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| Coca-Cola celebrates World Environment Day 2013 |
“Give Back Life”
As part of Coca-Cola’s global commitment to sustainabilityof resources, Coca-Cola Sri Lanka celebrated World Environment Day on 5 June 2013. The companyplanned its celebrations around environmental conservation and protection by organising a PETcollection initiative, a debate competition for students and creating awareness on climate protection.
The Company commemorated World Environment Day 2013 by handing over 33 PET collection binsto the Kaduwela Education Zone, to encourage students to collect and recycle plastic waste. Coca-Cola Sri Lanka began the ‘Give Back Life’ project five years ago on World Environment Day in 2008 to support plastic recycling. The project which is being worked out in partnership with the Central Environmental Authority (CEA), the Biyagama Education Division and Kalhari Enterprises, Coca-Cola is taking the mission one step further by inculcating the habit of recycling amongst school children.
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| Students of the schools in the Biyagama Education Division |
The first bin was handed over symbolically to W.L.R.K. Wijerathne, Principal - Munidasa KumarathungeVidyalaya, Kaduwela by Abhishek Jugran – Country Manager Sri Lanka and Maldives, Coca-Cola FarEast Limited. Also present at the event were Palitha Gamage – Programme Officer - National PostConsumer Plastic Waste Management Project - Central Environmental Authority, Aruni Premathilake,Assistant Director - Central Environmental Authority, P.H.C. Manel, Divisional Environmental Officer -Central Environmental Authority,Kaushalya Rajapakse, Managing Director - Kalhari Group and NeelikaTillekeratne, Public Affairs and Communications Manager, Coca-Cola Beverages Sri Lanka Limited
Speaking at the event, Abhishek Jugran – Country Manager Sri Lanka and Maldives, Coca-ColaFar East Limited, stated” Coca-Cola believes in giving back to the communities in which it operates.World Environment Day gives us an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to sustainability andenvironment protection, outlined in our Company’s Vision 2020 statement as well as our ‘ME-WEWORLD’ sustainability framework. The PET recycling project “Give Back Life” was designed to managethe growing quantity of PET bottle waste in Sri Lanka. I hope that through our efforts in Kaduwela,Biyagama and other parts of the country, we are able to raise awareness and make some difference to the communities in Sri Lanka.
”Coca-Cola also partnered with the Biyagama Educational Division to organise an Environment Day Debate Competition for students for the second consecutive year. The commencement of the debatingcompetition was graced by Duleep Wijesekara, Deputy Minister of Disaster Management in thepresence of I. Chandralatha, Divisional Director of Education, Biyagama, Abhishek Jugran – Country Manager Sri Lanka and Maldives, Coca-Cola Far East Limited and Ruwan Kumara, SHEQ Scientificand Regulatory Affairs Manager, CCBSL and Neelika Tillekeratne, Public Affairs and CommunicationsManager, CCBSL. . Students from grades 6-11 participated in the competition with the themeof ‘Rakimu Api Parisaraya’ (Let’s Protect the Environment), to win the World Environment Day Trophy.
One of Coca-Cola Beverages Sri Lanka Ltd.’s associates, Praneeth Mendis, who was part of aninternational expedition to Antarctica earlier this year with Sir Robert Swan, presented a first-handaccount of his excursion. Detailing his view of the deteriorating conditions caused due to climate changeand the negative effects of global warming, Praneeth discussed ways in which school students couldplay a part in impacting the environment by recycling waste, turning off electrical equipment, plantingmore trees, using water conservatively etc.
Coca-Cola Sri Lanka has designed various sustainability programs under the Coca-Cola Company’s global sustainability framework of ‘Me We World’, with an emphasis on Water and sanitation, Climate Protection and promoting Healthy Active Living. Coca-Cola Sri Lanka has a long standing partnership with UNDP and work with them on water and sanitation programs including the Every Drop Matters’ Project, the Kattankudy revitalization project and the conservation of the Kelani River basin. Coca Cola also partnered with Habitat for Humanity, to undertake a revitalization project in Batticaloa in 2011after the devastating floods by revitalizing wells and schools in the area. The Company also promotes grassroots level cricket through the ‘Coca-Cola Cricket Pathway’, a series of cricket camps organized with the Aravinda de Silva Cricket Foundation and Sri Lanka Cricket.
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