Coca-Cola European Partners has reduced the carbon footprint of its operations by 62 per cent since 2010 according to vice president, public affairs, communications & sustainability Julian Hunt.
CCEP vice president, public affairs, communications & sustainability Julian Hunt
This has been achieved by investing in no or low carbon manufacturing and cold drinks equipment, moving to 100% renewable electricity and running energy efficiency behaviour change programmes across our entire business.
One of CCEP’s flagship programmes is its move to 100% renewable electricity across operations – a transition made in 2017. A key part of that was a new partnership to build a solar farm near its Wakefield factory.
The factory is built on the site of an old landfill which means the land is of little agricultural use, but which can be put to great use for electricity generation. CCEP entered into a 25-year supply deal to take all the generated electricity directly to its plant.
Mr Hunt said: “I’m really proud of what we have done but there is much more to do to get to a net zero carbon business and clearly collaboration across the industry is really important. We have long been members of the Corporate Leaders’ Group and find it a really useful way to understand the evolving science on the issue, share our experiences, be inspired by others and to help us call for government policies which will help all of society to manage a transition to a zero carbon economy in a fair and equitable way.
“We are delighted that the GB and Scotland governments have set clear zero carbon targets as it provides a clear signal to business that there are no exemptions or special cases – everyone needs a plan to get to net zero.
“We want to see more of the governments from around the world following this lead and we hope to see many similar announcements at the CoP25 talks in Madrid this week.
“Once attention moves to CoP26 talks in Glasgow next November, we hope to see the British Government continue to lead policy in this area and are keen to see an intermediate target of at least 55% reduction in emissions by 2030. Change has to happen quickly, and we can’t leave it to 2049.
