Coca‑Cola HBC Switzerland is collaborating with Swiss ETH-Spin-off company Climeworks to use this ground-breaking technology for the first time in the beverage industry, forming a crucial platform to further scale the solution. The project is supported by the Klimafonds of Stadtwerk Winterthur, as well as the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment FOEN. VALSER, recently certified as the first CO2-neutral mineral water in Switzerland, will become the first brand to use this technology for its beverages.
The global beverage industry is one of the world’s largest users of CO2 to create bubbles for sparkling drinks. Climeworks provides pure, air-captured CO2 to its customers, while at the same time offering them the opportunity to reverse their emissions. This collaboration allows Coca‑Cola HBC Switzerland to obtain the CO2 necessary for sparkling drinks from a sustainable source. At the same time, Coca‑Cola HBC Switzerland helps recycle CO2 from the air and most importantly offers a market to further scale a technology that is highly relevant to achieving the climate targets set by the United Nations.
VALSER Brand Manager Jana Luecking:
“We are very excited to pioneer this promising initiative with VALSER, a brand that stands for sustainability and its connection with the environment. Initially, it will be used for VALSER Sparkling, VALSER Sparkling Lemon & Mint and VALSER Viva.”.
Coca‑Cola HBC Switzerland General Manager Nigel Davis:
“We are proud to be the very first beverage company worldwide to drive the expansion of this ground-breaking technology. Sustainability is built into our strategic business priorities and we are continuously looking at ways to minimise our ecological footprint in everything we do. To do so by supporting a local Swiss business is even more rewarding.”
Climeworks co-founder and CEO Jan Wurzbacher:
“By entering the beverage market with Coca‑Cola HBC Switzerland, we are continuing our path of commercializing our Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology, which began with the world’s first commercial plant in May 2017. We are excited by the chance to collaborate with a beverage industry leader as part of our overarching goal of capturing one per cent of global CO2 emissions by 2025.”
Climeworks co-founder and CEO Christoph Gebald:
“We are very happy to be entering the beverage market in Switzerland together with Coca‑Cola HBC Switzerland, one of the industry leaders in Dow Jones Sustainability Indices, attaching importance to social and environmental aspects of business. During the past few years, Coca‑Cola HBC Switzerland has been an exceptionally supportive partner and invaluable in moving the application of DAC in the beverage industry forward – something we are very thankful for.”
