Coke's Mixed Message: Opposing Environmental Sustainability and Advertising Social Responsibility

Posted by Kristin Urquiza, Corporate Accountability International at 2:00 PM on April 23, 2009.

This Earth Day, Coke used its annual shareholders' meeting to spin the corporation's image green. But the gathering at the Gwinnett Center served more to expose the gulf between Coke's rhetoric and its action. In the last year, Coke split its time -- opposing progress on sustainability, on the one hand, and advertising its social responsibility on the other.

Well, that has left a lot of people asking, 'what is the real thing, really?' Corporate Accountability International, delivered 6,000 comments calling on Coke to dispense with its high-priced PR and answer the popular demand that it label the source of its Dasani bottled water, provide better information on its quality, and stop threatening local control of water when operating bottling plants. Following the meeting, we were able to speak directly with new Coke CEO Muhtar Kent and members of the board to share our concerns about the corporation's practices. The interaction left room for some cautious optimism that perhaps Coke's new leadership will be more responsive to public demands.

The concerns that were shared are as follows:

Coke's opposition to improved water quality reporting. For the second year in a row, Coke executives challenged a shareholder resolution with the SEC on technical grounds that would have encouraged the corporation to provide more complete and timely information to consumers on the quality and testing of its Dasani bottled water and other Coke brands.

Coke's opposition to city efforts that support public water. When the U.S. Conference of Mayors proposed a
resolution to cut city bottled water budgets to reduce waste and promote tap water, Coke and its trade group, the American Beverage Association, aggressively lobbied against the resolution.

Coke's opposition to bottled water source labeling. Coke continues to refuse to follow the lead of Pepsi's Aquafina in labeling the source of Dasani. In 2007, Pepsi agreed to print "public water source" on Aquafina labels. Dasani also comes from the same source as tap.

Bottling despite drought. When a report funded by Coke suggested the corporation stop bottling in water parched areas in India, Coke's India Division told a reporter the answer was, "not to stop bottling." The pumps kept running, and this same pattern has born out even in Georgia, where city rationing during drought conditions didn't preclude Coke from continuing to churn out its products, including bottled tap water, at full-tilt.

Our allies at Polaris Institute had this to say in a press release, "shareholders have a right to know that their company is continuing to cover up its damaging practices with glossy corporate social responsibility reports. Claiming water neutrality and highlighting sustainable initiatives does not change the negative and very real impacts Coca-Cola has on communities around the world." Much of Coke's green PR centers on a murky concept called "water neutrality" which may turn out to be yet another Madoffian ponzi scheme allowing Coke to rob Peter to pay Paul, as it were: running one community dry to hydrate another.

And given Coke's track record, the scheme has critics asking, "should we really be entrusting the distribution of water resources to private corporations?" Coke has also sought praise for building a recycling plant to manage a small fraction of its waste stream, while at the same time opposing bottle recycling bills across the country.

Each year, billions of pounds of plastic waste from Coke products wind up in landfills, incinerators, or as roadside litter. Daniel Stockton, a student organizer from University of Georgia had this to say to Coke executives at the meeting, "people don't get kudos for picking up after themselves, nor should an enormously profitable global corporation -- it's just the right thing to do. Since as young people we are inheriting what this corporation leaves behind, we're just asking Coke to do 'the real thing' and respond directly to our concerns and stop deflecting."

Kristin Urquiza is the Think Outside the Bottle Campaign Director.