Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Report 2015/2016

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CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY & SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2015 — 2016 Issue sheet: Climate Change How can we address the issue of Climate Change? OUR COMMITMENT We will reduce the carbon footprint of the drink in your hand by a third by delivering carbon reductions throughout the entire value chain by 2020. ISSUE INSIGHTS 2°C To avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change, we need to limit global temperature rises to no more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels. 1 Rising levels The rising levels of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels and land-use changes (such as deforestation) are causing a sustained and unequivocal rise in global temperatures. 2 Net-Zero The Paris Climate Change Agreement aims to limit global warming to ‘well below’ 2°C and sets a long-term target of net-zero emissions. 3 INTRODUCTION Climate change is one of the most serious and complex challenges facing the world. It is also one of the most significant risks to our business. At Coca-Cola Enterprises, we believe that urgent action must be taken to tackle climate change. Political and scientific consensus indicates that increased concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere are leading to gradual rises in global average temperatures. These temperature rises are linked to changing weather patterns and extreme weather conditions around the world. This has a knock-on impact on water quality, water scarcity, and agricultural productivity. All of this could have a negative impact on our business. Extreme weather conditions could disrupt our manufacturing and distribution network; a reduction in water quality would impact our ability to produce high-quality beverages; and a reduction in agricultural output could limit the availability or increase the cost of the raw materials we use in our products. Climate change poses both risks and opportunities for the wider business community. The recent Paris Climate Change Agreement demonstrated what can be achieved if companies, governments, and civil society work together to reduce GHG emissions and tackle climate change. We welcome the adoption of the new, universal climate agreement, which is a critical step on the path to solving climate change. To welcome the agreement, we signed The Paris Pledge for Action, pledging our support to ensure that the level of ambition set by the agreement is met or exceeded. We believe that it is in the best interest of the business community to take an active and leading role in deploying low-carbon technologies, increasing energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions. That is why CCE has strengthened its commitments to reduce the GHG emissions associated with our own business and our value chain. It is also why we continue to support a progressive policy agenda on climate change, renewable energy and carbon reduction. Most recently, ahead of the COP21 climate negotiations in Paris, we committed to ensure that our carbon reduction targets are aligned with the needs of climate science. Both our 50 percent absolute carbon reduction target and our value-chain carbon reduction commitment to reduce the ‘carbon footprint of the drink in your hand’ have now been approved as being science-based targets. We have also committed to sourcing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable sources and to publicly report our climate performance as part of our mainstream financial reporting. Although there are many risks from climate change, we believe that there are also many opportunities. Companies can drive economic growth and take action to tackle climate change at the same time. The shift towards a low-carbon economy can be a driver of green growth and deliver significant long-term economic benefits. These include improved energy security, new jobs in the low-carbon sector, reduced air pollution and the protection of the biodiversity and ecosystems on which we all rely. ISSUE SHEET 10/32 1 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 2 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 3 Paris Climate Change Agreement.
CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY & SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2015 — 2016 Frédéric Godier Supply Chain Operations Director, Chaudfontaine, Belgium, Coca-Cola Enterprises Sandrine Dixson-Declève Chief Partnership Officer, Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) A view from Coca-Cola Enterprises Having worked as the Operations Director for two different CCE manufacturing sites – first in Dunkerque in France, and now in Chaudfontaine in Belgium, I know that CCE takes its responsibility to address the issue of climate change seriously. We sell over 12 billion cans and bottles across our territories each year – in doing so, we have a responsibility to understand, and act upon our impact on the environment. We believe in this, as do the stakeholders, shareholders and customers that trust in our brand, and our company. As members of the public become even more aware of the issue of climate change, it has become a priority for companies to address their impacts. If we don’t, we risk both our reputation and our competitiveness. Five percent of our value chain carbon footprint comes from manufacturing – and there are many ways we are working to reduce this. At Chaudfontaine, on-site investment in renewable energy will ensure that 15% of the site’s energy will be renewable. A view from Sandrine Dixson-Declève Climate change presents both risks and opportunities for the wider business community, but especially for businesses like Coca-Cola Enterprises which aim to be a sustainability leader. Given the impact of climate change on CCE’s value chain, and its influence within the food and beverage sector, a failure to take the lead on climate change issues would represent a significant missed opportunity for CCE. It would also ignore the fact that investors increasingly equate strong environmental leadership with sound business practices and are keen to invest in companies with strong sustainability credentials and a track record of sustainability innovation. Having worked hard on its own sustainability strategy, I would recommend that CCE should now work to spread the benefit of its experience and advocate for wider change – something it’s already doing, but I would like to see CCE go further. CCE needs to continue to work with its value chain partners and with other sectors to deliver significant carbon reductions and create more champions of change on key topics like renewable energy and energy efficiency. Using the power of its brands, CCE can also play an important role in educating customers and consumers in the principles of circular economy and the part they can play in conserving natural resources and reducing GHG emissions related to packaging. I lead CCE’s manufacturing workgroup for Energy and Renewable Energy, which has supported multiple initiatives to reduce our energy consumption and invest in renewable energy across our sites. At Chaudfontaine we have long been capturing the geothermal heat from our natural mineral source water for energy. We’ve also been investing in solar panels, and are planning to install a water turbine in 2016. Together, these initiatives will mean that 15 percent of the site’s energy will come from on-site renewable energy sources. I am proud of the work that we do to reduce the carbon footprint of our core business operations. However, I know that our biggest impact comes from outside of our own four walls. We can have an even greater impact when we partner with others. For example, the transportation of our products has a significant carbon footprint, and there are many ways we can partner with our customers to improve the efficiency of our transportation and reduce the impact on our environment. I also believe that we need to go further on recycling, as it presents the greatest opportunity we have to reduce the carbon footprint of our packaging. We need to work even harder with our packaging suppliers to use more recycled and renewable materials and with governments and regulators to improve the recycling infrastructure in many of our geographies. I’m proud of the work that CCE has done so far, and keen to explore new ways we can improve in the future. Given the impact of climate change on CCE’s value chain, and its influence within the food and beverage sector, a failure to take the lead on climate change issues would represent a significant missed opportunity for CCE. In partnership with others in the industry, CCE should also be talking to regulators and policymakers on how to support companies and sectors which want to take action on climate change. One specific challenge relates to recycled plastics – a key material used by CCE in its packaging and one which delivers significant carbon reduction when compared with virgin materials. The recent fall in the oil price is making recycled PET less economically viable, especially when compared to virgin PET. I’d like to see CCE at the forefront in tackling this challenge and in discussing solutions with industry partners and policymakers. In doing so, CCE can help to create a vision of what a sustainable future looks like. It’s an exciting prospect and CCE can be instrumental in making it happen. Sandrine Dixson-Declève is the former Director of The Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group. ISSUE SHEET 10/32
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Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Report 2015/2016

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