Coca-Cola's little drops towards making a positive difference to local communities

As the world's largest beverage system, Coca-Cola has a presence in thousands of communities, in more than 200 countries around the world.

This kind of widespread reach not only provides us with enormous business potential, but also gives us a rare opportunity to make a real and lasting difference to the communities that we operate in.

Sustainability is a crucial component of Coca-Cola's global business strategy, and a vital component of our Vision 2020. In Sri Lanka, we have designed various programs under the global sustainability framework of 'Me We World', with an emphasis on Water and sanitation, Climate Protection and promoting ActiveHealthy Living.

Coca-Cola Sri Lanka has a long standing partnership with UNDP and works with them on a number of projects together. Coca-Cola has partnered with the UNDP for the 'Every Drop Matters' Project in Trincomalee and Polonnaruwa districts to help improve water supply and sanitation facilities in villages. This program mainly works in schools, educating students about proper usage of water and installing washbasins and toilets for improving sanitation and hygiene.

Coca-Cola also improved the water and sanitation conditions in the war-affected area of Kattankudy with UNDP and Urban Council of Kattankudy. The program to provide suitable sewerage and waste water disposal systems to 350 households in the region was undertaken with the help of the Urban Council of Kattankudy. The project won the 'Best CSR Award' in the category of North/East Reconciliation by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce in 2012 and the President's Award in 2012.

The Company is also currently working with the UNDP on a project to conserve the Kelani River basin in partnership with local authorities, industries that operate in the vicinity and the community living close to the river bank. Coca-Cola Foundation is partnering with UN Habitat in a rain water harvesting project in the Northern region of the country this year to support a village in Kilinochchi have access to water.

Besides UNDP, Coca-Cola Sri Lanka has also partnered with Habitat for Humanity, to undertake a revitalization project in Batticaloa in 2011 after the devastating floods left wells and schools unfit for use. The partners revitalized over 1,700 wells in the area that were contaminated due to the flooding in 2011 and also built 4 pre-schools in the area to provide the young children a clean and hygienic environment to learn and grow.

This year Coca-Cola has scaled up the PET recycling project titled 'Give Back Life', an initiative to manage the growing quantity of PET bottle waste. Launched in 2008, the 'Give Back Life' project has been responsible for the collection and recycling of over 9 tons of PET plastics. This year, Coca-Cola is celebrating the 5th year of this ground breaking project by launching a community based PET collection programme across 28 schools in Biyagama. In partnership with the Central Environmental Authority (CEA), the Biyagama Education Division and Kalhari Enterprises, Coca-Cola is taking the mission one step further by taking steps to conserve the environment, by inculcating the habit of recycling among school children.

Coca-Cola Sri Lanka also recently handed over a complete water supply system to 280 individuals in a village called Athulekanda in Pathakada, Kalutara. The residents did not have a continuous, clean source of water and walked many kilometers a day to find water.

Employees of Coca-Cola raised funds to construct a water supply system that will help the 60 households who live in the area.

Coca-Cola is also partnering to promote grassroots level cricket through the 'Coca-Cola Cricket Pathway', a series of cricket camps organized with the Aravinda de Silva Cricket Foundation and Sri Lanka Cricket. The Camps aim to groom Sri Lanka's rural and regional youth to be the future of cricket. Coca-Cola believes in promoting active healthy lifestyles and this initiative is a commitment in that direction. Till date, the 'Coca-Cola Cricket Pathway' has trained over 1200 budding young cricketers, from 392 cricket playing schools, across all 25 districts of Sri Lanka so far.

Sustainable business thrives only amongst sustainable communities. Coca-Cola sees its sustainability efforts first and foremost as the right thing to do, a continuation of responsible corporate citizenship that began 127 years ago.

In a world where populations are growing, natural resources are stressed, communities are forced to do more with less and our consumers' expectations are expanding, we understand that sustainability is core to our business continuity and how we create long-term value.

We understand that a business can only be sustainable if the people and communities that we touch are sustainable and enriched along the way.