Friday, September 28, 2012

Coke Teams Up with Segway Inventor to Roll Out Clean Water Project

Coca-Cola Co plans to deliver and operate water purification systems in rural parts of the developing world, working with the inventor of the Segway transportation device in a project that will also help further Coke's sustainability targets.
The world's largest soft drink maker said on Tuesday that it is teaming up with American inventor Dean Kamen to roll out his new invention, called the Slingshot, to bring clean water to areas where it is limited.
Kamen, whose organization is called Deka R&D, has made many inventions in the medical device field but is best-known for his Segway personal transporter. He also worked with Coke on its Freestyle fountain dispenser.
Kamen expects to deliver 30 Slingshot machines to Coke by the end of 2012. Next year, Coke will place machines in rural areas of South Africa, Mexico and Paraguay, in places like schools, health clinics and community centers.
By 2014, the distribution should widen to include thousands of units, and later to extend to India, the Middle East and Asia.
"For us to partner with Deka and embark on a project with huge societal implications gives me huge excitement," Coke Chief Executive Muhtar Kent told Reuters. "And it fits perfectly with our other sustainability pillars, such as our goal for water neutrality."

Read more: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=coke-segway-inventor-team-up-on-cle

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