Coca-Cola Co. Releases Sustainability Review

The Coca-Cola Co. has published its seventh systemwide sustainability review, entitled “Our Commitment to Making a Positive Difference in the World.” The review, which releases 25 sustainability goals across seven focus areas for the company and its bottling partners and also reports the company’s sustainability strategy and progress, is available online at: www.sustainability.thecoca-colacompany.com.

The review profiles the company’s and its more than 300 bottling partners’ efforts to grow business in economically, environmentally and socially sustainable ways. It was created using stakeholder feedback and the disclosure requirements of the Global Reporting Initiative, the United Nations Global Compact and the CEO Water Mandate. The Review includes summaries of Company and bottling partner performance and progress across seven core areas key to Coca-Cola’s business sustainability: beverage benefits; active healthy living; community; energy efficiency and climate protection; sustainable packaging; water stewardship; and workplace.

Performance highlights from the 2009/2010 Sustainability Review include:

Beverage Benefits: The company launched more than 180 low- and no-calorie drinks in 2009, increasing the low- and no-calorie beverage portfolio to more than 800 beverage products.

The company introduced a sleek “mini can” that allows consumers to enjoy Coca-Cola beverages while managing their portions.

Active Healthy Living: The company sponsored approximately 150 physical activity and nutrition education programs in nearly 100 countries. It also supported First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Initiative along with a coalition of food and beverage manufacturers pledging to cut 1.5 trillion calories from their combined product portfolios in the U.S. by the end of 2015. It also committed to place calorie information on the front of nearly all packages by end of 2011. The company also announced and implemented Global School Beverage Guidelines.

Community: The company announced “5 BY 20” initiative, a 10-year global commitment to empower 5 million women inside and outside the Coca-Cola system by 2020. IT also launched Haiti Hope Project, a five-year, $7.5 million program to double the income of 25,000 Haitian mango farmers; raise the standard of living for the farmers; develop sustainable farming practices; plant new mango trees; and improve the participation of women in fruit production.

The company also launched Project Nurture, a program designed to enable more than 50,000 small fruit farmers to double their income by 2014. This four-year, $11.5 million partnership with Technoserve and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation invites mango and passion fruit farmers in Uganda and Kenya to be suppliers to the Coca-Cola system for the first time, providing fruit for locally produced juices in the Coca-Cola portfolio.

Energy Efficiency and Climate Protection: The company improved energy use efficiency 13 percent since 2004 and reduced absolute emissions from manufacturing operations in developed countries by 8 percent since 2004.

It also advanced energy efficiency of cooling equipment with installation of some 3.1 million intelligent energy management devices to date, reducing energy consumption by monitoring energy use on refrigeration units.

The company also placed more than 127,000 HFC-free refrigeration systems, bringing total placement to more than 240,000 units. Working to phase out the use of HFCs in all new cold drink equipment as of 2015.

Sustainable Packaging: The company delivered 2.5 billion PlantBottle® packaging bottles in nine major markets while working to advance the use of PlantBottle packaging in every bottle sold by 2020. It avoided the use of approximately 85,000 metric tons of primary packaging through systemwide packaging efficiency efforts, resulting in estimated cost savings of more than $100 million.

The company also supported the direct recovery of 36 percent of the bottles and cans placed into the market by the Coca-Cola system.