Report Highlights Progress on
Comprehensive 2020 Sustainability Goals with a Focus on Women, Water and Well-being
ATLANTA, July 28, 2015 – The
Coca-Cola Company today released its 12th annual Sustainability
Report highlighting progress made in 2014 against the Coca-Cola system’s 2020 sustainability goals.
“At
Coca-Cola, we’re committed to integrating sustainability into the very heart of
the enterprise, where our efforts create value for our shareowners and the
communities we proudly serve,” said Bea Perez, Chief Sustainability Officer at
The Coca-Cola Company. “We believe the majority of innovation over the next
decade will happen at the intersection of sustainability and the supply chain.
Working together with our bottling partners to empower women,
better manage water resources and
promote well-being gives us new opportunities to
build business resiliency and add value across our system.”
The
report follows the Company’s sustainability framework – “Me, We, World” – and
is rooted in three leadership priorities:
-
Women: 5by20™, one of our value chain
innovations continues progress in its commitment to enable the economic empowerment
of 5 million women entrepreneurs by 2020. As of Dec. 31, 2014, our 5by20
programs had helped enable nearly 865,000 women in 52 countries since the
program launched in 2010.
-
Water: We are also building business resiliency
through our water stewardship efforts. In 2014, we replenished an
estimated 94 percent (a calculated estimate of 153.6 billion liters) of the equivalent
amount of water used in our finished beverages worldwide (based on 2014 sales
volume) through 209 community water partnership projects in 61 countries. The
foregoing is a global, aggregate number. The replenishment figure for
individual countries may vary and/or be more or less.
-
Well-being: The Coca-Cola system
continues its work to meet global business commitments to promote well-being
and to help address the public health challenge of obesity. In 2014, Coca-Cola
introduced more than 400 new beverage options, more than 100 of which are
reduced-, low- or no-calorie and we supported more than 330 active, healthy
living programs in 112 markets.
The
report also updates other areas of progress, including efforts to reduce the
carbon footprint of the “drink in your hand” by 25 percent and to sustainably
source key agricultural ingredients globally by 2020. In addition, through the
end of 2014, Coca-Cola had distributed more than 30 billion fully recyclable PlantBottle™ packages across nearly 40 countries
since the program launched in 2009.
The
2014/2015 Sustainability
Report demonstrates
The Coca-Cola Company’s commitment to continuous improvement, increased
disclosure, risk assessment and expanded stakeholder engagement. This year, the
Company developed the report at the Core In Accordance level of the GRI G4
guidelines. Ernst & Young LLP, a registered public accounting firm, provided
independent external assurance on sustainability indicators related to low- or
no-calorie beverages, active, healthy living programs, water use ratio,
PlantBottle™ packaging, lost-time incident rate, front-of-pack labeling
compliance, and greenhouse gas emissions related to our manufacturing activities.
To
view The Coca-Cola Company’s 2014/2015
Sustainability Report, please visit www.coca-colacompany.com/sustainability.
About The Coca-Cola
Company
The Coca-Cola Company
(NYSE: KO) is the world's largest beverage company, refreshing consumers with
more than 500 sparkling and still brands. Led by Coca-Cola, one of
the world's most valuable and recognizable brands, our Company's portfolio
features 20 billion-dollar brands including Diet Coke, Fanta,
Sprite, Coca-Cola Zero, vitaminwater, Powerade, Minute Maid, Simply,
Georgia and Del Valle. Globally, we are the No. 1 provider of sparkling
beverages, ready-to-drink coffees, and juices and juice drinks. Through
the world's largest beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200
countries enjoy our beverages at a rate of 1.9 billion servings a
day. With an enduring commitment to building sustainable communities, our
Company is focused on initiatives that reduce our environmental footprint,
support active, healthy living, create a safe, inclusive work environment for
our associates, and enhance the economic development of the communities where
we operate. Together with our bottling partners, we rank among the world's
top 10 private employers with more than 700,000 system associates. For
more information, visit Coca-Cola Journey at
www.coca-colacompany.com, follow us on Twitter
at twitter.com/CocaColaCo, visit our blog,
Coca-Cola Unbottled, at www.coca-colablog.com or find us on
LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/the-coca-cola-company.
The Coca-Cola Company Forward
Looking Statements
This press release
may contain statements, estimates or projections that constitute
“forward-looking statements” as defined under U.S. federal securities laws.
Generally, the words “believe,” “expect,” “intend,” “estimate,” “anticipate,”
“project,” “will” and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements,
which generally are not historical in nature. Forward-looking statements are
subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to
differ materially from The Company’s historical experience and our present
expectations or projections.These risks include, but are not limited to,
obesity concerns; water scarcity and poor quality; evolving consumer
preferences; increased competition and capabilities in the marketplace; product
safety and quality concerns; perceived negative health consequences of certain
ingredients, such as non-nutritive sweeteners and biotechnology-derived
substances, and of other substances present in our beverage products or
packaging materials; increased demand for food products and decreased
agricultural productivity; changes in the retail landscape or the loss of key
retail or foodservice customers; an inability to expand operations in emerging
and developing markets; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates;
interest rate increases; an inability to maintain good relationships with our
bottling partners; a deterioration in our bottling partners' financial
condition; increases in income tax rates, changes in income tax laws or
unfavorable resolution of tax matters; increased or new indirect taxes in the
United States or in other major markets; increased cost, disruption of supply
or shortage of energy or fuels; increased cost, disruption of supply or
shortage of ingredients, other raw materials or packaging materials; changes in
laws and regulations relating to beverage containers and packaging; significant
additional labeling or warning requirements or limitations on the availability
of our products; an inability to protect our information systems against
service interruption, misappropriation of data or breaches of security;
unfavorable general economic conditions in the United States; unfavorable
economic and political conditions in international markets; litigation or legal
proceedings; adverse weather conditions; climate change; damage to our brand
image and corporate reputation from negative publicity, even if unwarranted,
related to product safety or quality, human and workplace rights, obesity or
other issues; changes in, or failure to comply with, the laws and regulations
applicable to our products or our business operations; changes in accounting
standards; an inability to achieve our overall long-term growth objectives;
deterioration of global credit market conditions; default by or failure of one
or more of our counterparty financial institutions; an inability to timely
implement our previously announced actions to reinvigorate growth, or to
realize the economic benefits we anticipate from these actions; failure to
realize a significant portion of the anticipated benefits of our strategic
relationships with Keurig Green Mountain, Inc. and Monster Beverage
Corporation; an inability to renew collective bargaining agreements on
satisfactory terms, or we or our bottling partners experience strikes, work
stoppages or labor unrest; future impairment charges; multi-employer plan
withdrawal liabilities in the future; an inability to successfully integrate
and manage our Company-owned or -controlled bottling operations; an inability
to successfully manage the possible negative consequences of our productivity
initiatives; global or regional catastrophic events; and other risks discussed
in our Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC),
including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014
and our subsequently filed Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, which filings are
available from the SEC. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking
statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. The Company
undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking
statements.
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