‘Live Positively’ promotes sustainable business

Martin Gill, general director of Coca-Cola Indochina at the company’s launch ceremony of the Live Positively campaign in Hanoi on May 24.

As part of its efforts Coca-Cola Vietnam launched its “Live Positively” programme in Hanoi on May 24 to herald the global giant’s 125th anniversary.

Martin Gill, general director of Coca-Cola Indochina, said the “Live Positively” campaign was both a promise and a global call for sustainable development, and would build on the company’s core values to create positive and long-term changes around the world.

Concern for sustainable development

Through the programme, Coca-Cola Vietnam will concentrate on seven areas of focus; including active and healthy living, the workplace, sustainable packaging, energy efficiency and climate protection, water supply, and community development, he emphasised.

The company has continuously encouraged people to lead active and healthy lives by inspiring over 20,000 young people to get active in 2011 through its new “Dance with Coke” programme.

The corporation is taking the lead in implementing international workplace standards for 1,600 employees at its three bottling plants, and providing every employee with 37 hours of training per annum.

The firm works with more than 360,000 small businesses nationwide. Its Retailer Training Programmes teaches basic business skills to help improve livelihoods for small shop owners, helping to create business opportunities and foster small business growth. Since 2005, Coca-Cola has invested over $2.1 million in community projects in Vietnam.

Since 2004, it has improved water use efficiency in its bottling plants in Vietnam by 47 per cent. It also treats all waste water before it is discharged into the environment, along with investing in community-based water projects, benefiting 30,000 people to date.

The company has reduced the amount of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) material used in its packaging in Vietnam by 8 per cent since 2008. All of its packaging is made of wholly recyclable material.

The firm has been working to reduce its impact on the environment. For the last seven years, the company has reduced the amount of energy it uses in its bottling plants by 50 per cent.

More investment

Since it began operations in the country in 1994, Coca-Cola has established a strong foothold in the Vietnamese market, establishing three bottling plants in Ho Chi Minh City, Danang and Hanoi.

The firm has invested $280 million in the Vietnamese market over the past 10 years and promises additional investment of $200 million before 2012.

Last year, Vietnamese consumers used over 900 million Coca-Cola products, bolstering the firm’s revenues by over 26 per cent.