Our Planet
Post-consumption residue and recycling
We are committed to use our packaging efficiently, redesigning our packaging to use 100% recyclable materials, as well as to include recycled resin. By 2021, we managed to incorporate 31% recycled material in all of our PET packaging.
Among our actions, we have lightened the weight of our packaging in all of our PET bottles and caps. We have also implemented an initiative to reduce the size of labels without omitting the nutritional information we provide to our consumers.
We partner with communities, authorities, and NGOs on different initiatives to raise awareness about post-consumption waste management, conduct collection and recycling programs within our communities, and inform our consumers about the disposal and handling of waste generated from our products, including water body litter prevention, rubbish collection, and beach cleanup.
We are leaders in PET bottle-to-bottle recycling in Latin America. In 2005, we united to create IMER (Mexican Recycling Industry), the first food-grade PET recycling plant in Latin America.
Aligning our efforts with The Coca-Cola Company, we adopted their global goal of helping to collect and recycle the equivalent of 100% of our packaging by 2030 through the “A World Without Waste” initiative.
In 2018, we subscribed to The New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, a commitment headed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, with support from the Worldwide Fund for Nature, the World Economic Forum, and The Consumer Goods Forum, among other organizations. This commitment calls on the private and public sectors to achieve their vision of a circular economy for plastic.
Energy
We strive for energy efficiency across our value chain, and we integrate clean and renewable energy sources of energy and technology to reduce our carbon emissions. This way, we contribute to climate change mitigation.
Our objective is to improve the energy efficiency of our manufacturing operations, while simultaneously reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. To this end, from 2015 to 2021, we increased our energy efficiency by 1.35 times. We also reduced our energy consumption by 44 million MJ year over year.
From 2015 to 2021, we decreased 28% CO2 emissions in our manufacturing operations, Scope 1 and 2 from our SBTi objectives.
In 2021, we managed to provide 85% of the electricity used in our bottling plants with energy from clean sources.
Beyond this goal, at the end of 2021 we supplied 85% of the energy requirements of our manufacturing operations with clean sources, which represents an increase of more than seven times from 9% in 2014. We use clean energy sources for our plants in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico and Panama.
We reduced our energy consumption by 44 million MJ year over year, and we have invested US$16.8 million in energy efficiency.
Water
As a beverage bottler, efficient water management is essential to our business, our communities, and our planet. Our goal for 2024 is to improve our water use ratio to 1.36 liters of water per liter of beverage produced.
In 2021 we remained on track to reach our 2021 goal, achieving 1.47 liters of water per liter of beverage produced, a 17%% improvement in the proportion of water use in 2015, our base measurement year.
Additionally, we invested US$4.5 million in 2021.In collaboration with FEMSA Foundation, we develop projects designed to improve communities’ quality of life by providing safe water, improved sanitation, and hygiene education, ensuring that these communities are given basic necessities to inhabit them in a sustainable way over the long term.
We are committed to return the water we use in our processes, replenishing and conserving watersheds to ensure the water balance in the communities with which we interact. Our goal is to reduce our water consumption and, return to the environment and our communities the same amount of water we use to produce our beverages.
Aligned with this commitment, we currently return to the environment 100% of the water we use in Brazil, Central America, Colombia and Mexico.
We replenished 109% of the water we used and had an average water use ratio of 1.41 liters for our 17 Brazilian, Mexican, and Guatemalan plants located in high water stress areas.
Considering the scope, importance, and complexity of water conservation and replenishment, we work to strengthen water funds and conserve water basins through sustainable initiatives in association with various interest groups, such as the Latin American Water Funds Alliance— comprised of the Nature Conservancy, FEMSA Foundation, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the Global Environmental Fund.
100%of the water we discharge from our manufacturing operations is sent to water treatment plants, which ensure sufficient water quality to foster aquatic life.
Zero residue
By 2025, our goal is to recycle 100% of our post-industrial waste in each of our bottling plants. By the end of 2021, 98% of our plants had already reached this goal.
We diligently work to ensure that our processes comply with the highest national and international standards, reaffirming our commitment to efficient operational processes, environmental performance, and competitiveness.