Sustainability

Our sustainability commitments

For us at Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa (CCBSA), sustainability is an integral part of our decision making process. We want to operate in such a way that our operations are intrinsically linked to the sustainability of the environment where we operate.

This is our shared vision for how we work together to create social value and make a positive difference for the customers and communities we serve. Furthermore, CCBSA is committed to producing and selling our products in a responsible way and ensuring a sustainable future.

In this context, CCBSA’s finger must be on the pulse of South Africa, understanding the risks that we face and how this potentially affects our business as we make decisions.

Our sustainability strategy contributes directly towards our vision to sustain our social license to operate.

Our Supply Chain

We lead in developing sustainable ways to manufacture, sell and distribute our products in an environmentally responsible way. CCBSA is committed to finding innovative solutions and collaboration opportunities to ensure the effective management of waste in our production processes.

Water

In 2010, years before the big drought hit South Africa, Amalgamated Beverage Industries (ABI), which was one of the country’s largest bottlers at the time, set a target to reduce the amount of water used in soft drink production by 20% by 2020.

We’re now known as Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa following a merger of the country’s largest Coca-Cola bottlers, and we’ve exceeded this target by almost four years, realising a 30% reduction in water usage by 2016. This saving of almost 726 million litres of water over the past six years translates to around 290 Olympic size swimming pools, or the ability to provide almost 8 000 households with 250 litres per day for a year.

In 2010, 2.13 litres of water were used to produce 1 litre of the soft drinks CCBSA produces. By 2016, only 1.7 litres were needed to produce the same volume – and one litre of this goes into the soft drink itself. The remaining 700ml is used in the bottling process, and recycled where possible.

To achieve these savings, CCBSA’s merging companies implemented a number of advanced technologies, including electro-chemically activated (ECA) and membrane technology, as well as anaerobic digesters.

Both ECA and membrane technologies make use of scientific reactions to clean and disinfect equipment, a vital component of all production in the food and beverage industries. Both result in cleaning processes that are significantly less water- and chemical-intensive than traditional cleaning methods. In contrast, anaerobic digesters are used to more efficiently recycle waste water, which results in more clean, potable water being available for other uses. Performance trackers have been installed across all operations to ensure that these savings are maintained.

We see water stewardship throughout our business as critical to the long-term sustainability of the company. In addition to becoming more water efficient and, where possible, recycling the water we do use, we are also focused on replenishing community water sources in all the areas where we operate and protecting watersheds.

Sustainable Packaging

In response to the South African government introducing the New National Waste Management Act in 2009, CCBSA adheres to the Extended Producer Responsibility principle as introduced by the Act.

Most importantly, as a manufacturer and distributor of products that use PET packaging, CCBSA remains committed to actively participate in initiatives that encourage post-consumer waste recovery and we have established a number of partnerships to combat the rise of PET waste

In this context, we’re making excellent progress towards delivering quality beverages sustainably through packaging innovation. We have consistently reduced the total resin content in our preforms and currently, through our partnership with Mpact, our 500ml and 2L clear PET packaging contains 10% recycled PET. This percentage will progressively increase and extended to other PET packs.

We have also reduced the material used in our PET packaging by up to 25% through innovative preform design. As a result, we are able to achieve the perfect pallet footprint and we use less fuel to transport our products.

Additionally, in 2005, Coca-Cola teamed up with industry partners to form a PET recycling company (PETCO). The target is to collect, in association with its partners, 170 000 tonnes by 2022 with the target for 2017 at 96 655 tonnes. PETCO currently recycles more bottles than those going into landfill. Collection rates are currently at 58%, which is a 3% increase from 2016. Post-consumer PET bottles are collected, recycled and converted into fibre, which can be used in clothing, bedding and furniture. The 74 300 tonnes of post-consumer PET collected in 2015 translates into the creation of an estimated 50 000 income opportunities for informal collectors

Together, these innovations are part of a holistic strategy; they are good for the environment and good for the business and, as a result, make a bigger impact.

Our employees and communities

We partner with integrity and transparency with communities, government and society for the advancement of the business and our partners. Our initiatives create enterprise opportunities for women and young people in our value chains as an investment for the future and transformation of South Africa

Local Sourcing

Mintirho Foundation

Competition Commission approval for the creation of CCBSA was received in May 2016 with a requirement that the public interest conditions agreed by the merging parties be honoured.

Among the merger conditions agreed to were that CCBSA would establish a fund for enterprise development in its agricultural value chain and contribute R400m towards this fund.

Separately, CCBSA agreed to increase the percentage of locally grown fruit used in all Appletiser’s fruit concentrates to at least 80% over the five years to 2021.

CCBSA has since established an Agricultural Development Fund and in 2017 made the first of five R80 million contributions which will go towards supporting black emerging farmers or suppliers of inputs for Appletiser and CCBSA products.

A solid governance structure has been created, with the appointment of an advisory board and establishment of the fund as a black trust – named the Mintirho Foundation – in line with the provisions of the BBBEE Codes of Good Practice.

The short- to medium-term focus of the fund will be on juice grapes farming after this was identified as an area requiring intervention to help meet a separate commitment under the merger conditions to increase local fruit inputs of Tiser products to 80%.

At the time of the merger, CCBSA was sourcing 15% of its grape juice concentrate locally. Since then, the local procurement of grapes used for juice concentrate for Grapetiser has increased significantly to 43,5% by end March 2017.This percentage will continue to increase in the next few years as agreed with the Competition Tribunal.

Women and youth

Local Distribution Programme

A key component of our growth strategy is our local distribution partner (LDP) programme. It is a partner programme under our Route to Market plan, which connects us to our smaller customers, mainly in the townships. It creates opportunities for entrepreneurs in distribution and job opportunities for people in economically marginalised communities, while establishing a vital link between CCBSA and smaller, informal markets. With the clear objectives of enabling growth in underserved markets and presenting these communities with empowerment opportunities, the growth trajectory is upwards only for the LDP programme.

We currently have 126 LDPs which are local community businesses, run by local people employing local people. The programme has created 450 job opportunities to date. 93% of LDP owners are equity appointments with 20% owned by black females.

Bizniz in a Box

Founded in 2015 and supported by the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (SEFA), Bizniz in a Box was established to make a meaningful and sustainable impact on youth unemployment and enterprise development. After successfully giving unemployed youth the opportunity to become entrepreneurs in the Free State, CCBSA’s innovative enterprise development initiative is being expanded across the country.

Young people currently constitute more than 35% of South Africa’s population and many of them face significant barriers to entering the formal job market.

Bizniz in a Box involves the selection, training, participation and eventual economic independence of a cross-section of township youth between the ages of 24 and 35. Successful candidates are enabled to manage and run their own stores in the area where they live. They are also provided with basic training in marketing and sales, stock management and finance management, and given access to funding.

Grow my Business

We reinvest capital in local businesses through our Local Distribution Partners (LDPs) and the Grow My Business training programme for small retail owners.

We have trained over 6 800 customers on the Grow My Business programme to grow their businesses sustainably into the future. With each trader supporting at least 4 people with their business income, this means nearly nearly 34 036 people have benefited from the programme. 95.2% of programme participants significantly increased their business skills and 98.4% reported a sales increase. Furthermore, 11.1% of owners were able to employ 1 or more person(s) as a result of the training.

Youth Empowerment

IkamvaYouth equips learners from disadvantaged communities with the knowledge, skills, networks and resources to access tertiary education and/or employment opportunities once they matriculate.

CCBSA has funded five youth centres in partnership with IkamvaYouth since 2011.

The programme has impacted over 5 000 learners, with the overall statistics showing an impressive average pass rate of 86% across all our funded branches.

Community Partnerships

Schools Recycling Programme

This programme is a part of CCBSA’s commitment to collecting post-consumer waste and raising awareness about the importance of waste management and recycling among learners in regions where it has a presence.

The intention behind the programme is a simple one: to create a generation of South Africans committed to ensuring that discarded waste does not end up as litter or in a landfill site. Through this comprehensive programme, students learn to reduce, reuse and ultimately, recycle their litter and waste in order to create a cleaner South Africa.

Participating schools commit to collecting at least 1000kg of waste a month – at least 30% of which must be polyethylene terephthalate (PET) – and those with a monthly haul of more than 2 tonnes stand a chance of winning cash prizes to be used for the upgrading of their facilities.

The programme has gone from strength to strength in the six years since its inception, with a total of 597 schools participating in 2017, compared to 40 in 2011.

In 2017, 597 schools participated in the programme and collected 1 146t tonnes of PET, cans and paper. This year, the post-consumer waste collection target was exceeded by 40%.

Employee Volunteering Programme

Our Employee Volunteering Programme (EVP) gives our teams the chance to impact the communities in which we operate in a positive way. In 2013, we launched a revamped EVP that aims to give employees an opportunity to make a difference and empower local communities.

Our belief in employee volunteering is so strong that we have allocated one day of leave for every employee to engage in this programme. The day forms part of our leave structure and demonstrates our commitment to doing business the right way.

The EVP is also a significant investment for the business and one of our largest CSI projects, with an annual investment of over R5 million. In the last financial year we saw 74% participation from employees. This investment underpins case studies that show how employee volunteerism has boosted the morale of our employees.

By volunteering their time our employees are directly and indirectly making a meaningful contribution to the communities in which we have a presence, and we have witnessed the great impact they have had.

Soul

Soul Ambassadors

Through our Soul Ambassador programme CCBSA responds to disasters, provide humanitarian relief as well as ad-hoc requests for donations. Where we can, we give others a hand-up and support worthy causes.

We deliver this via direct funding from CCBSA or through resources and time executed by our Soul Ambassadors. Soul Ambassadors are CCBSA employees who are passionate about the community and give of their own time to deliver positive change in the communities where we operate. CCBSA supports these individuals by providing them with extra time outside of the one day community leave given to all employees to execute this work as well as funding to deliver the plan.

All projects should be closely aligned with our strategy and business imperatives.

The following organisations will be considered for funding:

Registered Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs)
Public institutions, for example clinics, old age homes, health institutions, orphanages, homes for the destitute, schools and crèches.
Poverty alleviation or food security programmes or nutrition programmes (community gardens or food parcels)
Maintenance or upgrading facilities (as per above)
Skills transfer (professional effort) and mentorship
Small Businesses focussed in delivering our key focus areas (preference to those operating in the green economy)
Local communities for funding of community programmes

Organisations that do not qualify for soul funding

The following organisations do not quality for Soul funding:

Political and religious organisations (when projects are designed to facilitate the spread of their own ideology or beliefs)

Third party organisations except for Disaster Management (e.g. Red Cross)
Sponsorship for individuals
Sports sponsorships
Salaries, travel costs and related expenses
Overdraft or debt reduction
Events sponsorship (except for product request for charity fundraising events)
Exhibitions
Marketing campaigns
Publications
Entertainment (e.g. music festivals)
Commercial or profit-making businesses, groups or organisations
Bursaries (these are handled by the Human Resource Department)
Research

Requests should come from CCBSA areas of operation namely, all provinces in South Africa except for the Western Cape where we do not operate.

Consumers

CCBSA is a responsible leader in the food and beverage business, offering consumer choice and addressing category concerns. CCBSA is committed to working effectively with government and industry to design frameworks to encourage healthy societies. Our aim is to reach all of our soft drink retailers and consumers, working with The Coca-Cola Company through effective communication campaigns and partnerships to encourage informed beverage choices among consumers. We support the establishment and enforcement of clear standards for responsible soft drink retail including no advertising to children under 12 anywhere in Africa. Furthermore, we offer a choice of low- or no-calorie beverage options in every market.

Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (Pty) Ltd Privacy Policy

View the CCBA Privacy Policy

Necessary

Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Functional

Performance

Analytics

Others