The path towards sustainability is a course increasingly explored by brands and companies, since consumers are currently more concerned about measures that protect the environment. One of the companies that has been building this message for decades and has made a commitment to the planet is Cerveza Corona. At the beginning of June, during the week of the oceans, it announced its new alliance with 4Ocean to clean the Motagua River in Guatemala. .
The mission comes from the alarming global figures, since each year 380 million tons of plastic are generated and this number is expected to increase over time. For this reason, this initiative led by the AB InBev Brewery brand bears the name “River of Change”, and complies with recovering plastic from one of the longest and most polluted rivers in Central America through river barriers that prevent the passage of plastics into the oceans and stop their spread at the source.
From rivers to oceans
As Corona is a leading company in raising awareness for the environment, it detected the need in rivers to collect the plastic that reaches them through different currents. Because they function as pathways for carrying up to 5.5 billion pounds of pollutants into our oceans each year.
The start of the challenge begins with the Motagua River, which runs 480 kilometers from Guatemala and passes through its capital, Guatemala City, a place with 3 million inhabitants and where there is the only official landfill in the country. During the rainy and windy seasons, a large part of this waste is washed away by weather conditions and reaches the river, which empties into the Caribbean Sea, where the second largest coral reef system in the world is housed, the Coral Reef. Mesoamerican.
The Corona Beer and 4Ocean project, “River of Change”, is a barrier system designed to collect plastic that flows down the river before it reaches the ocean. Even during the trial stage, this containment is predicted to prevent hundreds of thousands of kilos of plastic and other waste from reaching the sea each year; It will also create jobs in the town. For more information about this project, go to 4ocean.com (https://www.4ocean.com/blogs/operational-updates/4ocean-corona-blog).
waste with useful life
Since 80% of all the plastic that pollutes our oceans comes from poorly managed waste, Cerveza Corona in its alliance with 4Ocean is recycling part of the waste and transforming it into bracelets that finance the “River of Change” project and the cleaning of the Montagua River .
These bracelets are made to give a second life to the waste that is extracted from the river and from this initiative. With a background of environmental awareness, they arrive to affirm Corona’s commitment to the planet and represents the care that we must maintain as a human species towards nature.
Sustainability as a base
The message and the actions to maintain the minimum human impact on the environment have been part of the history of Corona Beer. Since its production, which aims to be carbon neutral by 2040, and which already produces 100% of its beer with renewable energy; until its recent Corona Sunsets World Tour festival, where it achieved two stars in Oceanic Global’s Blue Certification, which categorizes brands for their waste management and elimination of single-use plastics.
“At Cerveza Corona we focus on developing environmentally conscious initiatives and actions, so that our consumers expand their ties with nature and create sustainable habits. We want to protect this paradise, but also motivate to live unique experiences and our best version outside with the This Is Living look. Because being in contact with nature, respecting it and taking care of it is the greatest commitment we have as a brand, which comes from a Global team with various initiatives and which ends here in Chile with each of our sustainable actions”, explained Enrique Arteaga, Brand Manager Corona Beer for Chile.
This brand that was born on the beach has an ongoing commitment to reducing plastics, so much so that it has exceeded its mission to globally protect 100 islands by 2020. In Chile, its beach cleanup has exceeded more than 100 locations, being the first country to collect more than 2 million cubic meters of waste. In its latest action, called “Plastic Fishing”, more than 2 tons of underwater plastic were cleaned in La Herradura Bay, Coquimbo, which will be transformed into sustainable spaces such as offices and rest rooms necessary for the community and the Union of Fishermen of area.
Another of his initiatives to raise awareness about pollution on Oceans Day was “Plastic Letter”, part of the “Better World” campaign where a letter was made in the sand of Quinteros beach with 113 kilos of plastic, where it read the message “imagine a world free of plastic”. In addition, for this occasion, more than 366 tons of plastic were recycled with the “bottle x bottle” commitment, which promoted the idea that for each bottle of Corona Beer sold, the brand committed to recycling the equivalent of one plastic bottle. One of the most important plans in this area for the brand is Corona Island, its natural paradise located in Colombia.
This island also complies with Oceanic Global’s Blue Certification, as it seeks to protect the planet and the ecosystems that live on it. For this reason, all environments are made from eco-friendly materials, 70% of the energy is obtained from solar panels and the use of single-use plastics is not allowed.