With the new boreholes installed by Voltic, a subsidiary of Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, each community now has access to a regular supply of water.

“Water is a priority for Voltic because it is essential to life, our beverages and the communities we serve,” said Flora Jika, General Manager, Voltic.

“As part of the Coca-Cola system, our 2030 Water Security Strategy is focused on accelerating the actions needed to increase water security where we operate, source ingredients and touch people’s lives.

“We do that by contributing toward sustainable, clean water access that improves livelihoods and wellbeing,” said Jika.

“The 2030 Water Strategy is grounded in the fact that water is a shared resource. As such, our work is organised to address water security in our operations, our watersheds and our communities,” Jika said.

“Water is a priority for the Coca-Cola system because it is the first ingredient in all our beverages and is essential to the communities we serve.

“The Coca-Cola Company’s 2030 Water Security Strategy focuses on increasing water security. We work with partners to provide access to a steady supply of clean water for people and ecosystems in the areas where we operate and source ingredients,” Ramogase said.

“We do that by contributing toward sustainable, clean water access that improves livelihoods and wellbeing while protecting against water-related disasters.

“Inside our operations, we are committed to regenerative water use. This means using less water as well as re-using and treating wastewater.

“For example, in Kenya we opened a new wastewater treatment plant at our Equator Bottlers plant in Kisumu, which will promote more sustainable water use and help reduce the factory’s environmental impact. The new plant will enable us to treat and recycle wastewater generated from the production facility, which will be used for non-potable purposes such as irrigation and cleaning.

”Our subsidiary, Coca-Cola Beverages Botswana, signed an agreement last year with the Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources to donate water from its newly installed water treatment plant for agricultural irrigation at the campus. The new state-of-the-art water treatment plant has made the company fully effluent compliant by ensuring that clean water is returned to the environment.

“For our packaging, we seek to drive a circular economy because this helps to reduce waste and carbon emissions. We’re working to use more recycled content in our packaging, to expand our use of refillable bottles, and to collect packaging for recycling through Coca-Cola’s World Without Waste initiative. We also partner to design new solutions for packaging.

“As an example, Coca-Cola and other like-minded industries came together in 2004 to set up the PET Recycling Company (PETCO) in South Africa to promote and regulate the recycling of PET plastic, taking responsibility for recovering and recycling beverage PET plastic bottles.

“The PETCO model has proven so effective it has been extended to three other markets, Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia, with plans to include additional countries like Namibia.

“While we strive to make progress on our own, we are committed to fostering partnerships that drive collective impact in areas including water stewardship, packaging circularity, climate action and many more.

“We engage with stakeholders, including governments, NGOs, communities, suppliers, business partners, customers and consumers in all the markets where we operate, in many forums and formats. Feedback from our stakeholders allows us to learn and improve, and informs our business and sustainability strategy,” Ramogase said.

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Under the theme “Inspiring Excellence in Ghana’s Beverage Industry”, the event celebrated the beverage industry and its stakeholders for contributing significantly to the Ghanaian economy.

The award recognizes excellence in Ghana’s beverage industry while providing an avenue for stakeholders and key players in the industry to network and deliberate on issues relating to its advancement.

In another endorsement of the company’s industry leadership in Ghana, Voltic (GH) Limited’s Public Affairs, Communications and Sustainability Manager, Worlasi Seddoh Bedu-Mensah, has been invited to serve as a Subject Matter Expert in Sustainability by the country’s Chartered Institute of Supply Chain Management.

Voltic Natural Mineral Water is sourced from a natural aquifer over 60 meters underground, which contains essential natural minerals such as Calcium, Magnesium, Bicarbonate, Nitrate, Sulphate, Potassium and Iron.

Last year Voltic (GH) Limited launched its Voltic Premium Brand, with a 750ml premium bottle in a new sleek design featuring a distinct royal blue label and the new golden Voltic logo boldly embossed on it.

A product of Voltic (GH) Limited, a subsidiary of Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, the new premium water comes in a range of sizes including 500ml, 750ml, 1.5L and 19.5L.

The water is bottled at the source at water processing plants located in Medie and Akwadum in the Greater Accra and Eastern regions.

Africa’s vulnerability to climate change was once again demonstrated in late 2023, when torrential rains swept across much of East Africa, bringing devastating floods just six months after a record-breaking five-season drought in the region.

Vast areas of farmland in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia were inundated, washing away homes and destroying thousands of hectares of crops.

These events highlight the urgency of improved water security and climate resilience on the continent.

Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) partners with governments, the private sector, NGOs and communities to promote water security. Water is a priority for Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) because it is essential to life, our beverages and the communities we serve.

The Coca-Cola Company’s 2030 Water Security Strategy is focused on accelerating the actions needed to increase water security where we operate, source ingredients and touch people’s lives.

We invest in water initiatives that benefit nature and communities. This includes projects that provide benefits to local watersheds that supply water for drinking, agriculture and manufacturing, restore and conserve habitats for plants and animals and offer opportunities for local economic development.

As part of this work, we collaborate with partners to understand the inextricable link between water, climate, agriculture and biodiversity.

In addition, many of our water replenishment projects have additional co-benefits such as helping improve soil health, sequester carbon, conserve water, restore degraded lands, contribute to biodiversity and help mitigate climate change.

Our work is organised to address water security inside our operations, in our watersheds and in our communities. Also, we continue to replenish the water we use in our finished beverages to nature and communities.

Inside our operations, the Coca-Cola system is committed to regenerative water use. This means using less water as well as re-using and treating wastewater.

For example, in Kenya we opened a new wastewater treatment plant at our Equator Bottlers plant in Kisumu, which will promote more sustainable water use and help reduce the factory’s environmental impact. The new plant will enable us to treat and recycle wastewater generated from the production facility, which will be used for non-potable purposes such as irrigation and cleaning.

Our subsidiary, Coca-Cola Beverages Botswana, signed an agreement last year with the Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources to donate water from its newly installed water treatment plant for agricultural irrigation at the campus. The new state-of-the-art water treatment plant has made the company fully effluent compliant by ensuring that clean water is returned to the environment.

We also aim to improve the health of watersheds identified as most critical for our operations and agricultural supply chain by supporting nature-based solutions, investing in landscape solutions and helping farmers to use less water.

CCBA in Kenya has been actively engaged over the past three years in reforesting 90 hectares of critical forests that play a significant role in Nairobi’s water catchment areas in collaboration with implementing partner, Nature Kenya.

When it comes to communities, we aim to help provide access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and advocate for good water governance.

Our South African bottler, Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa (CCBSA), supported good water governance in Grabouw in the Western Cape, where the municipality was losing a significant amount of its potable water due to leaks and failing infrastructure. Through this partnership, we trained young community members in plumbing to support the rehabilitation of water infrastructure, including fixing leaks in informal areas.

In response to a looming Day Zero in parts of the Eastern Cape province in South Africa, CCBSA deployed off-grid, solar-powered groundwater harvesting and treatment projects called Cokevilles in the region. A total of nine systems, or water tanks, have been deployed in Gqeberha and similar Cokeville projects have been installed in other peri-urban and rural communities in Limpopo, Gauteng, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.

We do business the right way as a trusted partner for sustainable growth by managing packaging waste, water stewardship, and economic inclusion, particularly for women and youth. We are committed to making a positive impact on people’s lives and communities for a better shared future in Africa.

March 8, Accra – International Women’s Day highlights the private sector’s crucial role in advancing the economic inclusion of women in Africa.

At Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA), we use our industry leadership to be part of the solution for positive change on the African continent. Our aim is to create greater shared opportunity for the business and the communities we serve across the value chain.

We understand that our business can only thrive when the communities we serve thrive too. This is why we have made economic inclusion of women one of the pillars of our sustainability strategy at CCBA.

Across our value chain, we are working to improve skills and business knowledge for women, which in turn can help give them access to more opportunities.

For example, in Tanzania we have an economic inclusion programme called Mwanamke Shujaa (“A Brave Woman”), which provides training and mentorship to woman food vendors, as well as tools of the trade to enable them to grow their businesses. Training covered key areas like bookkeeping, customer care, stress management and capital growth.

In Ethiopia, female engineering students have joined our “Women in Engineering” trainee programme which will give them development opportunities and exposure to the company’s world-class operations, setting them up for future employment.

Through our partnership in Ghana with Girls in Science and Technology (GIST, CCBA subsidiary Voltic aims to reach women at different levels of education, providing them with the mentorship and coaching they need for a successful and impactful Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) career.

In South Africa, we have established a bursary fund at the University of Pretoria to support female students from previously disadvantaged backgrounds in their final year of engineering studies.

In Mozambique, a group of  women plastic waste collectors completed a 12-week training course in an economic inclusion programme supported by CCBA. These women have since educated their communities about the positive effects of recycling.

We will continue to focus on creating a better shared future, to grow and sustain small businesses and enhance livelihoods, resulting in increased economic value and business capability for women, communities and our business system.

We believe this holistic approach, within and outside our organization, drawing on the ability of everyone to inspire inclusion, is a powerful formula for change.

Staff from Voltic (GH) Limited, members of the University of Ghana Plastic Recycling Project and the La Dadekotopon Municipal Assembly team joined forces to collect PET bottles for disposal by Beach Cleanup Ghana – a cleantech organisation that uses smart technology to help restore cleanliness to beaches in Ghana.

The cleanup was the second this year involving the same partners in a bid to remove plastic waste affecting the beach and lagoon.

“The interconnected global challenges of packaging waste and climate change have made this a focus for our business and communities. The Coca-Cola Company and its bottling partners are taking a hard look at the packaging we use and how we can drive change,” said Worlasi Seddoh Bedu Mensah, Public Affairs, Communication and Sustainability Manager at Voltic (GH) Limited, a subsidiary of Coca-Cola Beverages Africa.

“Our sustainable packaging strategy aims to create systemic change through a circular economy for our packaging – from how bottles are designed and manufactured, to how they’re recycled and reused.

“We have a responsibility to help solve the global plastic waste crisis, and we’re leveraging our scale and reach across markets to achieve our sustainability goals and reduce waste pollution.

“We can’t do it alone. We work with stakeholders, nonprofits, communities, governments and our industry toward a clean environment,” said Mensah.

“We are working in our communities to educate people on why and how to recycle through collection campaigns, on-package messaging and more to create a more sustainable environment for all.

“Tackling the global plastic waste crisis requires cross-sector collaboration and alignment on common principles and targets.

“We work with a range of stakeholders at a regional and local level. This includes partnering with governments and community organisations to strengthen recycling infrastructure and boost collection rates, collaborating with customers, peers and industry associations to shape public policy that supports a circular economy; and teaming up with suppliers, startups and R&D partners to fuel sustainable packaging innovation,” Mensah said.

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“As a subsidiary of Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, we are leading the industry in making our value chain increasingly sustainable in the way that we manufacture our products, how we distribute them and how we sell them,” said Public Affairs, Communication and Sustainability Director, Worlasi Mensah.

“We have the scale and reach to make a real difference, and we’re using our leadership position to drive change and help put our planet on a more sustainable path.

“Our goal is to collect and recycle the equivalent of 100% of the packaging we sell, working in partnership with The Coca-Cola Company which launched a sustainable packaging strategy in 2018 called World Without Waste.

“We can’t do it alone. We work with stakeholders, nonprofits, communities, governments and our industry toward a clean environment,” said Mensah.

“Tackling the global plastic waste crisis requires cross-sector collaboration and alignment on common principles and targets. We work with a range of stakeholders at a regional and local level.

“This includes partnering with governments and community organisations to strengthen recycling infrastructure and boost collection rates, collaborating with customers, peers and industry associations to shape public policy that supports a circular economy; and teaming up with suppliers, startups and R&D partners to fuel sustainable packaging innovation.

“We’re working toward these solutions to create a circular economy that benefits society and works for our business. We’ve set ambitious goals for our business, to take responsibility for our packaging across its lifecycle and reduce ocean pollution,” said Mensah.

ENDS

The two communities have been struggling to secure an adequate water supply as existing boreholes were not sustainable, but now have an additional daily capacity of 20,000 litres each, contributing to improved water security.

The handover ceremony was attended by Nana Kobina Anobi X, Chief of the Asuansi community, Emintsinminim Otu XI, Paramount Chief of Abora State, Ishmael Arthur, Principal of Asuansi School, Esi Sekyeraa Obeng, Headmistress of Abakrampa School, Willeyeven Obiri Awuah, DCE Abora Asebu Kwamankasi District and Reverend John Ntim Fordjour, Deputy Minister of Education.

Flora Jika, MD of Voltic, which is a subsidiary of Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, said the company was a leader in using water responsibly in its operations and giving it back.

“We continue to manage water resources through projects that reduce water use in our operations, protect local water resources and provide safe, clean drinking water to communities in need,” Jika said.

“We focus our attention and resources on enhancing water management that helps our business, supply chain and local communities build resilience to a changing climate.”

“Across all our facilities, we conduct thorough assessments of local water resources and put water protection plans in place, so our presence doesn’t harm communities’ vital water resources.”

“Because people need water to thrive, we support local water access projects that help bring safe, clean drinking water to communities in need,” Jika added.

Plastic waste is a growing problem globally, with up to 12.7 million metric tons of plastic entering the oceans each year¹. Plastic packaging is also an essential part of our modern lives, supporting efficient, safe and hygienic food value chains, among other important applications.

On a continent where food safety is an abiding concern, this means plastic packaging will continue to have a role for some time to come, and the focus must be on eliminating plastic waste.

Creating a viable circular economy for plastic waste is a key strategy to address this problem.

The circular economy promotes the re-use and recycling of products and materials, creating a closed-loop system that minimises waste and pollution. The circular economy offers a unique opportunity to address post-consumer plastic waste in Africa by keeping plastics in use and out of the environment.

Africa also has an unusually large informal economy, with the International Labour Organisation estimating in 2018 that 85.8 percent of employment on the continent is informal.²

This includes a vast network of waste pickers who collect and sort recyclable materials, creating a key component of a circular economy for plastic waste that both generates employment and reduces plastic pollution.

Integrating waste pickers into the formal waste management system, by providing training, equipment and a reliable income, can improve their working conditions and increase economic opportunities for marginalised communities.

At the same time, by reducing waste and increasing resource efficiency, the circular economy can reduce the reliance on virgin resources and create a more sustainable future for all.

This requires a significant investment in infrastructure, technology, and education. Governments, businesses, and civil society must work together to create an enabling environment for the circular economy to thrive.

This includes policies that incentivise the use of recyclable materials, regulations that require producers to take responsibility for their products’ end-of-life, and public education campaigns that raise awareness about the benefits of the circular economy.

Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) has made a commitment to invest in our planet and our packaging, to help make the world’s packaging problem a thing of the past, working in partnership with The Coca-Cola Company which launched a sustainable packaging initiative called World Without Waste in 2018.

We are rethinking how our bottles are designed, collected, recycled and repurposed as part of our World Without Waste vision, with the following global goals:

• Help collect a bottle or can for every one we sell by 2030
• Focus on making all our packaging 100% recyclable by 2025
• Make 25% of our packaging reusable by 2030

We recognise the importance of supporting the total collection value chain from waste picker level, to buy back centres and recyclers.

Understanding that we can’t do this alone, we partner with like-minded bodies to shape policy and leverage our combined scale.

Poor waste disposal is everybody’s problem, so everybody needs to get involved.

One of the most valuable environmental interventions in addressing poor waste disposal and achieving circularity is setting up the right Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) mechanisms and policies.

In the EPR model, producers pay fees to a producer responsibility organisation, or PRO, such as PETCO.

By creating value for post-consumer waste in this way, waste collectors or municipalities are incentivised to gather and return it to buy-back centres, who then deliver it to the recyclers.

So far, through effective industry partnerships, we have implemented voluntary EPR models in four of our markets and helped create organisations like PETCO South Africa, in Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania, and soon to be established in Uganda as well.

The model has been extremely successful since PETCO was established in South Africa, growing from collection and recycling of 9,000 tonnes of PET in 2005 to more than 92,000 tonnes in 2021, and an average price paid of around 50c/kg of PET in 2005 to around R3.80/kg in 2021, showing an increase in both volume and value.

Going a step further, the South African government adopted mandatory EPR regulations in 2021, creating a precedent that other African countries can consider and adopt too.

Building on these successes, CCBA has engaged with SADC, NEPAD and other regional organisations to roll out the self-regulated EPR model in other markets.

We are also improving the recyclability of our packs through a strong emphasis on shifting to homogeneous and clear bottles and have made significant progress on this already.

To clean up existing packaging, we’re bringing people together through programmes like beach and river cleanups and other ongoing local activities. To encourage more people to recycle more often, we’re investing to help people understand what to recycle, how to recycle, and where to recycle.

The opportunity to grow employment in Africa through a circular economy for plastic waste is clear. In Mozambique alone, a total of 37,000 people benefit from collection and recycling activity that is supported by CCBA.

Scaling up the EPR model across the continent will go a long way towards addressing unemployment and poverty, while also removing plastic waste from the environment.

1. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1260352
2. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—dgreports/—dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_626831.pdf