024, The Coca-Cola Company announced updated voluntary environmental goals. Read more here: The Coca-Cola Company Evolves Voluntary Environmental Goals
