1.29.2008 - 08:24am ET

(CSRwire) ATHENS, GREECE – January 29, 2008 – Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company S.A. (Coca-Cola Hellenic, the Company) announces plans to reduce annual CO2 emissions by more than 20% across all of its production facilities through the development of 15 energy-efficient power plants to be in operation by the end of 2009.

The decision to build the energy efficient power plants follows the start-up of a similar CHP plant at the company’s bottling facility in Hungary which achieved a reduction of CO2 emissions by 43% during its first year of operation. At the same time, energy costs were reduced by €400,000.

"The benefits realised through the construction of the Hungarian CHP plant led to our decision to roll out further facilities as part of a large-scale energy efficiency initiative," said Mr. Doros Constantinou, Managing Director of Coca-Cola Hellenic. "As the 15 new plants come into service we will continuously review the benefits achieved with a view to adding more plants across the Group."

The European Commission Vice President, Mr. Günter Verheugen, attending the announcement, commended Coca-Cola Hellenic and its partner company ContourGlobal on its commitment to contribute to the European Union's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions across Member States well ahead of the 2020 deadline.

"Coca-Cola Hellenic is an active member of the CSR Alliance. This initiative shows that the Alliance is not about words but about bringing change. It demonstrates that environmental and economic goals can be pursued in unison. It also demonstrates how innovation is not just a driver of economic competitiveness, but also a contributor towards achieving wider social goals, such as addressing climate change" he said.

The 15 CHP plants will be constructed by US energy company, ContourGlobal, a privately held power development company that operates eight businesses on four continents, with offices in London, New York, Durham, Paris, Kiev and Sao Paolo. The plants will supply highly efficient, clean electricity as well as hot and chilled water to 15 of Coca-Cola Hellenic's bottling facilities in Austria, Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Northern Ireland, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia in the European Union as well as in Nigeria, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine. Two installations will be built in each of Italy, Russia and Romania.

The energy-efficient power plants will reduce CO2 emissions by at least 40% per plant compared with current energy use and will provide electricity, heat and cooling for production facilities. Excess electricity will be delivered to the national grid of each country, thereby supplying them with greener power.

By 2020 the EU plans to reduce annual emissions of greenhouse gases by 20% from the Kyoto baseline of 1990. In order to achieve this goal, it is preparing to adopt an Energy Package demonstrating ways that the reduction can be achieved, with targets set for individual countries.

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