Sustainability in food and beverage

Organic food is the way to go. In an ideal world, each country should be run like a well knit commercial enterprise and must be self sufficient. Time is fast approaching when we have to decide if progress means creating things we could do without. The world has been in awe for far too long with the rapid industrialisation for the sake of it, often.

American experience with Wall Street, as we speak, is proving that free economy and enterprice is as failed a realoity as Communism few years back.

Im no fan of bottled coloured water that companies like Pepsi and Coke peddle though arguably its an econimic enterprise on which lives of a lot of people are tied.

Its great to see that they are trying to bring some sense and sanity in what they do, at least when they dont have a choice.

'Coca-Cola Enterprises, the world's largest marketer, distributor, and producer of Coca-Cola products, has published its third company-wide Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability (CRS) Report, "Shape Tomorrow. . .Today."

The Report follows the G3 guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and announced the company's first-ever goals and commitments in its five strategic CRS focus areas: water stewardship, sustainable packaging/recycling, energy conservation/climate change, product portfolio/well-being, and diverse and inclusive culture. The Report is a comprehensive look at Coca-Cola Enterprises' business in the communities in which it operates.

"For the first time, we are announcing a clear roadmap with targets and goals to help us deliver on our commitment to Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability," said John F. Brock, chairman and chief executive officer. "As we continue to embed CRS throughout our business, it is playing an increasingly important role in helping us to capture operational efficiencies, drive effectiveness, and eliminate waste."

CCE has established a goal and targets for each of its five strategic CRS focus areas, including:

- Water Stewardship: Establish a water sustainable operation in which we use one liter of water for every liter of product we produce - what we call water neutrality.

- Sustainable Packaging/Recycling: Maximize our use of renewable, reusable, and recyclable resources, ultimately recycling the equivalent of 100 percent of our packaging.- Energy Conservation/Climate Change: Reduce carbon emissions in our manufacturing, fleet, sales and marketing equipment, and facilities.

- Product Portfolio/Well-Being: Offer every consumer the right product and package in the right place, at the right moment, in the right way.- Diverse and Inclusive Culture: Establish a diverse, winning, and inclusive culture.

Highlights from the Report, the company noted, include:

- Achieving the company's target of a three percent improvement in water use ratio over previous year, using 1.77 liters of water to produce one liter of product

- Launching Coca-Cola Recycling with a mission of recovering or recycling the equivalent of 100 percent of the packaging materials used by the Coca-Cola system in North America- Installing more than 20,000 energy

-saving devices in sales and marketing equipment, reducing CO2 by 28,000 metric tons- Adding glaceau, FUZE, and Campbell's products to the company's product portfolio

- Increasing the number of light sparkling and still beverages in the company's portfolio to 47 percent of our sales volume

- Spending more than US$150 million with minority- or women-owned business enterprises- Contributing US$31.5 million to community investment programs

Coca-Cola Enterprises will continue to improve its reporting capabilities and data-gathering systems. The company is committed to developing greater transparency in reporting and improving the quality and quantity of the data reported.'

Question remains, what packaging is a better option: Highly energy consuming but entirely recyclable glass bottle or not so energy consuming but littlering cans, in absence of a well developed national collection facility in most of the countries.

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