Coca-Cola Releases 2014/2015 Sustainability Report
Report Highlights Progress on Comprehensive 2020 Sustainability Goals with a Focus on Women, Water and Well-being
ATLANTA, July 28, 2015 /3BL Media/ – 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.
