In California, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), the world’s largest Coca-Cola bottler, has announced a collaboration, through its innovation investment platform CCEP Ventures, with the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) to develop scalable methods of converting captured CO2 into sugar.
CCEP Ventures’ initial investment with UCB will support the Peidong Yang Research Group on foundational research which will focus on enabling the production of sugar from CO₂ on site and at an industrial level, with expectation of future investments to drive scale – from lab to pilot phase.
This investment demonstrates the role innovation can play in CCEP’s journey to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. The development of lab scale prototypes could make the generation of essential raw and packaging materials more sustainable in the long-term. It could reduce, some of the largest CO₂ contributors in supply chains, while saving material, transportation and logistics costs.
With agricultural ingredients, including sugar, amounting to approximately a quarter of CCEP’s overall carbon footprint, this technology could not only reduce emissions associated with sugar manufacturing processes but positively contribute to optimizing land usage as less arable land becomes available due to global population growth.
In the longer-term this technology may also make the conversion of CO₂ into PET plastic more efficient by reducing the need for crude oil in the manufacturing process and significantly lowering costs.