Update on Wakefield wind turbine plans

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd (CCE) has announced that it will not be pursuing the proposal to install a wind turbine at its Wakefield site, at this time.  CCE has been working with Ecotricity on the project and had intended to submit a planning application during 2009.

Richard Davies, VP for European Operations at Coca-Cola Enterprises said:

"The decision not to pursue plans for a wind turbine at Wakefield follows understandable concerns raised by local police about the proximity of the proposed turbine to an emergency services helipad.

"During the consultation process, this issue came to light which made it impossible to continue with our plans at Wakefield.  We are disappointed; however we would not want to disrupt vital public services in any way.

"We remain fully committed to our overall sustainability agenda and to finding and implementing new ways in which to build on our sustainable working practices, and will continue to explore other options for using renewable energy sources at Wakefield and across our operations in Great Britain."

Notes to editors

For further information and comment, please contact Kate Ward or Emma Mercer at 3 Monkeys Communications on cocacolaenterprises@3-monkeys.co.uk / 020 7009 3100

About Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd:

• Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd (CCE) is responsible for manufacturing, selling and distributing over 80 different soft drinks products across Great Britain - that's around 250 million cases every year. CCE does this for brands owned by The Coca-Cola Company and for other premium brand owners too.
• In Great Britain Coca-Cola Enterprises employs around 4,500 people and has six manufacturing sites across the country, as well as a number of regional offices and depots.
• CCE's parent company is Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., an international organisation listed in the US that makes, markets and distributes 'Coca-Cola' products in North America and Western Europe.
• CCE makes, sells and distributes Coca-Cola Company products in Great Britain, and does the same with soft drinks for other brand owners.
• Six of CCE's manufacturing sites in Great Britain meet ISO14001 certification, the highest international standard for environmental management.
• All of CCE's glass bottles are 100% recyclable and contain an average of 30% recycled materials.
• All cans are all made from 100% recyclable aluminium and contain around 50% recycled aluminium.
• All plastic bottles are all made from PET (polyethylene teraphthalate) and are 100% recyclable.
• By investing in staff training and the latest recycling equipment at Milton Keynes, CCE has reduced the monthly waste sent to landfill from 40 tonnes to just over one.
• In 2007 CCE signed the Courtauld Commitment - a voluntary agreement on reducing packaging signed by 26 leading brand owners, manufacturers and retailers. It aims to stop the increase in packaging waste by 2008 and bring about absolute reductions by 2010.
• CCE now calculates and publishes the CO2 emissions resulting from the manufacture and distribution of all its brands. To understand its carbon footprint in more detail, in 2007 CCE announced a partnership with the Carbon Trust to measure all greenhouse gas emissions embodied within selected products in the portfolio. For further information please visit /

About Ecotricity:

Formed in 1995, Ecotricity is an electricity supplier and wind park developer.  They've built one in eight of the UK's wind farms, and supply over 35,000 customers across the UK. Ecotricity's sole mission is to change the way electricity is made in the UK.  Last year alone Ecotricity spent about £30M building new wind projects. Ecotricity adheres rigorously to its own good neighbour policy which means that if it cannot be certain that a turbine will not adversely impact its neighbours, it will not proceed with the project.   Ecotricity pioneered brownfield (or Urban) wind energy deployment -encouraging and enabling big business to adopt wind energy as a fuel source.  Under their Merchant Wind Power scheme Ecotricity built the UK's first truly commercial wind turbine for Sainsbury's and have since built for Ford, Michelin, The Prudential, Co-op bank and Bristol Port.  We're building now for B&Q, Lotus cars and many others.