• 16.09.2019

Pivara Skopje along with other members of the Coca-Cola HBC Group, again won the first place in the European beverage industry, according to the results of sustainable development.

The 2019 Dow Jones Sustainability Index – a leading global benchmark for sustainability in business – has rated Coca-Cola HBC Europe’s most sustainable beverage company. This is the 6^th time in 7 years that the company has been ranked number 1 in the index and the 9th year in a row that it has been ranked in the top three Global and European beverage companies.

Maximum scores in 11 categories and positive improvements in 9 others contributed to an overall score of 90, which ranked the company second in the global ranking.

Commenting on the achievement, CEO Zoran Bogdanovic said: “We are honored and proud that the commitment of our employees and partners to sustainable practices has again resulted in this recognition. We are well aware though that this is just a snapshot.  In reality, the work never stops and there is always more to be done.  That’s why we put so much focus on the consistent, long-term delivery of our sustainability goals.”

During the last year Pivara Skopje continued with additional projects in continuous investment and improvement of the energy management and water resources systems used in the production process, as well as reducing the weight of the plastic (PET) packaging which decreases its environmental impact.

“All of us at Skopje Brewery are extremely pleased and proud that, as a member of the Coca-Cola HBC Group, we participate in fulfilling the sustainability commitments and goals and thus have contributed to our corporation’s recognition of the status of global leader in the beverage industry. Reaching the first place in Europe in the prestigious ranking of ‘The Dow Jones Sustainability Index’, for the sixth time in the last seven years, is more than just recognition for our achievements in the field of sustainability. It is an additional inspiration for all of us, with an even greater dedication and ambition to continue our work in the environmental protection, in promoting safety and health, in maintaining the highest quality of our products and realization of our community investments, such as education of young people which will improve their employability”, said General Manager of Pivara Skopje, Dan Timotin.

2018 sustainability highlights that contributed to our score

• We achieved our science-based commitment to reduce carbon emissions in our value chain by 25% (compared with 2010), two years ahead of the 2020 target date. In other words, we have saved 1.27 million tones of carbon emissions;
• We achieved an employee engagement score of 88%, above the average of FTSE 100 companies
• 37% of management roles are now held by women, our target is 50% by 2025;
• 98% of our €3.237m supplier spend was local, supporting employment and businesses in the countries in which we operate, while we contributed €328m in taxes to local economies.
• We invested €7.9m in community projects, of which more than one third in our flagship Youth Empowered programmed to help young people develop business acumen and personal life skills;
• We reduced the amount of water used in production by 22% in our manufacturing plants (compared to 2010);
• We successfully recovered the equivalent of 45% of the total primary packaging we placed in the market for recycling.

Mission Sustainability

We launched our 2025 sustainability commitments in September 2018 to address six key areas: reducing emissions; water use and stewardship; World Without Waste; ingredients sourcing; nutrition; and our people and communities. The full commitments can be viewed here. We have already made good progress and are on track to meet these.

Coca-Cola HBC’s sustainability performance is also recognized by other respected industry rankings, such as the CDP Climate Disclosure, the MSCI ESG Rating and the FTSE4Good Index.