Coca-Cola Expects To Meet 100 Percent Of Its Water Replenishment Goal 5 Years Early

The Coca-Cola Company and its bottling partners are on track to meet their 2020 water replenishment goal — of returning water to environment and to the communities from which the company draws water to produce its finish beverages — by the end of 2015, the company announced in a press release.

The company first announced in 2007 that it planned to replenish 160 billion liters of water, which is equivalent to sales of "finished beverages" produced in a year, based on 2014 figures.

In total, Coca-Cola uses roughly 300 billion liters of water per year.

"There is no resource more precious to human life and the health of our global ecosystems and economies than water," said Muhtar Kent, CEO of the Coca-Cola Company. "As a consumer of water, the Coca-Cola system has a special responsibility to protect this shared resource.

"This is why we set an aspirational goal of being water neutral by 2020. While we have made significant progress toward making that goal a reality, we are more intent than ever to give back the equivalent of all the water that we use to communities and nature. And we will continue to do so after we meet the 100 percent goal."