Coca-Cola FEMSA and the World Water Day

Water is the main ingredient in the production of our beverages that meet our consumers’ hydration needs.

We are especially committed to ensuring that we make efficient use of this invaluable natural resource for the benefit of our company, our communities, and our planet.

Consistent with this commitment, we have established a comprehensive water strategy, founded on three pillars:
1. EFFICIENCY IN WATER USE AT OUR PLANTS
2. FACILITATING ACCESS TO WATER AND SANITATION IN OUR COMMUNITIES
3. REPLENISHMENT AND WATER FUNDS

1. FOSTERING WATER EFFICIENCY
As a beverage bottler, efficient water management is essential to our business, our communities, and our planet. Our goal is to increase our water use ratio to 1.5 liters of water per liter of beverage produced by 2020. For 2017, we achieved 1.65 liters of water per liter of beverage produced—a 15% increase in our water use ratio from our 2010 baseline; representing savings of more than 5.690 million liters.
Moreover, our water efficiency initiatives and projects generated savings of US$3 million in 2017.
Through our Top 20 Water Saving Initiatives program, we foster efficient water consumption across all of our plants. To this end, we registered significant progress across our operations, focusing on 20 key measures—from our detection and elimination of leaks to optimal water use in our plants to our water recovery systems.

2. FACILITATING ACCESS TO SAFE WATER AND SANITATION IN OUR COMMUNITIES
In collaboration with the FEMSA Foundation, we carry out projects designed to improve communities’ quality of life by helping to provide them with safe water, improved sanitation, and hygiene education. While the Foundation intervenes considerably at the outset of each project, all of these initiatives utilize the necessary elements to enable communities to adopt them in a sustainable way—enduring over the long term.
In March 2017, FEMSA Foundation launched the second phase of Lazos de Agua in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), The Coca-Cola Foundation and One Drop. With an initial investment of US $25 million, this initiative will provide 150,000 people with access to safe and affordable water, hygiene and improved sanitation services (WASH) in five Latin American countries by 2021. During the first year of operation, Lazos de agua impacted the lives of 7,299 people with the construction of water access infrastructure in Guatemala, Mexico, rural Nicaragua and Paraguay. In 2018 the project will also be deployed in Colombia and urban areas of Nicaragua.

Waste water treatment.
All of the water we discharge is sent to wastewater treatment plants, which ensure sufficient quality to foster aquatic life.
3. WATER REPLENISHMENT AND CONSERVATION
We are committed to returning the water we use in our processes by replenishing and conserving water basins in order to ensure water equilibrium in the communities with which we interact. To this end, our goal is to return to the environment and our communities the same amount of water we use to produce our beverages by 2020.
Consistent with our commitment, we currently give back to the environment more than 100% of the water we use in the production of our beverages in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Central America.
In light of the substantial scope, importance, and complexity of water conservation and replenishment, we work to strengthen water funds and conserve water basins through sustainable initiatives involving partnerships with several stakeholders.
Through the Latin American Water Funds Alliance—comprised of the Nature Conservancy, the FEMSA Foundation, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the World Environmental Fund— we jointly seek to offer hydrological safety in the region, ensuring sustainable access to a sufficient quantity and quality of water to sustain human life and socioeconomic development.

To date, the Alliance has developed 21 water funds. Of these funds, 6 are in areas of KOF operations – Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Mexico. As a result of this partnership, the Alliance has worked to restore the infrastructure of 204,646 hectares of land through various conservation measures, benefiting approximately 15,700 families in areas near the water basins through job creation and capabilities training since the beginning of the projects.

OUR 2020 GOALS
• INCREASE OUR EFFICIENCY IN WATER usage to 1.5 liters of water per liter of beverage produced.
• RETURN TO OUR COMMUNITIES AND THEIR ENVIRONMENT the same amount of water used in our beverages.

You may also be interested in:
Replenishing every drop of water, giving back to water-poor communities.
Environment and Education are at the forefront of Coca-Cola FEMSA Philippines.
Coca-Cola FEMSA SAB de CV included in The Sustainability Yearbook 2018