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How CCBSA is helping to make SA a better place for all

Tsholofelo Mqhayi, CCBSA’s head of social transformation, highlights some of the company's eco-conscious initiatives that are helping to improve Mzansi and the continent

CCBSA supported the 2024 annual Green Youth Indaba in Durban. Pictured here are the winners of the Green Youth Innovators Pitch Competition, which celebrates young entrepreneurs who have developed green technology solutions.
CCBSA supported the 2024 annual Green Youth Indaba in Durban. Pictured here are the winners of the Green Youth Innovators Pitch Competition, which celebrates young entrepreneurs who have developed green technology solutions.
Image: CCBSA

Coca-Cola Beverages SA (CCBSA) is a proudly South African company which is a subsidiary of Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) and a bottler for the Coca-Cola Company. 

The company's purpose is to refresh SA and make Africa a better place for all. As part of this, it is committed to developing sustainable ways to produce, distribute and sell its products, and to create shared value for the business, its stakeholders and the communities it serves.

Tsholofelo Mqhayi, head of social transformation at CCBSA.
Tsholofelo Mqhayi, head of social transformation at CCBSA.
Image: CCBSA

Here, Tsholofelo Mqhayi, CCBSA’s head of social transformation, highlights some of the company's important sustainability initiatives:

What are your key sustainability priorities as a company?

We focus on the highest-priority sustainability issues facing our company, stakeholders and communities, with the goal of maximising collective impact. 

As part of one of the world’s largest and most recognised companies, we have an opportunity to use our size and scale to help address global challenges such as water security, helping to solve the world’s waste problem and countering the effects of climate change. 

CCBSA has an important relationship with water. Tell us more.

Water is a priority for the Coca-Cola system because it is essential to life, our beverages and the communities we serve.

The Coca-Cola Company’s 2030 Water Security Strategy focuses on increasing water security by investing 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, restoring and conserving habitats for plants and animals, and offering opportunities for local economic development.

We work hard to replenish the water we use in our finished beverages for nature and communities. 

What are the main goals of Coca-Cola’s 2030 Water Security Strategy?

We have set three key goals designed to achieve our vision: 

  1. Achieve 100% regenerative water use across our facilities in areas identified as facing high levels of water stress by 2030;
  2. Improve the health of watersheds identified as most critical for our operations and agricultural supply chain by 2030; and
  3. Continue to return water to nature and communities, and ensuring the health of watersheds is a major part of this.

For example, we successfully implemented Project Lungisa 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 parts of the Eastern Cape, as well as other water-stressed regions in SA, we have rolled out the Coke Ville programme, which installs off-grid, solar-powered groundwater harvesting and treatment systems to supply clean potable water to communities in need.

Coca-Cola has a vision of a 'World Without Waste'. Tell us more.

At CCBSA, we recognise our responsibility to help solve complex plastic waste challenges facing our planet and society. That’s why, in 2018, we launched an ambitious strategy called 'World Without Waste' to drive systemic change through a circular economy for our packaging. 

We are working to use more recycled content in our packaging, to expand our use of returnable bottles, and to collect packaging for recycling through this initiative. 

As part of the Coca-Cola system, we have these global goals: 

  • To help collect a bottle or can for every one we sell by 2030;
  • To focus on making all our packaging 100% recyclable by 2025;
  • To have 50% recycled content in our packaging by 2030; and
  • To make 25% of our packaging reusable (returnable) by 2030.

We are also working to use more recycled content in our bottles, and we have expanded the use of clear and returnable bottles — this includes the introduction and rollout of returnable 2L plastic bottles in SA. 

How do CCBSA’s water, packaging and climate goals fit together? 

Our water, packaging and climate goals are all interconnected. For example, by creating a circular economy for packaging, we can lower our carbon footprint. By approaching water stewardship from a basin perspective, we participate in initiatives that increase communities’ resilience to extreme weather events, alongside our partners. 

What can be done to accelerate such important initiatives?

It is important to realise and accept that we cannot do this alone and that it is only through collaboration and the co-creation of solutions that we can achieve important change.

As CCBSA, we are committed to fostering partnerships that drive collective impact in areas including water stewardship, packaging circularity, climate action and many more.

An example of this collaborative approach is our involvement in the Green Youth Indaba, which took place in Durban recently, and saw us engage with diverse stakeholders to sharpen our insights, exchange ideas and accelerate our collective action to address challenges that have an impact on our business and the communities we serve.

Why is CCBSA committed to these sustainability initiatives?

We believe in and are committed to solution-driven conversations for a better future for all. 

In SA, I’m sure we can all agree that the SMME sector in particular has vast untapped potential, and corporates like ours can help to develop and grow this critical sector, which in the coming years will potentially be the growth engine of our economy.

CCBSA’s Bizniz in a Box initiative has seen the company support hundreds of young entrepreneurs across SA.
CCBSA’s Bizniz in a Box initiative has seen the company support hundreds of young entrepreneurs across SA.
Image: CCBSA

By supporting and growing SMMEs, we can help unlock a better future for enterprising individuals, their families and employees, as well as the wider community.

Economic sustainability through the growth of the green economy is vital to the socioeconomic wellbeing of communities.

We are growing sustainably, because we are doing business the right way. Profits matter, but not at all costs. People matter and our planet matters.

This article was sponsored by CCBSA.

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