Coca-Cola's Latest Environmental Scam

By Amit Srivastava, India Resource Center. Posted December 6, 2008.

Last month, the Coca-Cola Co. extended its partnership with the World Wildlife Fund to conserve freshwater river basins around the world, except India. Announced originally with much fanfare in Beijing in July 2007 as part of their Olympics presence, the partnership with the WWF is yet another attempt to deflect attention away from the real crises that the company creates in India.

Coca-Cola regularly highlights the partnership when responding to the issues in India. While we welcome any initiatives on water conservation, it makes no difference to the communities in India that are reeling from water shortages -- courtesy Coca-Cola. Conserving freshwater river basins in China and Guatemala do absolutely nothing to impact the depleted groundwater in Kala Dera and other Coca-Cola bottling plants in India. Water issues are local issues.

The list of Coca-Cola's initiatives to mislead the public is long and is well documented by the India Resource Center. The company has repeatedly publicized the Golden Peacock Awards that it has received for "environmental excellence" in India, for example. What the company does not tell you is that Coca-Cola is the primary sponsor of the organization that gives out the awards.

Water Neutrality -- A Scam

The Coca-Cola Co. is now embarking on its latest initiative to mislead the public -- announcing its water neutrality goals. Becoming water neutral is impossible, and Coca-Cola is very well aware of this. But matters like that have never stopped the company from making preposterous claims, however misleading and troublesome they may be. What is surprising, however, is the complete lack of scrutiny that Coca-Cola is subject to by the corporate social responsibility community and the media.

Allowing Coca-Cola to get away with such a disingenuous plan significantly weakens the core aims of corporate social responsibility, as well as objective reporting, and makes CSR nothing more than an extension of public relations for companies. If the Coca-Cola Co. were serious about being a good corporate citizen, it is well advised to begin by meeting the key recommendations of the study it paid for, and shutting down its plant in Kala Dera would be a positive first step.

Coming up with misleading and absurd terms like water neutrality is not going to make the difficulties of the communities in India go away. We need genuine changes in the manner in which Coca-Cola does business in India, not public relations initiatives like water neutrality. 

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Amit Srivastava is the coordinator of India Resource Center, an international campaigning organization in San Francisco.

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