Coca-Cola: Business Responsibility, Sustainability, and Impact Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Coca-Cola's business responsibility, examining its product portfolio, resource utilization (water, oils, minerals, and human capital), and the company's detrimental impact on ecosystems at both local and global levels. The report highlights Coca-Cola's role in plastic pollution, particularly its excessive use of single-use plastic bottles, and its impact on marine life. It also details Coca-Cola's manufacturing, distribution, and sales strategies, focusing on its Canadian operations, including electronic bottle inspection and localized marketing efforts. Furthermore, the report explores Coca-Cola's corporate social responsibility and sustainability initiatives, including the triple bottom line approach, water conservation efforts, recycling programs, and the implementation of green innovation to improve its environmental performance. The report emphasizes the need for Coca-Cola to address the finite nature of earth's resources, improve its governance framework, and support recommendations from the World Health Organization regarding added sugar intake.

Running head: BUSINESS RESPONSIBILITY OF COCA COLA
Business Responsibility of Coca Cola
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Products of Coca Cola
Coca Cola is the name of a carbonated soft drink that was invented in 19th century by the
person called John Pemberton. The products of the popular brand are Diet Coke, Coca Cola
Zero Sugar, Caffeine Free Coca Cola, Coca Cola Cherry, Coca Cola Citra and Coca Cola Life
(Coca-cola.ca., 2018). Diet Coke refers to the sugar-free soft drink which is distributed with
the help of Coca Cola company. The Coca Cola Zero Sugar is a no-calorie cola that is
popular among the people in the present age. The Caffeine Free Diet Coke acted as a variant
of that of Diet Coke which was introduced in the year 1984. Coca Cola Cherry is a flavoured
version pertaining to Coca Cola which is available in various countries like Albania, China,
United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, France, Poland and South Africa. Coca Cola is the
name of a beverage whose design shows that of yellow along with green stripes. The drink
entered portfolio of that of Coca Cola company in the event of the brand being acquired at the
time of acquisition of Coca Cola of that of Parle groups soft drink. Coca Cola refers to a
lower-calorie version pertaining to Coca Cola that is made by making use of stevia along
with sugar as the sweeteners.
Resources
An important natural resource pertaining to Coca Cola company is water. Water acts as the
main ingredient in relation to all the products of Coca Cola. Coca Cola is instrumental in
collaborating with various companies, suppliers, governments and non-governmental
organization near the area of its operation. It has designed management program that helps in
improving efficiency pertaining to water use. The other natural resources that are used by
Coca Cola company are the oils for the plastic that is used for the packaging of the products
(Inews.co.uk., 2018). There are various kinds of minerals that are used for making glass
bottles and the aluminium for the cans. Human resources employed by Coca Cola are factory

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workers and the managers. In the event of labour unrest it can impair the ability of the
company to supply the finished products to the consumers. Capital sources are the cash flow
from that of operations and issuing of debt along with equity securities. Factory machineries
along with transportation also act as the capital resources pertaining to the company. The
factory machinery is used to mass produce bottles along with drink itself. Enterprise is
involved in managing and planning in relation to the factory inputs. The resources of Coca
Cola are also the entrepreneurs who possess the additional skills that helps in development of
the company.
Impact of Cola Cola on the ecosystems at local and the global level
Coca Cola has a detrimental effect on the planet as it is involved in selling more than that of
100 billion plastic bottle (throwaway) within the course of a single year. The Coca Cola
group sells around 3500 single use bottles that are environmentally damaging in each second.
Coca Cola uses the throwaway bottles that has a great amount of environmental impact. Coca
Cola had declared in the year 2010 that one-use bottle is not a favourable option for a
business (Hbr.org., 2018). Throwaway bottles are made use of only ones before they are
discarded. These bottles eventually go into ocean where it breaks down to form smaller
fragments. These fragments eventually poisons and chokes large number of the marine
animals. The policies of Coca Cola can be called flagrantly wasteful and they prove to be
scandalous for the environment. The company is going in the backward direction in terms of
using the throwaway plastic. The plastic bottles of single use being pumped out by the
company is proving to be devastating for the environment (Theglobeandmail.com., 2018).
Coca Cola refuses taking responsibility pertaining to its role in that of plastic pollution
disaster that the oceans are facing. It has been found that only 7 percent of that of the
throwaway bottles are made out of recycled plastic that has devastating impact on the

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environment. Large quantity of ‘virgin’ plastic is being made in each year that has negative
impact on the sea (Environmentalleader.com., 2018).
Manufacturing, distribution, sales strategy and human resources of Coca Cola Canada
Coca Cola indulges in electronic bottle inspection that helps it in the arena of manufacturing
by taking note of tiniest irregularity of the beverages. Coca Cola company sells the beverage
bases and syrup to bottling partners. Company manufactures and distributes final beverage to
that of the vending partners who afterwards sell products to customer. Bottling partners work
closely with customers by working with the restaurants, convenience store and the
amusement parks. Localized strategies are used by Coca Cola company in Canada and
partnerships are developed by the company that helps the company in growing popular in the
market of Canada. Point of sales of Coca Cola are the super markets, cafes, restaurants,
corner store and the night clubs. Coca Cola believes in the fact that capable people can help
in the building of good supply chain. Supply chain can be built with the help of diverse and
innovative thinking (Karnani, 2014). The company makes use of modelling techniques
pertaining to supply chain that can help in the optimising of that of finished product sourcing.
The company is involved in leveraging the supplier spending and sharing the best practices
that can improve the efficiency in relation to supply chain. The Coca Cola company focuses
on retention of the knowledgeable employees that helps it in maintaining top position within
the market.
Changes to Coca Cola
Corporate responsibility along with sustainability is integral to the culture of Coca Cola. The
business strategy of Coca Cola is built on the principle of sharing value in relation to the
various stakeholders. Triple bottom line is also called “ people, planet, profit” that can help in
measuring success of organisation on the basis of three parameters- economic, ecological and

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the social. Coca Cola wants to minimise the environmental impact and promote the health of
the people living in the community. Coca Cola should use water-sustainable operation that
can help in minimizing the aspect of water use. Coca Cola should have water-neutral impact
on that of local community along with environment. The plant team of Coca Cola should
focus on reducing ratio pertaining to water use and recycling of water that is used within the
operations (Melton, Damron & Vernon, 2017). Coca Cola should use water conservation
toolkit that can help in the identification of actions that can help in water conservation. Coca
Cola can reclaim the water loops with the help of water treatment system. The company can
better the triple bottom line by installation of osmotic water recovery system that can help in
reclaiming 11 million litre of the water in relation to production. Coca Cola can bring
changes to triple bottom line by replacing container rinser with that of ionized air rinser. The
lubrication system should be retrofitted that can help in discontinuing the aspect of water use.
Coca Cola should increase the recycled content in the plastic bottles that can help the
company in improving that of triple bottom line. Coca Cola should develop lighter fibreboard
in relation to the various products that can help it in saving around 124 metric ton of the
fibreboard on that of annual basis. Cola Cola should take recourse to recyclable packaging
and the packaging made out of plant-based waste material can ensure sustainability of
company in the Canadian market. Coca Cola should implement recycling initiative that can
help in capturing broken product packaging (Chhabra, 2016). Investments should be made by
Coca Cola that can help it in achieving green innovation in relation to the recycling
technologies.
Coca Cola should take recourse to proprietary packaging data base that can help in
benchmarking the performance of Coca Cola Canada against that of global system of Coca
Cola. Coca Cola should respect the aspect of finite nature of the earth’s resources and make
use of innovative business practice that can help in improving triple bottom line in relation to

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Coca Cola. Coca Cola should recognise significance pertaining to governance framework that
can help in reducing risk across that of the value chain of Coca Cola Canada. Coca Cola
Canada should support the recommendations of the World Health Organization (W.H.O)
regarding limiting of intake of that of added sugar that can be useful for the people living in
Canada.

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References
Chhabra, G. K. (2016). Case study of Coca Cola's ekocool solar Cooler; A frugal innovation
serving as a source of sustainable competitive advantage in Rural markets of Northern
India. International Journal of Marketing and Technology, 6(7), 119-129.
Coca-cola.ca. (2018). Coca-Cola Journey Homepage. Retrieved from https://www.coca-
cola.ca/
Environmentalleader.com. (2018). Coca-Cola: A Case Study In Sustainability -
Environmental Leader. Retrieved from
https://www.environmentalleader.com/2011/08/coca-cola-a-case-study-in-
sustainability/
Hbr.org. (2018). The CEO of Coca-Cola on Using the Company’s Scale for Good. Retrieved
from https://hbr.org/2014/05/the-ceo-of-coca-cola-on-using-the-companys-scale-for-
good
Inews.co.uk. (2018). Revealed: Coca-Cola sells 3,500 environmentally damaging plastic
bottles every second. Retrieved from https://inews.co.uk/news/environment/always-
coca-cola-fizzy-drinks-giants-shocking-impact-oceans/
Karnani, A. (2014). Corporate social responsibility does not avert the tragedy of the
commons. Case study: Coca-Cola India. Economics, Management and Financial
Markets, 9(3), 11.
Melton, A., Damron, T., & Vernon, J. (2017). A Marketing Strategy from Corporate Social
Responsibility: Lessons from Unilever and Coca-Cola Enterprises (pp. 249-252).

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Theglobeandmail.com. (2018). Beyond the bottle: Coke trumpets its green initiatives.
Retrieved from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-
news/marketing/beyond-the-bottle-coke-trumpets-its-green-initiatives/article569182/