Coca-Cola Receives Prestigious Gold Panda Award from WWF

Karachi, July 17, 2013: The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) has been bestowed the prestigious Gold Panda Award by the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) at the WWF’s recent annual conference. The Award recognizes Coca-Cola’s global conservation efforts and is regarded as one of the highest-level conservation honors in the world, recognizing both individuals and companies, for supporting the leading international conservation group's efforts to protect the world's natural resources.

Coca-Cola has been a proud supporter of the WWF since 2007. The partnership has helped conserve some of the

world's most important freshwater basins, improve water efficiency within the Company’s own manufacturing operations and reduce carbon emissions, promote sustainable agriculture and inspire a global movement to conserve water.

In Pakistan Coca-Cola has been carrying out a long-term sub-watershed management project in the Nathiagali area since  2008, with WWF-Pakistan as the implementing partner. The project is contributing to establishing sustainable water flows through watershed management in the selected sites. It further includes activities like afforestation on degraded grassland, protection of degraded forest land, treatment of eroding streams, introduction of improved agricultural crops, introduction of improvised pipe irrigation system, introduction of roof rainwater harvesting, cultivation of orchards and awareness creation among local communities and visitors to the Ayubia National Park area.

In presenting the Gold Panda Award to The Coca-Cola Company, WWF President Yolanda Kakabadse and Director General Jim Leape praised TCCC for its "steadfast support" of the WWF and "for leadership in conserving and protecting fresh water around the world, commitment to sustainability and combating climate change, and for lending a powerful global voice to help save the polar bear and its habitat."

Speaking about receiving the Award, Coca-Cola’s general manager for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Rizwan U. Khan said, “For the Coca-Cola Company this award is an important endorsement of our commitment to conservation of the planet’s precious natural resources and its environment, and it indeed encourages us to further expand our support in the years to come. This support is truly global, covering countries across the world, including Pakistan where together with WWF-Pakistan we are aiming at entrenching a conservation culture in our society at large.”   

Also receiving Gold Panda Awards were philanthropist Edward P. Bass, John and Virginia Sall and the SAS Institute, Inc., and Adrienne and John Mars and Mars Inc.

The Coca-Cola Company

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is the world's largest beverage company, refreshing consumers with more than 500 sparkling and still brands. Led by Coca-Cola, the world's most valuable brand, our Company's portfolio features 15 billion dollar brands including Diet Coke, Fanta, Sprite, Coca-Cola Zero, vitaminwater, Powerade, Minute Maid, Simply, Georgia and Del Valle. Globally, we are the No. 1 provider of sparkling beverages, ready-to-drink coffees, and juices and juice drinks. Through the world's largest beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy our beverages at a rate of 1.8 billion servings a day.

With an enduring commitment to building sustainable communities, our Company is focused on initiatives that reduce our environmental footprint, support active, healthy living, create a safe, inclusive work environment for our associates, and enhance the economic development of the communities where we operate. Together with our bottling partners, we rank among the world's top 10 private employers with more than 700,000 system employees.

 For more information, please visit www.thecoca-colacompany.com or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/CocaColaCo.