Water is a key ingredient of every product we make and vital to the communities of which we are a part and the ecosystems on which we all rely.

In 2007, we set an aspirational goal to safely return to communities and nature an amount of water equivalent to what we use in all our beverages and their production. The formulation of this goal came from open, honest dialogue with the international water stakeholder community combined with our own desire to establish a truly water sustainable business on a global scale. We formulated the following strategies to achieve our goal:

1. Reduce – Further improve our water efficiency with goal of 20% improvement by 2012;
2. Recycle - Return all water used in manufacturing processes to the environment at a level that supports aquatic life by the end of 2010; and
3. Replenish – Sustain investment in locally relevant projects that focus on water protection, conservation, and providing access to clean water and sanitation for communities in need.

This water conservation goal has come to be known as "water neutrality," although we freely acknowledge that what it actually takes to be water neutral is on open issue and some question whether a for-profit company‘s use of water can ever achieve a balanced and neutral position. This report details our efforts to replenish the water we use in our products. Information about our efforts to improve water efficiency and return the water that we use in manufacturing processes is available on our corporate website at www.thecoca-colacompany.com.

WHY ARE WE WORKING TO REPLENISH WATER?
Our motives for replenishing the water that we use are simple. Clean water is a cornerstone for any sustainable community and sustainable communities are THE foundation of our business. Our journey to attain and maintain water neutrality will help us and others advance emerging conservation and social science, to better understand impacts and therefore better plan and execute such projects. Further replenish is an integral part of our water stewardship strategy involving plant performance, watershed protection, sustainable communities, and helping to raise awareness. We fully acknowledge water neutrality is a continuous journey, not a destination, and we strive to attain and maintain our Replenish goal.

HOW ARE WE ACHIEVING OUR REPLENISH GOAL?
Our Company‘s Community Water Partnership (CWP) program, initiated in 2005, is intended to help us meet our Replenish target through locally relevant projects implemented in partnership with key stakeholders. Presently, as we launch the program‘s sixth year, we have engaged in more than 250 community water/watershed projects in over 70 countries. In 2009, we asked respected experts to work with us to calculate the water benefits of these projects to communities and nature (reports are offered at (www.thecoca-colacompany.com). Chapter 4 of this report explains in more detail our initial efforts to calculate the water benefits, based on the current accepted science and methodology in this area, and acknowledges the limitations in the current state of our calculations. Initial estimates show that our CWP work thus far has allowed us to offset 22% of the water used in our finished beverages in 2009.

Replenish does not necessarily mean we will balance product water at each plant. It does mean we will focus, along with our partners, to identify the locations and projects where the need is greatest, and where we can have a positive impact on communities and ecosystems. We have, however, required all bottling plants to work with local communities and governments to assess shared vulnerabilities to their water source and then develop and implement a source water protection plan.

WHEN WILL WE ATTAIN OUR REPLENISH GOAL?
When we announced the goal in 2007, we did not set a date for completion because we wanted to better understand the methodologies required to measure benefits and gain widespread, external alignment. But now we have set a date of 2020 by which we intend to meet and maintain our goal of replenishing all of the water that we use in our beverages.

We acknowledge that becoming "water neutral" in our operations does not address the issue of embedded water in our agricultural ingredients and packaging materials. We are working with the conservation partners to identify opportunities to reduce water use in our supply chain, beginning with sugarcane, oranges and corn, as part of our broader efforts in sustainable agriculture.

Returning an amount of water equivalent to what we use is a bold goal. We recognize that it can only be accomplished in partnership with others. This report details the progress we are making in cooperation with our bottlers, our suppliers and our conservation partners.