For half a century, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has worked to stop the degradation of the planet's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature. Since 2007, The Coca‑Cola Company and WWF have worked together to conserve the world’s freshwater resources. Our global partnership focuses on ensuring healthy, resilient freshwater basins in the Mesoamerican Reef catchments in Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras, and the Yangtze River basin in China.
In Canada, where thousands of lakes, rivers, streams and wetlands hold 20 per cent of the world’s freshwater, Coca‑Cola Canada and WWF-Canada transitioned a long-standing partnership on issues ranging from protecting Arctic habitat for polar bears and conservation of the Skeena River in B.C., to focus on freshwater replenishment and conservation. In 2017-18, this included the establishment of the WWF-Canada Restoration Fund to support local watershed restoration projects; sponsorship of the WWF-Canada Healthy Water Summit to bring together government, NGO, community and corporate stakeholders to discuss water health in Canada; and development of a social video series to illustrate the importance of freshwater stewardship.
This partnership between WWF-Canada and Coca‑Cola Canada focused on freshwater replenishment and conservation, and was based on a shared belief in the importance of freshwater stewardship and the following complementary goals:
- WWF-Canada’s goal to see all of Canada’s freshwater in good health by 2025;
- Coca‑Cola Canada’s goal to safely return to communities and nature an amount of water equal to what is used in finished beverages by 2020.
In 2018, Coca‑Cola Canada announced that they reached their goal to replenish all the water they use in Canada both within their drinks and their manufacturing process.
Coca‑Cola and WWF-Canada will continue to champion conservation in Canada. Coca‑Cola is a co-presenting sponsor of the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, which helps reduce the threat of pollution to Canada’s aquatic ecosystems. Each year, Coca‑Cola Canada employees across the country come together and participate in local cleanups. Our partnership will support conservation projects as well as community engagement and action for freshwater health across the country.