Soft drinks go green

Thursday 19 August 2010 00:00 BST

(AFP Photo/Paul J. RICHARDS)

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Recently released 2009 sustainability reports from a variety of soft drink manufacturers reveal environmentally friendly initiatives on the corporate horizon.

Beverage manufacturer Sunny Delight, released on August 17, the results of its 2009 Sustainability Report, and outlined its environmental goals for the following years. By 2011 the company intends to reduce energy usage by 25% and its per-unit carbon footprint by 25% whilst outlining a goal of sending zero percent of its waste to landfills by 2013.

Soft drinks giant Pepsi Co. also intends to make significant environmental contributions to the environment. By 2015 the company intends to improve its water use efficiency by 20% and to reduce packaging waste by 2012.

Rival company Coca Cola has also pledged to undertake several green initiatives, the company intends to return to communities an amount of water equivalent to what is used in their production of Coca-cola brands, to reduce packaging and to incorporate a higher percentage of recycled materials into product containers.

Dr. Pepper Snapple Group Inc. released their sustainability report in March of this year and pledged to improve energy efficiency in manufacturing by 10% and replace 60,000 vending machines with more efficient Energy Star rated equipment by 2015.

Consumers can follow the environmentally friendly initiatives being taken by these companies here:

Sunny Delight http://ww2.sunnyd.com/company/news_sustainability.shtml

Pepsi Co. http://www.pepsico.com/Investors/Sustainability-Efforts.html

Coca-Cola http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/citizenship/

Dr. Pepper Snapple Group Inc. http://www.drpeppersnapple.com/sustainability

Environmental rankings of numerous household brands can be found here:

http://www.climatecounts.org/