Coca-Cola received the Governor’s Appreciation Certificate at a ceremony in Lahore. This certificate, the highest form of appreciation from the Governor’s office, was awarded in recognition of Coca-Cola’s vision and innovative approach to adopting principles of sustainability throughout its operations. Dr. Faisal Hashmi, director of public affairs and stakeholder management, received the award on behalf of the company.

The recognition is for the company’s initiatives on environmental and social sustainability as part of its portfolio for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), in particular, to honour the company being the first to receive PET approval, Pakistan’s first plastic road initiative that Punjab is adopting and being part of awareness building on plastic circularity.

“This recognition of our role as a thought leader reinforces our commitment to work cross-sectionally and streamline collections, as most of our bottling partner plants are located in Punjab province.,” said Faisal Hashmi. Coca-Cola’s bottling partner, Coca-Cola İçecek, a Turkish investor with operations nationwide employing about a million people along the chain.

Coca-Cola has made a firm commitment to the environment, pledging to recycle approximately 6000 MT of plastic by 2024. This commitment is not just a promise, but a tangible action, as the company is actively collaborating with the government and the packaging alliance, CoRE, to develop a regulatory path for Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate (rPET). This proactive approach reassures our stakeholders of our responsible business practices.

This year, Coca-Cola, along with its partners, Capital Development Authority (CDA) and National Incubation Center (NIC), will mark the third anniversary of Pakistan’s first-ever plastic road. This 1 km road, thrice as durable, was built in Islamabad under a public-private partnership, using 10,000 tonnes of recyclable plastic and demonstrating scalable ways to reuse unrecyclable plastic.