Sustainability Double for Coca-Cola HBC AG

28 Oct 2014 --- Coca-Cola HBC AG (Coca-Cola HBC), the world’s second largest bottler of products of The Coca-Cola Company, has been awarded an A rating by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) – and a place in the CDP Global Climate Performance Leadership Index 2014.

This is a further achievement for the company as it has also recently been named the global industry leader amongst beverage companies in the 2014 Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI). This is the seventh consecutive year that Coca-Cola HBC has been included in the indices and for the first time this year it leads both the World and European indices.

CDP is a not-for-profit organisation which provides the only global system for companies to measure, disclose, manage and share vital environmental information, motivating them to disclose their impact on the environment and take action to reduce it.

This year CDP has also upgraded Coca-Cola HBC to an A rating, from last year’s B rating, and awarded the company a place in the UK’s FTSE 350 Leadership Index, in addition to its place in The A List: Global Climate Performance Leadership Index, which for the first time looks at all climate leader companies around the world, not just the global 500 companies.

Coca-Cola HBC provided comprehensive information about the measurement and management of its carbon footprint, climate change strategy and risk management processes and outcomes, which clearly defined and quantified the risks and opportunities around climate change and resulted in a number of initiatives including:

• Supporting the expansion of the capacity of the Russian sugar beet industry, which will eliminate the need to import sugar for the company’s operations by 2015
• Working with suppliers in introducing HFC-free coolers, meaning all new equipment will be hydrofluorocarbon (HFC)-free by 2015
• An investment of €3 million in 2013 in energy saving programmes throughout the company’s plants

These initiatives contributed to a reduction in total absolute carbon emissions (direct and indirect) of 5.3% compared to the previous year.

The Dow Jones Sustainability Indices assess over 2,500 of the world’s largest publicly traded companies on financially relevant economic, environmental and social factors. Following an evaluation, the top 10% of companies within each industry are selected for inclusion.

In the DJSI, Coca-Cola HBC was ranked first in the beverages sector out of 30 companies in DJSI World and 10 companies in DJSI Europe. The company’s overall score was 89%, up from 81% last year, and it achieved industry-best scores across the environmental and social dimensions. Best progress was made in the areas of brand and customer relationship management, health and nutrition, supply chain management, talent attraction and retention, human capital development. In the environmental dimension, packaging and water risk management were awarded the maximum 100 points.

Dimitris Lois, Coca-Cola HBC CEO said: “We are delighted to be recognised as an industry leader by these two benchmarks of corporate sustainability performance. Our substantial improvement this year in the DJSI, and our rating upgrade from B to A by CDP demonstrate that sustainability is at the heart of our business, and these two awards are a firm endorsement of the good work we are doing.”

Commenting on the companies that made it to the CDP’s Climate Disclosure Leadership Index Paul Simpson, CEO of the Carbon Disclosure Project, said: “Global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and we face steep financial risk if we do not mitigate them. The need for data on corporate climate change impacts and strategies to reduce them has never been greater. For this reason we congratulate those businesses that have achieved a position on CDP’s Climate Disclosure Leadership Index. These companies are responding to the ever-growing demand for environmental accountability and should inspire others to follow suit.”