As Energy Efficiency and Climate Protection are important focus areas that make up Coca-Cola’s Live Positively platform, Coca-Cola works on achieving its goals worldwide.
Photo: Coca-Cola Inc
Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Ltd. (HCCBL) and Coca-Cola India have started to restore a major Nalli Gudda Lake in the southern state of Karnataka. The lake is an important water resource for six villages but has depleted in recent years due to drought and deforestation.
As part of Coca-Cola system’s ongoing commitment to water stewardship and community development, the company will increase the capacity of the 385-acre lake and boost its annual groundwater recharge potential to 1 million cubic meters.
HCCBL and Coca-Cola India are partnering with the local village council, Bangalore’s Central Groundwater Board and Department of Civil Engineering, Bangalore University and the Institute for Public and Environmental Affairs to improve the villagers’ overall quality of life by enriching the surrounding ecosystem and enhancing soil moisture retention to improve crop yields.
Making efforts to meet its sustainability goals, Coca-Cola has recently begun producing new fully recyclable PlantBottle in the UK.
In addition, to reduce gas emissions, Coca-Cola USA launches a fleet of alternative fuel vehicles. The first six eStar all-electric, zero-emission trucks will be on the road already this month and the fleet will surpass 750 by the end of the year.
Now Coca-Cola has the largest heavy-duty hybrid electric fleet in the US with more than 650 hybrid delivery trucks deployed in major U.S. cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Miami.
The new eStar vehicles built by Navistar, Inc., an American manufacturer of medium- and heavy-duty trucks have zero tailpipe emissions, and can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 10 tons annually. The trucks run up to 100 miles per charge and can be fully recharged in six to eight hours. A quick-change cassette-type battery can be swapped out in 20 minutes.
Their launch coincides with a new partnership with the Department of Energy (DOE) within the National Clean Fleets Partnership Program. Announced by President Obama, the program helps companies reduce diesel and gasoline use in their fleets by incorporating electric vehicles, alternative fuels and fuel-saving measures into their daily operations. The similar program launched by the President is corporate average fuel economy or CAFE and within it Toyota and Ford have already teamed up to produce hybrid gas-electric vehicles.