Thirty-five employees of The Coca-Cola Corporation worldwide joined polar explorer Robert Swan, the first man in history to have walked to both poles, on a two-week clean-up campaign in Antarctica at the beginning of March.
The South African division of Coca-Cola spearheaded the campaign, which was undertaken by the biggest corporate contingent ever to visit Antarctica. The object of the exercise was to galvanise environmental awareness throughout the organisation and to help employees come up with sustainable waste-management solutions.
The 35 employees represented Coca-Cola operations in more than 80 countries. A third of the contingent comprised employees and bottlers from African operations, including 10 South Africans.
The team spent 15 days undergoing intense training to help them discover ways to integrate environmental awareness opportunities into their everyday business roles. Antartica is under serious threat from global warming, some poor solid waste management practices and the thinning of the ozone layer, which will ultimately have an impact on the whole world.
The mission was the brainchild of Swan and his organisation, called inspia!. ”People feel powerless when faced with the enormity of global environmental issues,” said Swan. ”They are swamped with a deluge of information, but there is a critical shortage of inspiration.
”My experiences walking across the most inhospitable places on the planet gave me unique insights into taking risks – and succeeding against the odds – when success is a matter of life and death.”
Swan embarked on his mission to clean up Antartica after United Nations leaders challenged him to do so at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. A decade later, at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, he reported that more than 1 000 tons of solid waste had been removed from Antarctica and recycled in Uruguay.
Swan and The Coca-Cola Company formed a partnership at the World Summit, with the understanding that the key to the future would be sustainability. ”Coca-Cola chiefs had challenged me earlier in 2002 to do real things, to tackle real challenges and to inspire people. So we decided, what better way to inspire than to return to the harshest environment on Earth and seek sustainable waste-management and recycling solutions in Antarctica?”
One of Swan’s aims is to address the critical shortage of inspired leadership and teamwork in the world – specifically when faced with environmental issues. ”We need more positive role models out there, people who can lead by example. Coca-Cola executives from around the world on this mission can return to their businesses and inspire people with the story of delivering on a promise – no matter what it takes,” he said.
The Coca-Cola team worked closely with international researchers and scientists to gain insights into global environmental policies, as well as to lay the foundations for a global best-practice model on their return.
The trip proved a challenge in a number of ways. Angela van Hoffen, a member of the Coca-Cola legal department in Johannesburg, described passing through the notoriously treacherous Drake Passage from the tip of South America to the Bellinghausen base on Antarctica:
”The trip was very bumpy and turbulent and several members of the group were very seasick. But once we reached the base, the Russians really made us feel at home. With the snow falling and temperatures dropping to below freezing, we quickly realised that this is not home.”
Executive assistant Michelle Vilikazi said the trip had provided some unforgettable sights. ”We visited the volcanic Paulet Island. On our way to the island, we sailed past huge, blue tabular icebergs for hours on end.”
With a diameter of only 2km, Paulet is one of the most popular destinations for explorers. During peak season it is home to more than 200 000 Adelie penguins as well as cormorants, blue-eyed shags, sheathbills and other exotic Antarctic birds.
Apart from excursions to observe the effects of global warming, the team also helped Swan’s clean-up and educational outreach programmes. One of the Americans in the group, Milan Kluko, is a tank expert and he advised the team on how to remove nine huge oil tanks from the base. Other members of the group conducted a feasibility study on setting up a data collection and transmission base, which will use solar and wind energy to transmit data to youth around the world.
Before heading back through the Drake Passage, the team stopped off at one of the Antarctic Peninsula’s top 10 most visited sites – Hannah Point. The area is renowned for its proliferation of chinstrap and gentoo penguins, elephant and fur seals, as well as the rare macaroni penguins.
Special projects manager Nigel Holman, at 63 the oldest member of the expedition, said Antarctica shows what mismanagement of the environment can do.
”This continent is the last wilderness on Earth and is essential to the climatic and ecological equilibrium of our planet, yet no one country or person owns or regulates it. It is therefore the responsibility of everybody, not only governments, to ensure that the Earth is preserved for future generations,” Holman added.
Swan said Coca-Cola is the first company to participate in a mission of this kind to help protect and preserve Antarctica.
”Global businesses like Coca-Cola and non-governmental organisations like inspia! really do have the power to change things and to make a difference in the world,” he said. ”This is a historic partnership. Personal leadership – the belief that we could make something happen – is the key to our story.”