Sustainability in Global Companies

This paper explores the sustainable development goals, social accounting principles, and values of Vodafone and Coca Cola. It delves into the issues these companies face and how they are tackling them. The paper also discusses the core businesses of these companies and their markets. The sustainable development goals of Vodafone and Coca Cola encompass ending poverty, fight inequality, injustice and manage climate changes. The social development goals of Coca Cola include agriculture, climate protection, community development, human and workplace rights, packaging and recycling, climate change management, restoring water reserves and empowerment of women. The paper concludes with a group discussion.

Running head: SUSTAINABILITY IN GLOBAL COMPANIES
Sustainability in Global Companies
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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SUSTAINABILITY IN GLOBAL COMPANIES
Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
1. Company overview:.....................................................................................................................2
1.1 Vodafone:..................................................................................................................................2
Company and markets.....................................................................................................................2
Core business:..................................................................................................................................5
1.2. Coca Cola:................................................................................................................................6
Company and markets:....................................................................................................................6
Core Business:.............................................................................................................................8
2. Issues in social report:.................................................................................................................8
3. Sustainable Development Goals:...............................................................................................10
4. Social accounting principles:.....................................................................................................11
5. Values of the companies:...........................................................................................................13
6. Conclusion (Group discussion):................................................................................................14
References:....................................................................................................................................15

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Introduction:
Global companies today take up several social development goals in the course of their
regular operations. These SDGs find mention in their sustainability report which implicitly show
their importance to the organisations’ operations. The aim of the task is to study the SDGs of two
global companies by taking Vodafone and Coca Cola, with more emphasis to their Australian
business. The paper would first discuss the two companies, their markets and core businesses in
brief. Then it would go on delve into the issues these companies are facing and how they are
tackling these issues.
1. Company overview:
1.1 Vodafone:
Company and markets
Vodafone is a British multinational company based in the United Kingdom and is listed
primarily on the London Stock Exchange and secondarily listed on NASDAQ (vodafone.com,
2018). The extract of the financial statements of Vodafone shows that it has earned a profit of
EU 2788 million for the year ended March 31, 2018.
Vodafone’s main markets are Asia, Europe, North America and Australia where it
operates using subsidiaries and partnership formats. Vodafone Australia or Vodafone Hutchison
Australia Pty Limited is the merger between Vodafone and Hutchison 3G Australia
(vodafone.com.au, 2018).

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Figure 1. Stock chart of Vodafone on LSE for 5 years
(Source: londonstockexchange.com, 2018)

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Figure 2. Map showing the markets of Vodafone (red-Vodafone markets, violet-partner markets)
(Source: vodafone.com, 2018)

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Figure 3. An extract of profit and loss account of Vodafone till March 31, 2018 for 3 years
(Source: vodafone.com, 2018)
Core business:
The core business of Vodafone Australia consist of provision of communication
networks to both individual customers and business customers. It provides data plans and mobile
plans for both these customer segments. It offers customer services through a strong customer
support team and its official website (vodafone.com.au, 2018).

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1.2. Coca Cola:
Company and markets:
Coca Cola Company is the largest non-alcoholic beverage marketing company in the
world based in the US and having subsidiaries in hundreds of countries. It is public limited
company listed on NASDAQ showing average performance in the stock market
(bloomberg.com, 2018). The financial performance of the Coca Cola has been average as pointed
out in the below figure.
The market of Coca Cola includes North America, South America, Europe, Asia and
Australia. Coca Cola Amatil like its mother company is listed on ASX which allows it to exploit
the stock market of Australia to support its core buisiness (coca-cola.com.au, 2018).
Figure 4. Stock chart comparing between Coca Cola vs Pepsi for 5 years

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(Source: bloomberg.com, 2018)
Figure 5. Consolidated balance sheet of Cola Cola for 2016 and 2017
(Source: coca-colacompany.com, 2018)

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Figure 6. Consolidated balance sheet of Coca Cola for 2015-2016
(Source: coca-colacompany.com, 2018)
Core Business:
The core business of Coca Cola Amatil, the Australian subsidiary of Coca Cola Company
is to manufacture and market non-alcoholic beverages. The company owns brands like Coca
Cola, Minute Maid and Fuze Tea (coca-colacompany.com, 2018). The company also sponsors
events in the sports and entertainment sector.
2. Issues in social report:
The social reports of Vodafone point out the two biggest social issues the company and
its products face (vodafone.in, 2018). The first issue is that the transmitting towers emit immense
amount of radiation and are creating concerns in Australian cities like Brisbane (aph.gov.au,

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2018). The second issue which Vodafone faces is that radiation which mobile phone and gadgets
like modems release while operating which pose threat to health of users. Moreover, the
radiation emitted from the transmission towers lead to serious environmental issues. The
radiation causes global warming and also effects other forms of life like birds and animals
(weforum.org, 2018).
The two social and environment issues which Vodafone poses while offering services to
its customers namely, radiations from towers and hardware have huge ambit. The radiations
affect the health of the immediate users but also the communities living around them (Morgan et
al. 2015). The radiations are also detrimental to the environments and bio systems. Moreover, the
towers also emit greenhouse gases which is contributing to global warming (weforum.org, 2018).
The first issue which Coca Cola has created is slashing wages of its Australian workers.
The company is also charged with the allegation of supporting child labour in Australia. This is
because the American beverage giant has acquired a sugar mill which is reputed to use child
labour. The company also exploits water reserves in Australia and Africa which is also one of the
main issues it has created (Karnani, 2014).
The issues Coca Cola created are very deep and grave. The slashing of the wages of the
workers show lack of strategic human resource management (Wittenbrink, 2016). The child
labour issue which the company is attracted by acquiring the sugar mill using child labour shows
serious violation of laws framed by the ILO (ilo.org, 2018). The exploitation of water reserves by
Coca Cola bottling plants caused serious breach of environmental laws of Australia.
Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 prohibits manufacturing
companies from exploiting the water reserves of Australia and degenerating them

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(environment.gov.au, 2018). Thus, Coca Cola Company by exploiting the water reserves have
created not only legal but also environmental and social issues.
3. Sustainable Development Goals:
The sustainable development goals of Vodafone encompasses ending poverty, fight
inequality, injustice and manage climate changes. The British multinational company is working
in association with the United Nations and contributing towards these UN initiatives by
allocating its technology in these fields (Karnani, 2014).
The addresses the sustainable development by taking appropriate measures which are
mentioned in its CSR reports. The British multinational company empowers women by
providing them training to bring about their socio-economic development. Vodafone is
encouraging use of renewable energy sources like solar power in countries like Australia. This is
evident from the fact that the company has installed solar panels to generate solar energy and cut
down greenhouse gas emissions (Gherardi, Guthrie & Farneti, 2014).
The social development goals of Coca Cola as revealed by the sustainability report
encompasses agriculture, climate protection, community development, human and workplace
rights, packaging and recycling, climate change management, restoring water reserves and
empowerment of women (ccamatil.com, 2018). The company though presented serious issues
by creating the issues like exploitation of water resources and indirectly child labour, it has also
addressed many of these issues in its SDG report.
Coca Cola is addressing these social issues explicitly as a part of corporate social
responsibility. The company is emphasising sustainable sourcing of raw materials for its
products like tea to bring about economic development of farmers. This SDG activity of Coca

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Cola encompasses several countries like India and China. The American multinational beverage
giant is training women using its CSR arm, the Coca Cola Foundation which explicitly shows its
effort to encourage gender equality and women empowerment. The company is also training
women and encouraging their entrepreneurial skills (environment.gov.au, 2018). This analysis
shows that Coca Cola is implementing its SDGs explicitly.
4. Social accounting principles:
Gray et al (1997) mention the following eight key principles of social accounting which
the two companies follow:
4.1 Inclusivity:
Inclusivity refers to the social accounting of refers to the communication between the
companies and their stakeholders. The stakeholders include customers, investors, the government
bodies, international bodies, suppliers and the society at large. The two companies namely,
Vodafone and Coca Cola are inclusive which is evident by their adoption of their SDGs. As far
as Vodafone is concerned, the company is encouraging its customers to use ebills instead of
paper bills. Coca Cola is encouraging sustainable agriculture and women empowerment. This
shows that both the companies are following the inclusivity principles of social accounting.
4.2. Comparability:
The principle of comparability refers to the system of comparing between the two
companies on the grounds of SDGs. The two companies disclose their sustainability reports in
public on their respective official websites. This allows the stakeholders like investors and
customers compare between sustainable measures of these companies with other companies

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especially their competitors. This allows them to take better decisions regarding important areas
like investment.
4.3. Completeness:
The completeness principles of social accounting refers to presenting both negative and
positive aspects of sustainability practices of business organisations. The two companies
Vodafone and Coca Cola reveal not only their successes but also their failures. They clearly
pointed out out areas where they have not succeeded in gaining significant success rates. This
shows that the two companies confirm to the principle of completeness.
4.4 Evolution:
Evolution refers to the changes which the organisations bring in order to comply with the
requirements of the stakeholders. The adoption of flat organisational structure is a perfect of
evolution.
4.5. Management policies and systems:
The multinational companies have their sustainability policies which are parts of their
core policies. The sustainability policies of them today are governed by top CSR officials which
ensure that their social gaols are achieved.
4.6. Disclosure:
The business organisations under this principle disclose their business results on public
platforms like on their official websites and websites of the stock exchanges they are listed on. It
is evident that both the companies Vodafone and Coke publish their results on these platforms.
This shows that they confirm to the system, of disclosure.

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4.7. External verification:
The companies undergo audit and verification by external identities under this principle
of external verification. The two companies comply with the system.
4.8. Continual improvement:
The companies keep on taking measures to improve their operations under this principle.
The two companies Coke and Vodafone use innovation to improve their products and achieve
higher limits of customer’s satisfaction.
5. Values of the companies:
An analysis of the social reports of Vodafone and Coca Cola shows reflection of their
values to a large extent. The companies have successfully contributed towards managing climatic
changes and bringing about development of social issues (Morgan et al., 2015). For example,
Vodafone has adopted women empowerment as a part of its human resource policy. The
company encourages women employees to take up responsibilities and promote them to higher
posts. The presence of Iris Meijer and Kerry Philip in directorial positions explicitly proves that
the company implements its SDGs towards gender equality (vodafone.com, 2018). Vodafone is
encouraging customers to use online bill payments and sends ebills to its customers. These
efforts of Vodafone have brought down the felling of large number of trees which are felled to
make paper bills. The company being a leading international players is also encouraging other
mobile companies to opt for ebills instead of paper bills. Thus, the efforts of Vodafone in true
sense is reflecting the values of the company.
Coca Cola in the same way is training women to grow crops usisng sustainable methods
and earn their own living. This shows that the company is working towards empowering women.

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Coca Cola is encouraging and support rain water harvesting and water recycling plants in
markets like Africa (Karnani, 2014). Coca Cola is promoting purchasing of Fair Trade products.
These efforts of the company are also bringing about economic development among the local
communities. The company is encouraging its customers to recycle the packages in order to
reduce wastage of resources and further damage of environment. The company sells a large
portion of its products in glass bottles which can be recycled. This analysis clearly shows that
Coca Cola addresses its SDGs to a large extent.
6. Conclusion (Group discussion):
We formed a group of four members and studied the SDGs of the Vodafone and Coke
and presented our findings. The social efforts by Vodafone and Coca Cola truly reflect their
respective mission and vision. Although, these two companies create serious issues due to their
nature of operations, they are also taking up projects to minimise the harm they cause while
operation. It can be pointed out in another perspective that these two global giants must impose
their social goals on their suppliers and channels as well. I can point out that the two companies
cannot tortally prevent the issues by they are the outcomes of their normal business operations.
For example, Vodafone cannot function without towers which exchange data using radioactive
waves. similarly, Coca Cola requires huge water reserves to make enough product volume to
serve its global consumer base. However, these two companies have taken sufficient steps to
minimise their harmful effects. This would attribute higher level of their SDGs and strengthen
their goodwill. It can also be pointed out that considering the global positions of these companies
that they are not only meeting their sustainability goals and encouraging hundreds of other
companies to opt for sustainable operations.

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ccamatil.com. (2018). Retrieved from
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Case study: Coca-Cola India. Economics, Management and Financial Markets, 9(3), 11.

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