Women, water, well-being top priorities for Coca-Cola

“There are no issues that will shape or define the 21st century more than the global empowerment of women; the management of the world’s precious water resources; and the well-being of the world’s growing population,” he said after the company released its 10th annual “Sustainability Report and third Global Reporting Initiative Report” highlighting the progress the Coca-Cola system made last year, and the new 2020 sustainability goals announced earlier this year.

This is the first report to include both an update on existing sustainability goals and the company’s new global 2020 goals. It follows Coca-Cola’s sustainability framework – “Me, We, World” – and is rooted in three leadership priorities.

The first is women. In its third year, the company continues its journey to economically empower 5 million women entrepreneurs across its value chain by 2020 through the “5by20” programme. 

Specifically, this includes the small businesses that work with the company in more than 200 countries. The initiative aims to help women entrepreneurs, from fruit farmers to artisans, overcome the barriers they face to succeed in business. 

By the end of last year, 5by20 programmes had enabled 300,000 women in 22 countries, more than double the number of participants reached by the end of 2011.

The second priority is water. The company is partnering around the world to meet its 2020 water-use reduction and replenishment goals. 

This work has improved its water efficiency by 21.4 per cent since 2004 and supported an estimated replenishment of approximately 52 per cent of the water the company used in its finished beverage products through 2012. 

Coca-Cola also recently announced progress in its partnership with DEKA R&D and other partners to deliver 500 million litres of safe drinking water to communities in 20 countries through Slingshot water purification units and EKOCENTER kiosks by the end of 2015.

The other priority is well-being. In advancing one of its global commitments to help address obesity, the company offers more than 800 low- and no-calorie options worldwide – nearly 25 per cent of its global portfolio. 

Last year, the company introduced more than 500 new products globally, including portion-controlled options for regular calorie products, and more than 100 new low- or no-calorie options. Since 2000, its average number of calories per serving has decreased by 9 per cent globally. 

In 2012, the company supported more than 290 active healthy-living programmes in 118 countries.

The report also updates other areas of progress. Through The Coca-Cola Foundation, the company’s global philanthropic arm, it invested US$101.6 million (Bt3.2 billion, or 1 per cent of operating income) in grants to support sustainable community initiatives in 2012. 

The company continues applying its supply chain and logistics expertise to help deliver essential medicines to communities that need them through “Project Last Mile”, and 98 per cent of its company-owned facilities achieved compliance with its Workplace Rights Policy for the second consecutive year.

The company has reaffirmed its long-held policy of not marketing to children. 

Under climate protection, the company established an ambitious new goal to reduce the carbon footprint of “the drink in your hand” by 25 per cent by 2020 against baseline year of 2010. 

On packaging, the company has distributed about 14 billion fully recyclable PlantBottle packages across 24 countries through last year. The company also set an ambitious new goal to sustainable source key agricultural ingredients by 2020.