Community Partners « Coca-Cola Newsroom

Community Partners

Coca-Cola, Offsetters and Project Blue Sky are working together to fight the impact of climate change by encouraging Canadians to make small changes in their lives so that collectively we can make a major reduction in our carbon footprint.

Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes have teamed up with the Masters of Digital Media (MDM) students at UBC to create Project Blue Sky (www.projectbluesky.ca).

Project Blue Sky (PBS) is a fun and competitive online community led by Olympic, Paralympic and other high performance athletes which challenge individuals and groups to fight climate change through increased physical activity and sustainable travel. The project is supported by the Official Carbon Offset Supplier to the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, Offsetters Clean Technology Inc.

PBS is a grassroots initiative that has been spearheaded by Dave Calder, Olympic silver medalist in rowing and a member of the Canadian Olympic Committee’s (COC) Athlete’s Council. Calder and his fellow athletes believe the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games represent an important opportunity to encourage more people to take action on climate change as well as draw attention to carbon saving initiatives already underway. Other athletes supporting PBS include Olympic gold medallist Beckie Scott (Cross-Country Skiing), Paralympic gold medallist Stephanie Dixon (Swimming), professional trials rider Ryan Leech, and Sam Whittingham, a cyclist with a global reputation for bike design and a multiple world-record holder on a recumbent bike. The project will have more athletes sign up every day.

In the final lead up to the hosting of the 2010 Games, PBS aims to capture the imagination of individuals that have an interest in environmental issues, and have them track and capture their individual carbon reducing activities. The overall objective is to mobilize Olympic, Paralympic and other high performance athletes to take a leadership role and encourage people from around the world to take action to reduce their carbon footprint by registering 1 billion kilometres of carbon reducing activity between now and the end of the Paralympic Games.

To track progress against its target of 1 billion kilometre’s worth of carbon reductions, Project Blue Sky has developed an easy-to-use online ‘widget’ that can record the number of kilometres individuals or groups contribute towards the one billion kilometre target. The widget can be shared across other social networks and web applications, and is easily embedded on websites.

Healthy Starts for Kids

Cola-Cola Canada supports one of Canada’s largest breakfast programs.

The Breakfast Clubs of Canada was set out to offer all children the chance to have a nutritious breakfast before going to class. The project had such a positive effect on the children’s academic achievement that, soon, many schools were knocking at the Breakfast Club’s door.

In 2008-2009, thanks to the support of an increasing number of private and public partners such as Coca-Cola Canada, Breakfast Clubs of Canada helped serve breakfast to 204,000 children in over 2,000 school nutrition programs across Canada.

Every morning, across the country, the Breakfast Club brings thousands of children two essential elements to start their school day on the right foot: a nutritious breakfast and a nourishing environment. During the last school year, the Club served 33,000,000 breakfasts.

WWF

Coca-Cola Ltd. has partnered with one of the best known environment organizations, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). WWF works to protect threatened habitats, conserve species at risk, and address global threats. WWF concentrates on six crosscutting environmental issues: freshwater preservation, climate change, endangered species, toxics, forests, and marine.

New Partnership with WWF-Canada to Protect Watersheds in Canada

In 2007 The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) and WWF (World Wildlife Fund) launched a global partnership to conserve and protect freshwater sources. The partnership will conserve seven of the world’s most critical freshwater eco-regions while helping TCCC become a leader in water efficiency and water stewardship.

In support of this partnership Coca-Cola Ltd. made an additional $1 million, four-year commitment to WWF-Canada in late 2008, towards watershed protection and the creation of a national freshwater strategy for Canada. Coca-Cola Ltd. and WWF-Canada have agreed to work together on a global to local approach that includes support for national policy development, local community and stakeholder engagement, as well as the promotion of water conservation in Canada. This partnership is the first step in a longer-term commitment to WWF-Canada and water stewardship in Canada.