C1Cocacola Goes Green

Coca-Cola Goes Green
Coke has been selling its iconic carbonated soda for 130 years – climate change threatens to
disrupt its business, and the company is adapting its practices in response.
Coca-Cola (“Coke” or the “Company”) is the world’s largest beverage company. The Company
owns or licenses more than 500 beverage brands, primarily sparkling beverages but also a variety
of still beverages such as waters, juices, ready-to-drink teas and coffees, and sports drinks. Coke
products, sold in the United States since 1886, are today sold in more than 200 countries. Water
is the main ingredient in all of these products and as a result, continued access to sufficient water
resources is critically important to the success of the Company. Climate change threatens to
impact both the quality and consistent supply of water. Rising temperatures can lead to droughts
and accelerate the melting of glaciers, an important source of freshwater worldwide. In addition,
changing weather patterns may decrease global agricultural productivity, limiting the supply of
key commodities such as sugarcane, corn, citrus, coffee and tea, which are important inputs for
Coke products. Coke recognizes that climate change is a major threat to commerce and has
adopted comprehensive business practices to minimize the negative effects.
Steps to Address Effects of Climate Change

Coke has a robust water stewardship program and continues to work on improving water usage
efficiency, treating wastewater and achieving the goal of full replenishment of the water it uses
in production and bottling. In order to mitigate water supply dislocation, the Company regularly
assesses water-related risks and has a formal water risk management program. In 2015, Coke
conducted a global plant-level assessment and implemented Source Water Protection Plans
(SWPP) detailing specific risk-mitigation actions to address water supply issues at each facility.
Coke also uses its leverage to require its bottling partners to implement similar source water
protection plans. In addition to focusing on water efficiency, the Company has taken extensive
measures to treat the wastewater it produces. All of Coke’s plants are in compliance with, and in
many cases exceed, local wastewater treatment regulatory standards. Recognizing that the most
meaningful impact often happens at the public policy level, Coke routinely collaborates with
other companies, governments and NGOs to advocate for policy reforms aimed at improving
water availability and quality.
In addition to the critical need for reliable water, it is imperative for Coke to maintain a secure,
sustainable supply of agricultural ingredients. To that end, Coke has developed Sustainable
Agriculture Guiding Principles (SAGP) which set expectations of suppliers and aim to address
sustainability challenges specific to agriculture by encouraging better growing practices. The
SAGP establishes principles at the individual farm level for human rights, environmental
sustainability and farm management. This includes requiring suppliers to protect the access and
land rights of local communities with respect to natural resources. The principles are designed to
provide a mutually beneficial foundation for the Company and its agricultural suppliers that
encourages transparency and accountability across the supply chain. Coke has also partnered
with organizations such as WWF, TechnoServe, and Cargill, to help members of the supply
chain test and refine new growing techniques. Together they are overseeing initiatives to
improve crop yields for farmers.
Looking to the Future
Coke has a long-term goal to be a zero-waste company. A significant area to address in

achieving this goal is improving the sustainability of product packaging. Coke has taken many
actions already to reduce the environmental impact of its packaging, such as trimming the weight
of plastic bottles and aluminum cans. The Company has also launched efforts to introduce a
higher content of sustainable materials in its packaging, such as the Plant Bottle packaging, the
first fully-recyclable polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle. However, PET bottles require
significant natural resources to make and so the need to use recycled or renewable materials is
paramount. Coke must continue to invest in initiatives to recover and recycle bottles it introduces
to the market – it currently recovers only 37%. The Company has had success partnering with
non-profit and government organizations in the past to tackle important sustainability challenges,
and such collaboration will be critical to improving the wide and complex system of recycling
programs.

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Coca-Cola Goes Green

Steps to Address Effects of Climate Change

Looking to the Future

Coke has a long-term goal to be a zero-waste company. A significant area to address in

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