2012/2013 GRI Report
Table of Contents

Introduction

About This Report

About The Coca-Cola Company

The Coca-Cola System

Coca-Cola at a Glance

2020 Vision

Coca-Cola System and Value Chain

Letter from the Chairman and CEO

2020 Sustainability Commitments

Me/We/World Performance Highlights

Me

Well-Being

Marketing Responsibly

We

Women’s Economic Empowerment

Charitable Giving

Human and Workplace Rights

Access to Critical Medicines

Disaster Relief

World

Water Stewardship

Sustainable Packaging

Climate Protection

Sustainable Agriculture

In Our Reporting

Global Business Principles

Our Governance and Ethics

Stakeholder Engagement

Report Parameters

Independent Assurance

GRI Content Index

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11

12

15

16

24

25

26

31

34

44

46

48

49

59

64

70

74

75

76

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81

83

85

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The Coca-Cola Company GRI Report > Intro 3

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About This Report: 

Toward Better 

Transparency in 

Reporting

We continue our work toward increasing 

transparency in sustainability reporting. 

In this report, where we can, we report 

on the Coca-Cola system, not just 

The Coca-Cola Company. We believe this 

provides a broader view about the impacts of 

our business and value chain. Our desire to 

concentrate our efforts on our most significant 

value chain impacts is also reflected in our new 

2020 goals for more sustainable management 

of water, energy, and packaging use, as 

well as sustainable sourcing of agricultural 

ingredients. These goals apply to the 

Coca-Cola system, rather than solely the 

Company. In this report, we continue to report 

progress against our 2015 goals in addition to 

our new 2020 commitments. Going forward, 

we will focus on our performance against our 

2020 goals.

We are also working toward expanding 

our sustainability reporting on topics that 

are most important to our Company and 

our stakeholders. We include an extensive 

discussion of potential risks and challenges 

to our business beginning on page 11 of our 

2012 Annual Report on Form 10-K and other 

filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange 

Commission (SEC). In this report, we have 

increased our discussion of stakeholder 

engagement, to be more transparent on the 

numerous stakeholder engagement sessions 

we hold across the globe every year regarding 

sustainability and other issues impacting our 

business. This engagement plays an important 

role in our efforts to further enhance our 

sustainability reporting.

We strive to focus our reporting and our efforts 

on our most material issues, as can be seen 

in our 2020 goals. However, we recognize that 

the next step in improving our reporting on 

material sustainability topics is to conduct and 

provide expanded disclosure on a more formal 

materiality assessment in conformance with 

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4.

Additionally, we are working toward 

continuously improving our data and data 

collection processes for our non-financial 

performance indicators. For the first time 

this year, we engaged our independent 

accountants, Ernst & Young LLP, a registered 

public accounting firm, to provide external 

review-level assurance on the following 

sustainability indicators for the 2012 reporting 

year: water use ratio, PlantBottleTM packaging, 

lost time incident rate and front-of-pack 

labeling. We expect to expand assurance over 

time.

Our sustainability report is one way we 

communicate progress against our 

sustainability goals and key performance 

indicators. We also encourage you to read our 

Annual Report and visit Coca-Cola Journey to 

learn more about our sustainability efforts. 

For information on the scope of this report, 

please see the Report Parameters section.

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About 

The Coca-Cola 

Company

We are 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 16 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 

more than 1.8 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 employees.

The

Coca-Cola 

System

To understand our sustainability strategies and 

programs, it helps to understand our system. 

We are a global business that operates on a 

local scale in every community where we do 

business. We are able to create global reach 

with local focus because of the strength of 

the Coca-Cola system, which comprises our 

Company and our more than 250 bottling 

partners worldwide.

The Coca-Cola system is not a single entity 

from a legal or managerial perspective, and 

the Company does not own or control most of 

our bottling partners.

While many view our Company as simply 

“Coca-Cola,” our system operates through 

multiple local channels. Our Company 

sources ingredients; manufactures and sells 

concentrates, beverage bases and syrups to 

bottling operations; owns the brands; and is 

responsible for consumer brand marketing 

initiatives. Our bottling partners manufacture, 

package, merchandise and distribute the final 

branded beverages to our customers and 

vending partners, who then sell our products 

to consumers.

All bottling partners work closely with 

customers—grocery stores, restaurants, street 

vendors, convenience stores, movie theaters 

and amusement parks, among many others—

to execute localized strategies developed in 

partnership with our Company. Customers 

then sell our products to consumers at a rate 

of more than 1.8 billion servings a day. Learn 

more about this unique relationship.

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~250

bottling

partners

900

plants

WORLDWIDE

nearly

and

retail customer 

outlets

23MM+ CORNER

GROCERY

$30B+

with global 

bottling partners 

over the next 

five years

investing

371MM

U.S. and Canada statistic, 2012

5MM

prevented recovered

metric tons 

of CO2

emissions

across global 

manufacturing 

operations 

since 2004

pounds of 

aluminum 

and PET 

plastic 

beverage 

containers

40+

SUSTAINABLE

AGRICULTURE

PROJECTS

support

IN 25+

COUNTRIES

280+

PHYSICAL 

ACTIVITY

OR NUTRITION

PROGRAMS

support

IN 115+

COUNTRIES

COCA-COLA AT A GLANCE

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is the world’s largest 

beverage company, refreshing consumers with more than 

500 sparkling and still brands. Our Company and bottling 

partners are dedicated to our 2020 Vision, a roadmap for 

doubling system revenues this decade, focused on five key 

areas—profit, people, portfolio, partners and planet.

PlantBottleTM 

packages 

distributed

$48B

net

operating

revenues

51 years

of consecutive

annual 

dividend

increases

(2012, as reported)

$9B

net

income

(2012, as reported)

as of 12/31/2012

$9.1B

returned to

shareowners in

dividends and 

share repurchases in 2012

$162B

market

capitalization

3,500+

PRODUCTS

WORLDWIDE

PROFIT

PEOPLE

PORTFOLIO

PARTNERS

PLANET

sparkling beverages

ready-to-drink juice 

and juice drinks

ready-to-drink coffee

15B+

18OF OUR

TOP

20 BRANDS

have a low- or 

no-calorie alternative 

or are low- or 

no-calorie

All information as of 12/31/12 unless otherwise noted. For more information visit: www.coca-colacompany.com

21% NORTH

AMERICA

29% LATIN

AMERICA

EUROPE 14%

PACIFIC 18%

18% EURASIA &

AFRICA

worldwide

#1

Our portfolio includes 16 billion-dollar brands:

COMMUNITY 

WATER PARTNERSHIP 

PROJECTS

through468

1.8MM+

COUNTRIES

benefiting

PEOPLE

in100+

~52%

(81.1B LITERS)

of the water 

used in our 

finished 

beverages 

replenished 

in 2012

as of March 2013

Worldwide Unit Case Volume Geographic Mix (2012)

Ranked by Interbrand 

as the World’s Most 

Valuable Brand, 

with 2012 value of 

$77.8B

#1 brand page

on Facebook with 

71MM+ likes

Grew 3% globally in 2012 – the 

equivalent of adding another 

Germany or two Russias of 

brand Coca-Cola volume to 

our business 

Our Company’s 

flagship product 

has been proudly 

served since 

MAY 8

1886

as of August 2013

We’re honored. We’re innovative. We’re diverse. We’re creative.

#4 Most

Admired

Company

Top 20 

Most Innovative

Companies

Top 50 

Most Diverse

Companies

Creative 

Marketer

of the Year

2013 2013 2013 2013 

700K+

system associates

worldwide

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2020 VISION

We see a world filled with opportunities that range from doubling our system 

revenues by 2020, to developing new beverage products that meet consumers’ 

evolving preferences and needs, to creating social value and making a positive 

difference in the communities in which we operate. Our 2020 Vision is the roadmap 

for converting these long-term aspirations into reality. It provides business goals that 

outline what we need to accomplish together with our global bottling partners, 

customers and consumers in order to achieve sustainable, measurable growth.

Our 2020 Vision goals help guide us to achieve 

success throughout the Coca-Cola system:

PEOPLE

Be a great place to work.

PARTNERS

Be the most preferred and trusted beverage partner.

PROFIT

More than double system revenues while increasing system margins.

PORTFOLIO

More than double our servings to over 3 billion a day and be No. 1 in the 

nonalcoholic ready-to-drink beverage business in every market and 

every category that is of value to us.

PLANET

Be a global leader in working to achieve more sustainable water use, 

packaging, energy and climate protection.

PRODUCTIVITY

Manage people, time and money for greatest effectiveness.
Coca-Cola System & 

Value Chain

As a global system with operations in more than 200 countries and 

territories, we depend on demand from consumers and strong 

partnerships with suppliers, distributors, retailers and communities across 

our value chain to help us grow our business sustainably.

innovative

distribution

partnerships

with retailers

manufacturing

efficiencies

+

packaging

technology

recycling +

recovery

water

stewardship

responsibly

sourced

ingredients

sustainable

agriculture

8
Letter from the 

Chairman and CEO

Dear friends, 

Sustainability is at the heart of the Coca-Cola 

story. Together with our bottling partners, 

we’ve long worked to build stronger, healthier, 

more active communities and advance 

environmental conservation. Why? Because 

we know our business can only be as healthy, 

vibrant and resilient as the communities we 

proudly serve. 

For decades, our Company—like many 

others—has worked to be part of society’s 

solutions. Coca-Cola, for example, was 

promoting physical activity in the 1930s, varied 

size and packaging choices in the 1950s and 

anti-litter campaigns in the 1960s. And our first 

diet cola, TaB, debuted 50 years ago.

Today, we’re advancing 21st century solutions 

by partnering across the golden triangle of 

business, government and civil society. We feel 

a special accountability—as a business that 

operates on a global scale—to help improve 

the well-being of our communities while 

doing what we can to responsibly steward the 

natural resources of the planet we all share.

For us, this is a journey. We’re making progress 

as we create social value and strive to operate 

in ever more sustainable ways. After all, as 

we like to think about it, we’re not building 

The Coca-Cola Company so much for the 

next quarter, but the next century. 

Taking the long view has served us well. We 

are calling attention to and affecting positive 

change on global issues that have a significant 

impact on building a more sustainable and 

resilient value chain – not only for our Company, 

but also the communities we proudly serve. 

We at The Coca-Cola Company firmly believe 

there are no issues that will more shape 

or define the 21st century than the global 

empowerment of women; the management 

of the world’s precious water resources; 

and the well-being of the world’s growing 

population. Let me share with you our progress 

on each of these priorities:

Women: We continue advancing our 

5by20 initiatives to enable the economic 

empowerment of 5 million women 

entrepreneurs across our global value chain by 

2020. From fruit farmers and artisans to microdistribution center owners, we are helping 

women entrepreneurs overcome the barriers 

they face to business success by providing 

them with professional training, support 

networks and access to finance. In just three 

years, our 5by20 programs enabled 300,000 

women in more than 12 countries—more than 

double the number of participants in 2011. 

Water: At Coca-Cola, we understand that 

water is absolutely vital to our business. As 

such, we’ve set a goal to replenish 100 percent 

of the water used to make our beverages by 

2020. To date, about 52 percent of our global 

product volume is estimated to be replenished 

through 468 community water projects around 

the world. 

These projects take many forms, from 

October 31 9:00am

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rainwater harvesting and drip irrigation to 

safe water access and sanitation. Our safe 

water efforts also include our partnership with 

DEKA R&D to place between 1,500 and 2,000 

EKOCENTERs (a kiosk designed to improve the 

well-being of communities) or Slingshot water 

purification systems in 20 countries by the end 

of 2015. In addition, we’re working to improve 

our water efficiency, which we define as the 

amount of water we use per liter of product, by 

25 percent through operational advancements 

across our system. This goal builds on the 21.4 

percent improvement we’ve already made 

between 2004 and 2012.

Well-being: Our business continues to be built 

on a heritage of uncompromising quality—

the promise that all our beverages are safe, 

refreshing and delicious. Today across 200-

plus countries and territories, we offer the 

choice of more than 500 brands and 3,500 

beverages, with the health and well-being of 

our consumers playing a large and growing 

role in the development of our brands. 

While some of our beverages are designed 

for local tastes, our well-being commitments 

are universal. As we announced on May 

8, 2013, our teams are working to provide 

low- and no-calorie beverage options in 

every market; provide transparent nutrition 

information featuring calories on the front of 

all our packages; market all our beverages 

responsibly; and help get people moving by 

supporting active, healthy living programs in 

every country where we do business.

As we work to double the overall size of our 

business over the course of this decade, we 

are further embedding sustainability with our 

2020 Vision for growth. In this report—our 

most comprehensive to date, demonstrating 

our commitment to increased transparency—

we present our leadership priorities of women, 

water and well-being, which are rooted 

in an expanded set of sustainability goals 

announced earlier this year. These priorities are 

integral to our sustainability framework, which 

we call “Me, We, World”—our shared vision 

for how we can work together to create more 

value for our consumers and communities. 

We are collaborating across the golden triangle 

with a variety of extraordinary organizations 

to advance our progress. The cumulative 

expertise of our partners both inspires and 

enables us to do far more than we could 

alone. As we strive to improve each and every 

community we proudly serve, we continue to 

support the United Nations Global Compact. 

Thank you for your interest in the efforts of 

The Coca-Cola Company and our valued 

bottling partners. We appreciate you taking 

the time to review this report, and invite you 

to share your thoughts with us. Together, I’m 

convinced that we will continue to refresh 

the world, inspire moments of optimism and 

happiness, create value and make a positive 

difference.

Very best regards, 

Muhtar Kent 

Chairman of the Board and 

Chief Executive Officer

The Coca-Cola Company

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Our Sustainability framework – what we call 

“Me, We, World” – is our shared vision for how we can 

work together to create social value and make a positive 

difference for the consumers and communities we serve.

Well-Being

2020 Sustainability Commitments

me

we

world

Responsible

Marketing

Women

Water

Climate

Protection

Packaging

Charitable

Contributions

Sustainable

Agriculture

Human &

Workplace Rights

Offer low- or 

no-calorie 

beverage options 

in every market

Enable the economic 

empowerment of 5 

million women 

entrepreneurs across 

our value chain by 2020

Give back at least 1% 

of our operating 

income annually

Comply with Human 

and Workplace Rights 

standards

Help get people 

moving by supporting 

physical activity 

programs in every 

country where we do 

business

Provide transparent 

nutrition information, 

featuring calories on 

the front of all of our 

packages

Market responsibly, 

including no 

advertising to children 

under 12 anywhere 

in the world

Replenish 100% of 

water used in our 

finished products

Improve water 

efficiency 25% 

(compared to a 2010 

baseline)

Reduce the carbon 

footprint of the drink in 

your hand 25% 

(through our full 

end-to-end value chain)

Sustainably source 

key agriculture 

ingredients

Reach a 75% recovery 

rate for the number of 

bottles and cans 

equivalent to what we 

introduce in developed 

markets

Use PlantBottleTM

packaging for all 

PET plastic bottles 

(up to 30% plant 

material)

Enhancing personal well-being

Building stronger communities

Protecting the environment
Me/We/World

Performance 

Highlights by Year

me

Well-Being 2012 2011 2010 2009

Number of new beverage products introduced 500+ 500+ 600+ 600+

Number of low- and no-calorie beverage products launched 100+ 100+ 150+ 180+

Number of low- and no-calorie beverage products in total 

global portfolio and percent of total global beverage product 

portfolio

800+; 23% 800+; 23% 800+; 23% 800+; 24%

Percent of global sparkling volume from low- and no-calorie 

beverages 

14% 13% 14% 15%

Number of physical activity and nutrition education programs 

sponsored by the Coca-Cola system and number of countries 

where programs are present 

290+ programs; 

118 countries 

280+; 115+ ~150; ~100 ~150; ~100

Company Global Product Quality Index rating (out of 100)* 95 95 95 94

we

Women's Economic Empowerment 2012 2011 2010 2009

Women Enabled Cumulative (as per Coca-Cola's definition) nearly 300,000 131,000 program 

launched

N/A

Charitable Contributions 2012 2011 2010 2009

Total Company economic impact, inclusive of global 

salaries and benefits, shareowner dividends, local capital 

expenditures, goods purchased and income taxes

$38.0B $36.5B $26.6B $23.4B

Charitable contributions and equivalent percent of operating 

income

$102MM; 0.9% $124MM; 1.2% $101MM; 1.2% $88MM; 1.1%

Contribution by Category

Active Healthy Living $16MM $9MM $7MM $4MM

Environment - Water, Community, Recycling & Other $24MM $25MM $26MM $13MM

Education $24MM $23MM $24MM $23MM

Other Wellness Initiatives $8MM $8MM $5MM $4MM

Local Community Initiatives** $25MM $48MM $26MM $32MM

In-Kind $5MM $11MM $13MM $12MM

Human and Workplace Rights 2012 2011 2010 2009

System Workplace Rights Performance (global goal 80%) 81% 73% 63% 44%

Bottling partner and supplier compliance with Company 

Supplier Guiding Principles (90% target by 2015)

80% N/A N/A N/A

Number of Workplace Rights Policy assessments 71 74 88 107

Workplace Rights Policy compliance of Company-owned and 

-managed facilities

98% 98% 91% 90%

Number of Company-owned facility, bottling partner and 

supplier audits performed

2,030 2,241 2,118 1,971

Total Company spend with minority- and women-owned 

business enterprises

$829MM $766MM $622MM $459MM

Percent of employee base by gender - U.S. only 

(male; female)

82% male; 

18% female1

82%; 18%1 71%; 29%1 50%; 50%1

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Human and Workplace Rights 2012 2011 2010 2009

Percent of employee base by race/ethnicity - U.S. only

African American 20% 20.0% 13.0% 23.0%

Asian 3% 1.0% 3.0% 5.0%

Caucasian 57% 58.0% 70.0% 64.0%

Hispanic 18% 18.0% 10.0% 7.0%

Other Ethnic Multicultural 2% 3.0% 4.0% 1.0%

Percentage of total elected Company officers 

Men 61% 69% 64% 77%

Women 39% 31% 36% 23%

Minorities 26% 19% 24% 22%

Total employees 150,9001 146,2001 139,6001 92,8001

Females on Board of Directors2 2 of 17 2 of 17 2 of 15 3 of 14

Ethnically diverse members of the Board of Directors3 3 of 17 3 of 17 3 of 15 3 of 14

Board of Directors members over age 40 100% 100% 100% 100%

Females in Senior Roles 30% 28% 27% 26%

Females in Immediate Pipeline Level Roles 34% 34% 32% 31%

Females in Professional Pipeline Roles 40% 46% 45% 45%

Females Participating in Key Leadership Programs 44% N/A N/A N/A

Company associate and casual contractor Lost-Time Incident 

Rate (LTIR) per 200,000 work hours***

2.3 LTIR 2.2 LTIR 4.1 LTIR 1.9 LTIR

world

Water 2012 2011 2010 2009

Water use ratio (efficiency), defined as liters of water used per 

liter of product produced by the Coca-Cola system

2.12 2.16 2.26 2.36

Total liters of water used by the Coca-Cola system 303B 293B 294B 300B

Bottling plants completing source vulnerability assessments 788 of the 863 

bottling plants in our 

system

612 of the 863 

bottling plants in our 

system

370 of 859 bottling 

plants in our 

system

N/A

Source water protection (SWP) 587 of 863 bottling 

plants have begun 

implementation

582 of 863 

bottling plants had 

completed SWP 

plans

269 of 859 

bottling plants had 

completed SWP 

plans

N/A

Percent of Coca-Cola system plants in compliance with 

internal wastewater treatment standards (which meet and 

often exceed applicable laws) 

98% (160B liters 

systemwide)

96% 93% 89%

Number of community water partnerships supported by 

the Coca-Cola system and number of countries where 

projects exist

468; 100+ 382; 94 323; 86 250; 70

Estimated percent of water replenished by the Coca-Cola 

system based on the total water used in our finished 

beverages

52% (~81.1B 

liters of water 

replenished)

35% 33% 22%

Climate Protection 2012 2011 2010 2009

Direct greenhouse gas emissions for the Coca-Cola system 1.85 MMt CO2

e 1.84 MMt CO2e 1.91 MMt CO2e 1.91 MMt CO2e

Indirect greenhouse gas emissions from electricity purchased 

and consumed (without energy trading) by the Coca-Cola 

system 

3.63 MMt CO2e 3.48 MMt CO2e 3.28 MMt CO2e 3.42 MMt CO2e

Total greenhouse gas emissions for the Coca-Cola system 

(2004 baseline of 4.78MMt CO2

e)

5.48 MMt CO2

e 5.32 MMt CO2e 5.19 MMt CO2e 5.33 MMt CO2e

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Climate Protection 2012 2011 2010 2009

Emissions ratio (gram CO2

/L) 37.81 g CO2/L 38.64 g CO2/L 39.35 g CO2/L 41.66 g CO2/L

Emissions intensity - the ratio of emissions to sales volume Improved nearly 

2% of 2011, 

improved 19% 

since 2004

N/A N/A N/A

Fleet CO2 Emissions 4.60 MMt 4.03 MMt 4.47 MMt 7.18 MMt

Total megajoules of energy used by the Coca-Cola system 

(baseline 2004 - 54.4 billion megajoules)

62.4B 59.7B 58.9B 57.9B

Energy use ratio (efficiency), defined as megajoules of energy 

used per liter of product produced by the Coca-Cola system 

0.43 0.44 0.45 0.46

Total electricity purchased by the Coca-Cola system, 

measured in megawatt hours (MWh)

7,218,470 MWh 6,760,037 MWh 6,596,462 MWh 6,425,507 MWh

Number of hydrofluorocarbon-free refrigerated coolers and 

vending machines placed in markets each year

243,688 296,556 145,671 73,110

Total waste ratio (grams manufacturing waste/liters product) 9.69 9.52 9.55 10.22

Total waste diversion (% manuf. waste diverted from landfill) 85% 86% 85% 82%

Sustainable Packaging 2012 2011 2010 2009

Estimated percentage of bottles and cans equivalent to what 

we introduce into the marketplace that was recovered by 

our system or through our support of third-party recovery 

programs

39% 37% 36% 36%

Number of bottles using PlantBottleTM (bPET) technology/

packaging globally

Distributed more 

than 14B PlantBottle 

packages in 24 

countries since the 

beginning of the 

program. Distributed 

approximately 

7B PlantBottle 

packages in 

calendar year 2012.

Footnotes:

*As measured through TCCC’s global quality performance monitoring program.

** Community improvement, arts and culture, youth development, economic empowerment, etc.

*** TCCC and TCCC-owned or -controlled operations.

 

1 Significant change in data from 2009 to 2012 is primarily due to the impact of our acquisition of Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc.’s North 

American business.

2 As of mid-2013, there are 4 females out of 17 members on the Board of Directors. 3 As of mid-2013, there are 5 ethnically diverse members out of 17 on the Board of Directors. 

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Well-Being

Since the first Coca-Cola®

was served in 1886, 

our consumers’ wellbeing has been an integral 

part of our values and vision 

to provide safe, delicious 

and refreshing beverages to 

people from all walks of life.

Today, 127 years later, our consumers’ 

well-being continues to drive our values 

and vision and it is a responsibility we 

take seriously. Because in communities 

large and small, we work to inspire 

positive opportunities for all of our 

consumers. From the beverages we offer 

to how we label and market them to local 

physical activity and nutrition programs 

we support, our consumers’ well-being is 

interwoven into the fabric of our Company, 

both as a responsible corporate citizen 

and as a community partner.

Our beverages

Across more than 200 countries 

worldwide, we proudly serve more 

than 3,500 beverages that fit every 

lifestyle. As the world’s largest provider 

of sparkling beverages, ready-to-drink 

(RTD) juices and juice drinks, and RTD 

coffee, we strive to meet the highest of 

standards in both product safety and 

product quality. From rigorous product 

safety and quality standards to ensuring 

ingredient safety and quality in each 

of our products to driving innovation 

that provides new beverage options to 

meet consumers’ evolving needs and 

preferences, we work every day to share 

safe and refreshing beverages with 

the world. 

Safety and quality in every serving

Our commitment to consumer wellbeing begins with our commitment to 

product safety and quality. Across the 

Coca-Cola bottling system, we take 

great care to develop systems to help 

ensure that every one of our beverages 

meets the highest standards for safety 

and quality.

We work to ensure consistent safety 

and quality through strong governance 

and through compliance with applicable 

regulations and standards. We stay 

current with new regulations, industry 

best practices and marketplace 

conditions, and engage with standardsetting and industry organizations. 

Additionally, we manufacture and 

distribute our products according to strict 

policies, requirements and specifications 

set forth in an integrated quality 

management program that continually 

measures all operations systemwide 

against the same stringent standards. 

Our quality management system also 

identifies and mitigates risks and drives 

improvement. 

At every step of production, we 

stringently test our beverages in modern 

laboratories, where we measure quality 

attributes of ingredients as well as 

samples collected from the marketplace. 

We consistently reassess the relevance 

of our requirements and standards and 

continually work to improve and refine 

them across our entire supply chain.

Measuring and meeting safety and 

quality standards

As of 2013, all audits measuring 

compliance with our product safety and 

quality standards are “unannounced,” 

meaning personnel at our facilities 

are unaware when auditors will visit. 

This enhancement will help ensure 

that manufacturing facilities across 

our system are in compliance with our 

standards and “audit-ready” at all times. 

In 2012, our internal auditors conducted 

safety and quality audits at 541 of our 

system’s more than 800 manufacturing 

facilities worldwide. 

Helping suppliers meet safety and 

quality standards across our system

In 2012 and 2013 we worked more 

closely with certain suppliers to ensure 

that they meet our safety and quality 

standards. We focused our attention 

on suppliers of certain agricultural 

products that we use as ingredients, 

including coffee, tea and dairy. By first 

evaluating all suppliers according to a 

10-point risk model, we determined how 

frequently and to what extent to audit 

individual suppliers. 

To further ensure quality among our 

suppliers, we require them to be 

certified as meeting Global Food Safety 

Initiative (GFSI) standards. In 2012, 81 

percent of our ingredient suppliers were 

certified according to GFSI standards, 

and 71 percent of our packaging 

suppliers were certified. We are working 

to help the remainder of our suppliers 

achieve certification by the end of 2013.

Safety and quality by design

In 2012, dozens of product safety 

and quality experts from across our 

global system completed an 18-month 

process of further integrating safety 

and quality management across our 

supply chain. Now, by connecting the 

right experts within our system when a 

new ingredient or product is introduced, 

and by taking a broader, more holistic 

view of new products and ingredients 

from the outset, we’re able to identify 

potential risks long before production 

begins. We expect this approach to 

further optimize safety and quality, 

minimize risk, increase efficiencies and 

lower production costs.

The safety and quality of every 

ingredient

Since 1886, we have held all of our 

products to the highest of standards. 

Wherever we operate, we abide by 

the laws and regulations of local 

communities, including regulations 

pertaining to health, safety and product 

labeling. Every ingredient we use in 

every product we make must meet or 

exceed these standards. If we had any 

concerns about the ingredients we use, 

we simply would not use them.

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Aspartame

We use aspartame to sweeten many of 

the 800 low- and no-calorie beverages 

we offer around the world and we do so 

with an uncompromising commitment to 

product safety and quality. Aspartame is 

one of the most thoroughly researched 

food ingredients in use today, with more 

than 200 studies to support its safety. 

It is permitted for use in more than 100 

countries, and authorities that have 

approved aspartame include the Joint 

Food and Agriculture Organization/

World Health Organization Expert 

Committee on Food Additives; the 

European Food Safety Authority; and 

the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 

For more than 25 years, aspartame 

has been used to sweeten more than 

6,000 foods, ranging from sparkling 

beverages and chewing gum to 

gelatins, candies, desserts, yogurts and 

sugar-free cough drops. 

Biotechnology

We use only those ingredients that have 

been evaluated for safety based on 

evidence-based science and that have 

been approved for use by local health 

and safety regulators. 

Numerous health organizations, 

including the World Health Organization, 

the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture 

Organization, the U.S. Food and Drug 

Administration and the U.S. National 

Academy of Sciences, have determined 

that the use of biotechnology is safe. 

While we acknowledge the benefits 

that biotechnology can provide to 

the environment and to address 

the growing pressure on the global 

food supply, we also respect local 

communities’ preferences in the 

sourcing of food and beverage 

ingredients. 

Our decision on the use of 

biotechnology-derived ingredients in 

any given market depends on safety, 

regulatory authorizations, types of 

ingredients locally available and local 

community preferences.

Caramel coloring

We use caramel coloring in several of 

our products. In fact, we have used it in 

Coca-Cola beverages since 1886. While 

our caramel coloring today comes from 

commercial manufacturers, it is and 

always has been safe.

Special interest groups have claimed 

that caramel coloring in our cola 

products poses a cancer threat 

to consumers because it contains 

4-methylimidazole, also known as 

4-MEI. 4-MEI is a byproduct that can 

form when many foods are heated 

or browned. Food safety regulators 

throughout the world, including the U.S. 

Food and Drug Administration, Health 

Canada and the European Food Safety 

Authority, have said that the caramel we 

use is safe, and that 4-MEI in caramel 

is not a health concern. Caramel 

color meeting global specifications is 

permitted for use in every country where 

we sell our products. 

In early 2012, under the right-to-know 

law known as Proposition 65, the state 

of California began requiring warning 

labels for some products containing 

4-MEI above an extremely low level. 

It is important to note that the state 

continues to allow all of these products 

to be sold, including the ones that 

require the Proposition 65 warning. 

In other words, they are safe to use 

and to consume. We disagree with the 

state’s decision to require a warning 

label based on the presence of 4-MEI in 

certain products, as scientific evidence 

does not support the state’s position. 

But we asked our caramel suppliers to 

make the necessary manufacturingprocess modifications to ensure that our 

caramel would be below the level set by 

California, so that our products would 

not be required to carry a misleading 

warning label. 

As manufacturing capacity for the 

modified caramel becomes available, 

we intend to expand its use globally. 

A sweet innovation

To provide consumers with more lowand no-calorie options, we continue 

to pursue the development of safe, 

innovative sweeteners. Across more 

than 15 countries, we offer more than 45 

products sweetened in whole or in part 

with stevia, a zero-calorie sweetener 

with origins in the chrysanthemum 

family. Our newest: Coca-Cola LifeTM, 

which we introduced in Argentina 

in June 2013. A mid-calorie cola 

sweetened with sugar and stevia, 

Coca-Cola Life is the first steviasweetened product we have introduced 

under the Coca-Cola brand. Among our 

other stevia-sweetened products are 

varieties of Sprite® and three varieties of 

Nestea® sweetened with a combination 

of stevia and sugar, introduced in France 

in 2012; Fanta SelectTM and Sprite 

SelectTM, both mid-calorie beverages 

sweetened with a blend of stevia and 

sugar that we began test-marketing in 

several U.S. cities in 2012; and Sprite 

sweetened with stevia, made available 

in the United Kingdom in the spring of 

2013. We also use stevia alone or in 

combination with other sweeteners in 

vitaminwater zeroTM, Honest FizzTM and 

Honest ZeroTM beverages in the United 

States; Minute Maid® juices in Europe; 

and Del Valle® juices in Latin America. 

In the second quarter of 2013, we joined 

our partner PureCircle in seeking both 

a patent and the U.S. Food and Drug 

Administration’s Generally Recognized 

As Safe (GRAS) status for Rebaudioside 

M, or “Reb-M,” a new stevia sweetener 

that we believe will allow us to continue 

to innovate and expand the variety of 

our beverages. Additionally, through 

our partnership with Chromocell 

Corporation, we are working to develop 

flavors that could enhance the sweet 

taste of sugar, along with other natural 

sweeteners and other safe ingredients 

that will help us offer great-tasting 

beverages with fewer calories.

Click to see 

Coca-Cola’s 

aspartame 

infographic.

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Driving sustainable innovation across 

our portfolio 

Our system has a tradition of 

innovating in many ways to offer our 

consumers a variety of choices. From 

the soda fountain to the six pack, 

The Coca-Cola Company has been on 

the front lines of innovation. Today we 

use packaging innovation to provide 

more options to consumers, to enable 

them to choose the right beverage and 

package size to fit their lifestyle.

Today we offer three times the number 

of products we offered a decade ago 

and more than 10 times the number 

we offered 20 years ago. While we 

are best known for Coca-Cola, our 

products include full-, reduced-, lowand no-calorie sparkling beverages, still 

beverages, waters, juices, juice drinks, 

sports and energy drinks, teas, coffees, 

and milk- and soy-based beverages. 

Packaging innovation

Innovation has been a driver of our 

Company since its very beginning. 

Today, one way we use innovation is to 

provide smaller package sizes, both in 

full- and low- and no-calorie beverage 

options. In over 125 countries, we offer 

glass-bottled sparkling beverages in 

serving sizes of 250 milliliters (a little 

more than 8 fluid ounces) or less. In 

the United States, Australia, Canada, 

South Korea and Thailand, we offer 

222 milliliter (7.5 fluid ounce) cans of 

Coke®, Diet Coke®, Coke ZeroTM, Sprite®, 

Fanta®, Barq’sTM and Seagram’sTM 

Ginger Ale, all containing zero to 100 

calories. And our innovative Coca-Cola 

FreestyleTM fountain dispenser, which 

we are rolling out in the United States 

and other markets, offers more than 100 

beverage choices, including more than 

70 low- and no-calorie options, allowing 

consumers more choice.

Safety and quality in our packaging: 

our position on Bisphenol A

Our top priority is to ensure the safety 

and quality of our products and 

packaging through rigorous standards 

that meet or exceed government 

requirements. If we had any concerns 

about the safety of any product 

ingredient or packaging material, we 

would not use it.

Some consumers have expressed 

concern about Bisphenol A, or BPA, 

which is used in making the lining of 

our metal cans. BPA is a chemical used 

worldwide in making the packages of 

thousands of products, including the 

coating inside virtually all metal food 

and beverage cans. This coating guards 

against contamination and extends the 

shelf life of foods and beverages. It also 

is used to manufacture shatter-resistant 

bottles, medical devices, sports safety 

equipment, compact disc covers and 

many other products. BPA has been 

used safely in the food packaging 

industry for more than 50 years

While we are aware of the concerns and 

viewpoints that have been expressed 

about BPA, our point of view is that the 

scientific consensus on this issue is 

most accurately reflected in the opinions 

expressed by those regulatory agencies 

whose missions and responsibilities 

are to protect the public’s health. The 

consensus repeatedly stated among 

regulatory agencies in the United 

States, Australia, Canada, Japan, New 

Zealand and in Europe is that current 

levels of exposure to BPA through food 

and beverage packaging do not pose a 

health risk to the general population. 

We will continue to take our guidance 

on this issue from national and 

international regulatory authorities, 

and we will take whatever steps are 

necessary, based on sound scientific 

principles, to ensure that any package 

technology is safe for our consumers.

Meanwhile, we continue to work 

closely with several suppliers who 

are seeking alternatives to can liners 

containing Bisphenol A. Any new 

material, assuming it has all necessary 

regulatory approvals, also would have 

to meet our safety, quality and functional 

requirements. 

Inspiring the world to come together to 

help address obesity

Worldwide, people are facing a serious 

and complex health challenge: obesity. 

It affects individuals in every culture, 

community and country around the 

world and it requires action from every 

sector of society—including companies 

like ours.

Today, we are mobilizing assets across 

our global system, which spans more 

than 200 countries to help educate, 

empower and enable people from all 

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walks of life to pursue solutions that 

help address obesity and inspire active, 

healthy living. 

Some have suggested that sugarsweetened beverages like Coca-Cola 

are a primary cause of increased 

obesity rates. We disagree. There is 

scientific consensus that weight gain 

is primarily the result of an imbalance 

of calories—more calories consumed 

than expended. People consume 

many different foods and beverages, 

so no single food or beverage alone is 

responsible for obesity. When it comes 

to weight management, all calories 

count, including those from our caloric 

beverages.

We are working to provide more 

beverage options than ever to fit every 

lifestyle, including more low- and nocalorie beverages to complement our 

caloric options. In addition, we are 

working to provide consumers with 

the facts on the calorie content in our 

beverages with clear calorie counts on 

the front of all our packages that make it 

easier than ever for consumers to know 

the calorie content of their choices.

While we provide consumers options 

on how many calories they choose to 

take in, we are also working to inspire 

consumers to live active, healthy lives 

by providing opportunities to expend 

calories through our vast support of 

physical activity programs. Using a 

community-based model, we have 

partnered with governments, civil 

society and other businesses to help 

engage and inspire people all over the 

world to be healthy and happy through 

movement. Initiatives like Beat the 

Street, Copa Coca-Cola, EPODE, Exercise 

is Medicine, Mission Olympic and 

scores of others are examples of how 

The Coca-Cola Company is supporting 

the effort to help strike an energy 

balance in young people worldwide.

The “Coming Together” campaign 

With one of the world’s best-known 

brands, marketing is one of our 

Company’s most powerful platforms, 

giving us an extraordinary ability to 

connect with consumers and inspire 

millions of people around the globe. In 

2012, we rolled out a global marketing 

campaign to offer consumers greater 

insights on our vast product portfolio 

and to promote active, healthy living. 

This was followed in early 2013 by the 

launch of a “Coming Together” website, 

where we invite users to share their 

ideas for fighting obesity and living an 

active, healthy lifestyle. The “Coming 

Together” campaign reflects our belief 

that addressing obesity requires new 

ideas and the collective effort of all 

segments of society. It also provides 

another opportunity for engaging 

directly with our consumers. 

Our commitment to you

In May 2013, Muhtar Kent, our Chairman 

and Chief Executive Officer, announced 

four worldwide business commitments 

to guide our global system’s efforts to 

help address obesity. They include:

• Offer low- or no-calorie beverage 

options in every market.

• Provide transparent nutrition 

information, featuring calories on the 

front of all of our packages.

• Help get more people moving by 

supporting physical activity programs 

in every country where we do 

business.

• Market responsibly, including no 

advertising to children under the age 

of 12 anywhere in the world. According 

to our Policy, we do not market any 

of our beverages in programming 

where the audience is more than 35% 

children under 12.

Offer low- or no-calorie 

beverage options

We believe choices come in many 

tastes, shapes and sizes. With more 

than 3,500 drink choices around the 

world, we currently offer more than 

800 low- and no-calorie options 

worldwide—nearly 25 percent of our 

global portfolio. Eighteen of our top 

20 brands have a low- or no-calorie 

alternative, or are themselves low or no 

calorie. In 2012 alone, we introduced 

more than 500 new products globally, 

including portion-controlled options 

Goal: Offer low- or no-calorie 

beverage options in every market.

Progress: In progress.

18 of our top 20 brands have a 

low- or no-calorie alternative or 

are low- or no-calorie

Nearly 25% of our portfolio 

of 3,500+ still and sparkling 

beverages is low- or no-calorie

45+ products in 15+ countries are 

sweetened in whole, or in part, 

with natural, zero-calorie stevia

125+ countries offer Coca-Cola’s 

glass bottled sparkling beverages 

in serving sizes of 250mL 

(a little more than 8 fl. oz.) or less

Click to see 

Coca-Cola’s 

global well-being 

commitments

infographic.

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for regular-calorie products, and more 

than 100 of them were low or no calorie. 

Since 2000, our average calories per 

serving have decreased by 9 percent 

globally.

Read more about our sweet innovations

enabling us to achieve our progress 

to provide more low- and no-calorie 

options in every market. 

Providing transparent nutrition 

information

In 2009 we were the first global 

beverage company to commit to provide 

calorie information on the front of 

nearly all of our packages worldwide. 

At the end of 2011, we met that goal. In 

addition, Ernst & Young reviewed that 

The Coca-Cola Company provided frontof-pack energy (calorie) information on 

nearly all beverage products in North 

America, Europe, and South Africa 

during the 2012 reporting year.1

 As part 

of our new global commitments to help 

address obesity, we are committed 

to providing front-of-pack calorie 

information on all of our packages. 

Printing such information remains 

a challenge on some types of glass 

bottles. Our policy exempts bottled 

water products that are not flavored or 

sweetened since water is inherently free 

of calories. In addition, we are working 

with our equipment suppliers to provide 

calorie information on Company-owned 

vending machines in the United States.

Inspiring active, healthy living

Exercise is essential for overall 

good health. As part of our global 

commitments to help address obesity, 

we sponsor more than 290 active, 

healthy living programs in 118 countries 

around the world and are working to 

ensure there are robust active, healthy 

living programs in every country in which 

we operate. Here are descriptions of just 

some of the programs we support.

China: China School Active Lifestyle 

Campaign through the Balanced Diet

In partnership with 12 governmental 

ministries in China, we are encouraging 

students to have a more balanced 

lifestyle with good nutrition and 

increased physical activity. Through 

multiple year-long campus activities, 

this program will reach more than 

120,000 students.

Colombia: Goals for a Better Life 

We’re helping to fund the expansion of 

this program from Columbianitos, Inc., 

which uses soccer and other sports 

as a tool to promote active, healthy 

lifestyles for 1,700 students in Bogotá 

and Cartagena.

Ecuador: Apúntate a JugarTM Program 

Coca-Cola Foundation of Ecuador’s 

program reached 21,450 students, 

with the support of Junior Achievement 

Foundation, by providing physical 

education equipment kits to 30 public 

schools in Quito.

Germany: Risk Evaluation of 

Berlin Women 

This study by Charite Universitätsmediz 

Berlin will track more than 1,000 women 

participating in a study of cardiovascular 

disease and risk factors.

Hong Kong: My Wellness Tracker

In collaboration with the Centre for 

Nutritional Studies at The Chinese 

University of Hong Kong, we are 

providing an educational toolkit with 

an online personalized diet and activity 

tracker to promote energy balance, 

healthy nutrition and exercise to primary 

and secondary school students and the 

general public. The effort is expected 

to benefit more than 51,000 children 

and adults. 

Goal: Provide front-of-pack 

information on all of our products.

Progress: In progress.

Goal: Sponsor at least one physical 

activity program in every country in 

which we operate.

Progress: In progress.

Committed, together with our 

beverage industry peers, to 

display calorie information on the 

front of Company-owned vending 

machines in the U.S.

70+ low-/no-calorie options are 

offered by the innovative Coca-Cola 

Freestyle fountain dispenser

Became the first beverage 

company to commit to front-ofpack calorie labeling globally on 

nearly all of our packaging in 

2009, and we’ve met that target

100 CALORIES

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Hungary: Dietitian Support Program for 

Hungarian University Students

4,500 students at the three largest 

universities in Hungary will receive 

nutritional counseling and education 

through the Hungary Dietetic 

Association. 

Italy: A Scuola inForma Program

We’re helping to continue the A Scuola 

inForma (“At School In Shape”) nutrition 

education program, which benefits 

15,000 students in 40 high schools 

throughout Italy by providing training and 

toolkits for teachers.

Latvia: National Active Lifestyle Campaign 

This national public awareness 

campaign will promote healthier eating 

and physical activity and reach 460,000 

children and adults.

Peru: EducAnimando con Salud Program 

The EducAnimando con Salud (“Teaching 

and Encouraging with Health”) program 

from Asociación Benéfica PRISMA will 

benefit 13,000 schoolchildren through 

curriculum-based nutrition education and 

physical activity programs.

Serbia: Find the Right Measure

We’re helping the International Forum 

of Medical Students Association fund 

a national anti-obesity campaign for 

Serbian communities.

United States: Get the Ball Rolling

In May 2013, Coca-Cola North America 

Group launched a campaign to inspire 

three million people to be physically 

active over the summer. The effort 

included the distribution of thousands 

of Coca-Cola soccer balls, giveaways 

of ShineTM activity trackers by Misfit, 

Coca-Cola Happiness Trucks at events 

across the country and encouraging 

families to be active on behalf of 

their favorite national, state and local 

parks through the America Is Your 

Park campaign.

United States: Troops for Fitness 

In 2012, The Coca-Cola Foundation made 

a $3 million grant to Chicago’s Garfield 

Park Conservatory Alliance. Among 

other programs, the grant will support 

the Chicago Park District in hiring U.S. 

veterans to teach military-style fitness 

classes. The “Troops for Fitness” program, 

in conjunction with the park district’s 

“Fun with Food” nutrition education 

curriculum, will be available in more than 

60 Chicago-based community facilities. 

These efforts will reach 125,000 residents 

annually by 2016, making the park district 

the leading provider of affordable health 

programs in the city.

United States: San Francisco Parks 

Alliance Mobile Recreation Program

Our support is enabling the Parks 

Alliance to expose 1,600 youths, ages 5 

to 17, to outdoor recreation opportunities 

they may not otherwise experience, 

including biking, skateboarding, rock 

climbing, disc golf and water sports.

Signature programs

Signature programs are physical activity/

lifestyle programs intended to be 

expanded globally. They are designed 

to operate through collaboration among 

business, government and civil society. 

Two of our signature programs are 

EPODE International Network and Beat 

the Street.

EPODE International Network

Large-scale, effective prevention of 

overweight and obesity remains a 

pressing public health priority given its 

adverse impact on health and quality of 

life, including associated risks with certain 

non-communicable diseases (e.g., 

diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and 

cancer). 

In view of current estimates suggesting 

the majority of the world’s adults will 

be overweight or obese by 2030, it is 

important that multi-sectorial efforts 

to reverse this trend be identified and 

applied. The Ensemble Prévenons 

l’Obésité Des Enfants (EPODE, “Together 

Let’s Prevent Childhood Obesity”) is a 

large-scale, coordinated, capacitybuilding network approach for 

communities to implement effective and 

sustainable strategies to address this 

challenge. EPODE comprises four critical 

components: political commitment, public 

and private partnerships, communitybased actions and evaluation. The multistakeholder approach promoted through 

the EPODE methodology has already 

shown encouraging results in preventing 

childhood obesity in France and Belgium. 

Many of our community projects promoting active, healthy living are funded through 

The Coca-Cola Foundation and our foundations worldwide. In 2012, The Coca-Cola 

Foundation awarded $15 million to support 135 physical activity and nutrition programs 

worldwide. Read more in the Charitable Giving section of this report. 

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This methodology has now been 

implemented in nearly 20 countries 

across three continents, involving more 

than 20 million people. As a founding 

partner of the EPODE International 

Network (EIN) since its creation in 2011, 

The Coca-Cola Company is proud to 

help support the spread of EIN’s global 

mission to reduce the prevalence of 

childhood obesity and its associated 

health risks. Visit EIN for more 

information.

Beat The Street

It is well known that physical activity 

is important for overall health. A less 

well-known benefit of physical activity, 

documented by recent research, is that 

physical activity can also have a positive 

impact on academic performance. 

These findings provide a critical impetus 

for society to do more to help our kids 

increase their activity, especially in the 

school environment. 

Beat the Street is a global walking 

program for schools developed in 2011 

by Intelligent Health that is designed 

to help communities get their children 

moving more. The program encourages 

children to walk to school and track their 

walks using RFIC cards and “Beat Box” 

readers located on lampposts around the 

school. By touching their card to the Beat 

Box, students get points for walking and 

assist their school and city in winning the 

global competition. Beat the Street has 

discovered that charitable contributions 

and prizes for the school are powerful 

incentives for the students and increase 

participation, so the students help 

improve their community as well as 

their health.

Coca-Cola provided seed funding in 

2011 for the program’s development and 

during 2012, The Coca-Cola Company 

and The Coca-Cola Foundation 

supported the initial global competition, 

in which some 4,000 children from 

13 schools—including schools in 

Shanghai, Vancouver, and London 

and Reading in the UK—participated. 

The program helped increase the 

percentage of children walking to school 

from 63 percent to 83 percent. Half 

of the students said that the program 

encouraged them to walk more. The 

program also improved socialization 

among the students, with over 90 percent 

of the children reporting that walking let 

them spend more time with their friends 

and one-third claiming to have made 

new friends by walking to or from school.

In 2013, schools from several cities, 

including Shanghai, Bangkok, London, 

New York, Vancouver, Liverpool, 

Southampton, Bracknell and Reading, will 

participate in the program. Read more 

about Beat the Street.

Partnering across industry

The International Food & Beverage 

Alliance (IFBA) is a forum of eleven 

leading national, regional and global 

food and nonalcoholic beverage 

companies committed to supporting 

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the implementation of the World Health 

Organization’s 2004 Global Strategy on 

Diet, Physical Activity and Health (WHO’s 

Global Strategy) and helping consumers 

around the world achieve balanced diets 

and healthy, active lifestyles. 

IFBA was formed in 2008 when 

CEOs from major food and beverage 

manufacturers—including Muhtar Kent 

of The Coca-Cola Company—signed 

a letter to World Health Organization 

(WHO) Director-General Dr. Margaret 

Chan committing their companies to 

support the WHO’s Global Strategy. In 

the letter, the chief executives 

recognized the agreement among 

experts that significant increases in 

non-communicable diseases, such as 

cardiovascular disease, hypertension 

and diabetes, are linked to an increasing 

prevalence of obesity, and that poor diet, 

physical inactivity and an increasingly 

sedentary lifestyle were among the 

causes of obesity worldwide. The CEOs 

acknowledged the private sector’s role 

in fighting obesity and pledged to take 

action in five areas: 

1. Continue to reformulate products and 

develop new products that support the 

goals of improving diets.

2. Provide clear and fact-based nutrition 

information to all consumers.

3. Extend our initiatives on responsible 

advertising and marketing to children 

globally.

4. Raise awareness on balanced diets 

and increased levels of physical 

activity.

5. Seek and promote public-private 

partnerships that support the WHO’s 

Global Strategy.

Our global commitments to help 

address obesity are aligned with the five 

commitments of IFBA. In August 2013, 

IFBA published its fourth annual report 

outlining progress made against these 

five commitments. Read the report here.

Slimming down America’s supermarket 

shelves

As a founding member of the Healthy 

Weight Commitment Foundation (HWCF), 

we worked with our fellow members 

to reduce the number of calories in the 

marketplace in the United States by more 

than 1.5 trillion by 2013, a goal achieved 

three years sooner than expected. 

Dedicated to reducing obesity—and 

particularly childhood obesity—the 

HWCF is a first-of-its-kind coalition that 

brings together more than 230 retailers, 

food and beverage manufacturers, 

restaurants, sporting goods and 

insurance companies, trade associations 

and non-governmental organizations 

and professional sports organizations. 

Focusing on families and schools, the 

HWCF promotes ways to help people 

achieve a healthy weight through calorie 

balance: calories in versus calories out. 

Supporting evidence-based research 

and reviews

Everything we do, from product 

development to our position on obesity, 

is based on the best-available evidencebased science. Because we want to base 

our business decisions on sound science, 

we are proud to support evidence-based 

research on the effects of diet and 

exercise on health. 

In 2012, we continued our support of 

the work by Louisiana State University’s 

Pennington Biomedical Research Center 

on the International Study on Childhood 

Obesity, Lifestyle and Environment, or 

ISCOLE. ISCOLE is a multinational study 

encompassing data from 12 countries in 

North America, Latin America, Europe, 

Africa and the Pacific. This major 

research initiative, conducted among 

9- to 11-year-old children, analyzes the 

relationships between lifestyles and 

obesity as determined by behavior 

parameters and social, physical and 

political environments. Children’s body 

weight, physical activity and dietary 

patterns were also measured.

Bringing together health experts 

worldwide: The Coca-Cola Company 

Beverage Institute for Health and 

Wellness

The Coca-Cola Company Beverage 

Institute for Health & WellnessTM (BIHW)

is an online information and education 

resource for health professionals and 

other stakeholders worldwide on the 

science, safety and benefits of beverages 

and their ingredients, and the importance 

of diet, nutrition and physical activity to 

health and well-being. Using evidencebased science and expert third-party 

research, positions and presentations, 

the BIHW supports the information needs 

of those wanting the latest on a variety of 

health and wellness topics. 

In addition to robust, science-based 

content, the BIHW also provides health 

professionals and others access to 

highly rated, science-based continuing 

education webinars. These education 

programs are developed and presented 

by recognized experts from a variety of 

scientific disciplines including nutrition, 

medicine, weight management, behavior 

change, food science and physical 

activity. Working with such professional 

societies as the Preventive Cardiovascular 

Nurses Association, the American 

College of Cardiology, practice groups of 

the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 

and other education providers, the BIHW 

has supported educational webinars that 

have reached more than 80,000 health 

professionals and consistently earns 

quality ratings of 95 percent and higher. 

To date, the BIHW website has attracted 

more than 1.4 million visitors and has 

been recognized for its evidence-based 

information. The BIHW also received a 

Silver Award in the Winter/Spring 2013 

Web Health AwardsTM competition 

honoring high-quality consumer health 

information. 

As part of its continuing efforts to meet 

the needs of local geographies and to 

make its content relevant to audiences 

around the world, the BIHW has countryspecific sites currently for Brazil, China, 

Mexico, India, Indonesia, Russia, Turkey 

and South Africa, with plans to expand 

to a total of 15 sites by 2017. As the BIHW 

continues to grow and expand in scope 

and scale, it will continue to innovate 

with new programs, opportunities and 

tools to develop, distribute and advance 

information and education of interest and 

importance to both health professionals 

and interested stakeholders across the 

spectrum and throughout the world. Visit 

the BIHW website.

1 Please refer to EY’s Review Report and the 

criteria on pages 83-84 for a complete list of 

exemptions for front-of-pack labeling.

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Marketing 

Responsibly

We recognize the power of 

marketing and the importance 

of doing so responsibly. 

As one of our global 

commitments to help address 

obesity, we have reaffirmed 

our long-held policy of not 

marketing to children. We are 

committed to not marketing 

to children younger than 

12 anywhere in the world 

because we believe parents 

and caregivers are in the best 

position to make decisions 

about what children eat and 

drink. Read more about our 

Responsible Marketing Policy.

Under our policy, we do not directly 

target children younger than 12 in 

our marketing messages, and we do 

not advertise during programming 

specifically targeted to children. We do 

not buy advertising directly targeted 

at audiences whose makeup is more 

than 35 percent children younger than 

12. And our advertising does not show 

images of children drinking our products 

unless the children are shown with a 

parent or caregiver. Our policy applies 

to all of our beverages and to all of 

the media outlets we use, including 

television, radio, print and, where data 

are available, Internet and mobile 

phones. 

In 2010, we began implementing our 

Global School Beverage Guidelines. 

We recognize and respect the unique 

learning environment in schools and 

believe in commercial-free classrooms 

for children. So we have committed not 

to commercially advertise or offer our 

beverages in primary schools unless 

a school authority asks us to do so to 

meet hydration needs. 

To help make sure we and other 

beverage companies are meeting 

standards for marketing to children, 

an independent third party conducts 

audits of our advertising to children 

annually. A 2012 analysis by Accenture 

Media Management (Accenture), 

commissioned by the International 

Food & Beverage Alliance (IFBA), 

showed a high rate of compliance in 

our industry generally. The study, which 

looked at the practices of our Company 

and nine others in a total of seven 

markets around the world, showed 

that industry compliance in print and 

online advertising was 100 percent, 

maintaining levels measured in 2011—

while industry compliance in television 

advertising improved to 98.9 percent 

from 97.6 percent in 2011. The audience 

threshold used in Accenture’s study was 

more than 50 percent children younger 

than 12. Consistent with our Company 

policy, IFBA’s global policy on advertising 

and marketing communications to 

children has been strengthened to 

cover more television programming: the 

policy now applies to audiences made 

up of 35 percent or more of children 

younger than 12. Third-party compliance 

monitoring like Accenture’s will now 

measure against the 35 percent 

threshold.

A similar study for the 

International Council of Beverages 

Associations, which focused on 

The Coca-Cola Company and 

PepsiCo Inc., showed 99.1 percent 

compliance in television advertising 

in 2012, compared to 95.5 percent in 

2011 and 95.7 percent in 2010, and 

100 percent compliance in print and 

online advertising, a consistent figure 

since 2010. Although we must improve 

compliance in television advertising, 

these studies affirm that our industry’s 

self-regulation is effective.

Our Global School Beverage 

Guidelines, developed in 

2010, guide our practices 

across the 200+ markets in 

which we operate 

Our responsible marketing 

guidelines include a global 

industry policy to not buy 

advertising directly targeted at 

audiences that are more than 

35% children under 12. This 

applies to TV, radio and print, 

and, where data is available, to 

the Internet and mobile phones

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Women’s 

Economic 

Empowerment

In many parts of the world, 

opening a bottle of Coca-Cola 

means opening the doors to 

economic empowerment for 

women. In the Philippines, 

women own or operate 

more than 86 percent of the 

small neighborhood stores 

that sell our products. In 

Africa, thousands of women 

own and operate our Micro 

Distribution Centers (MDCs). 

And in developing countries, 

half of all farmers are women. 

All in all, women make up a 

significantly high percentage 

of key segments of our value 

chain. As we move toward 

our vision of doubling our 

business by 2020, women will 

be essential contributors to 

our success.

Women are not only pillars of our 

business but also pillars of their 

communities. Women invest a sizable 

portion of the money they earn in the 

health and education of their children

and in their local economies, creating 

a tremendous economic ripple. 

Unleashing the entrepreneurial potential 

of women is one of the surest ways to 

make our business sustainable, and one 

of the most effective and lasting ways 

we can help families and communities 

prosper. When we invest in the success 

of women, we invest in our own success 

and in the success of communities 

around the world.

Empowering 5 million women 

entrepreneurs by 2020

Given the crucial role of women in our 

system—and the economic barriers too 

many women still face—we have made 

women’s economic empowerment a 

priority. Our 5by20 women’s initiative 

launched in 2010 and continues to 

grow and gain momentum. The 

5by20 initiative aims to enable the 

economic empowerment of 5 million 

women entrepreneurs in our global 

value chain by 2020. In collaboration 

with nongovernmental organizations 

(NGOs), governments and businesses, 

we’re helping female entrepreneurs 

associated with our business gain 

access to three essential economic 

enablers: business skills training, loans 

and financial services and assets, and 

peer networks and mentoring. The 

5by20 initiative focuses on women in six 

segments of our value chain: producers, 

suppliers, distributors, retailers, recyclers 

and artisans.

In 2012, we expanded and deepened 

the 5by20 initiative. By year’s end, 5by20 

programs were operating in Brazil, 

China, Costa Rica, Egypt, Haiti, India, 

Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, the Philippines, 

South Africa and Thailand. New 5by20 

programs were under development in 

10 additional countries as well. Most 

of the women we have enabled thus 

far are retailers. Three quarters of the 

women enabled are new to our value 

chain. In all, the 5by20 initiative has 

enabled approximately 300,000 women 

since the launch of the program in 2010 

through December 31, 2012.

Connecting in new markets

We extended 5by20 programs to a 

number of new markets in 2012 and 

2013. Following is a brief look at three of 

these new markets:

China. In January 2013, we joined China 

Women’s Development Foundation in 

announcing the launch of our first 5by20 

program in the world’s most populous 

nation. The 5by20 initiative will help 

provide business skills training

Goal: Enable the economic 

empowerment of 5 million women 

entrepreneurs across our value 

chain by 2020.

Progress: In progress. As of 

December 31, 2012, 5by20 

programs had enabled 

approximately 300,000 women.

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for women retailers and other women 

across our value chain. The program 

will initially launch in six provinces and 

will eventually expand throughout the 

country, helping an estimated 500,000 

women start businesses by 2020. 

Women who complete the program will 

be eligible to apply for business start-up 

loans. 

Nigeria. The 5by20 initiative has already 

provided small-scale women retailers 

in Nigeria with business skills training 

and retail assets. In partnership with 

the International Finance Corporation 

(IFC), our bottler in Nigeria is working 

with Access Bank to provide financing 

to women micro-distributors across the 

country. 

Mexico. Potencia Mexico, one of our 

primary 5by20 programs in Mexico, 

builds on the successful Coletivo

program in Brazil, in which local NGOs 

teach retailing skills to young adults in 

low-income areas and help them enter 

the job market. 5by20 programs have 

enabled nearly 800 women in Mexico as 

of December 31, 2012.

Collaborating for change

Partnerships are essential to our 5by20 

initiative’s success. We collaborate with 

governments, nonprofits, civil society 

and other businesses to leverage 

our combined strengths, encourage 

innovation and scale up the most 

effective programs more quickly. Our 

recent key partnerships include:

IFC. In March 2013, we announced a $100 

million, three-year joint initiative with the 

IFC, to provide financing and business 

skills training to small and medium sized 

businesses that are owned or operated 

by women entrepreneurs across our 

value chain. Work under the initiative 

has already begun on a program in 

Nigeria intended to finance female microdistributors. 

UN Women. In September 2011, we 

embarked on a major global partnership 

with UN Women that will reach more 

than 40,000 women in South Africa, 

Egypt and Brazil by the end of 2015. 

We expect that the women we enable 

through the partnership will expand 

their ability to establish and grow their 

businesses, increase their earnings and 

create new jobs in their communities.

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Dr. Jill Biden visits Coca-Cola 5by20 entrepreneurs in Rio de Janeiro.
Lessons learned

In September 2013, The Corporate 

Social Responsibility Initiative at Harvard 

University’s John F. Kennedy School of 

Government, together with Business 

Fights Poverty, released a study on the 

5by20 initiative as part of its series of 

reports on the roles companies can play 

in expanding economic opportunity. In 

addition to providing a detailed analysis 

of several 5by20 programs and the 

initiative’s successes and challenges to 

date, the study identified three lessons 

from the 5by20 initiative applicable to 

other companies seeking to make their 

value chains more inclusive: 

• There must be a business case for the 

company, and the business case is 

often multidimensional.

• To have a sustainable model with the 

most potential for scale, initiatives 

should develop locally and, as noted in 

the report, be “in line with local business 

priorities, capabilities and resources.”

• It is important to be nuanced about 

the idea of partnership. “There are 

many different kinds of partners and 

partnerships, and all can be fit-forpurpose,” note the study’s authors, 

“depending on how that purpose aligns 

with the incentives and institutional 

capacities of the partners involved.”

Looking ahead: challenges and 

opportunities

We expect the 5by20 initiative to 

continue to grow in 2014 and beyond. 

As the initiative gains momentum, we’re 

learning that it takes time to develop 

scalable, sustainable empowerment 

programs that are deeply relevant to local 

women and their communities. So we 

are taking great care in collaborating with 

our partners to develop programs. We 

continue to test programs and to explore 

how to best localize, optimize and scale 

the most successful of them. We believe 

this customized approach is the best way 

to ensure lasting empowerment among 

the women we are engaging.

Training and support for small-scale 

mango farmers

To help improve the livelihoods of smallscale fruit farmers—many of whom 

are women—we launched Project 

Nurture and Haiti Hope, two projects 

that are already providing a measure 

of independence and economic 

empowerment for female farmers in 

Kenya, Uganda and Haiti. By the end 

of 2012, nearly 40,000 farmers—14,000 

of whom were women—had received 

training in quality specifications, logistics 

and negotiation of prices. Project 

Nurture also provides assistance with 

agronomy and postharvest handling. 

We are also helping to improve the 

livelihoods of mango farmers in the 

Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. To 

date, about 300 female farmers have 

received training through Project Unnati, 

an initiative that encourages farmers 

to adopt drip irrigation and a method 

of farming called ultra-high-density 

plantation practice, which allows mango 

orchards to reach their full fruit-bearing 

potential in three to four years rather 

than the seven to nine years needed 

by conventional farming. The practice 

also makes it possible for farmers 

to plant as many as 600 trees per 

acre, dramatically increasing yields. 

Conventional farming methods allow for 

about 40 trees per acre. Project Unnati 

has the potential to double mango 

yields and improve the livelihoods of 

more than 50,000 farmers.

Growing sales and small businesses 

with MDCs

Our MDC program has contributed to 

the growth of our business and the 

growth of local economies in Africa 

and Asia for more than a decade. It 

helped inspire and inform the 5by20 

initiative and is one of the key ways 

we are economically empowering 

entrepreneurs worldwide. MDCs are 

product distribution centers managed 

by local people in developing countries. 

The centers help us do business in hardto-reach communities; in exchange, our 

local bottlers offer ongoing coaching 

and mentoring to MDC owners. 

MDCs contribute substantially to our 

efforts to economically empower 

women. In Africa, where 3,400 MDCs 

employ more than 19,000 people, 

more than 800 MDCs are owned and 

managed by women. Since 2009, more 

than half of new MDCs have been 

owned and operated by women; in 

Nigeria and Ghana, women own more 

than 70 percent of all MDCs. 

Our bottlers’ use of micro distribution 

continues to grow. In countries such 

as Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia 

and Mozambique, MDCs account for 

the majority of sales. In China, our 

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Market Execution Partners model, which 

operates on principles similar to those of 

MDCs, has grown significantly over the 

last three years. We see opportunities 

to expand the MDC model to other 

developing countries in Asia and Africa.

A leading NGO recognizes our 

women’s programs 

In March 2013, we were honored to 

receive the 2013 Catalyst Award in 

recognition of our work to advance 

and empower women, both in our 

workplace and across our value 

chain. Catalyst is the leading nonprofit 

organization with a mission to expand 

opportunities for women and business. 

Catalyst recognized both the 5by20 

initiative and our Global Women’s 

Initiative (GWI), a program led by our 

Chairman and CEO, Muhtar Kent. 

GWI was created in 2007 to advance 

women to leadership positions within 

the Company and to empower women 

in business throughout our external 

value chain. Read more about the 

Catalyst Award and learn more about 

how we are empowering women in our 

Company.

Building a life and a business in Rio 

Regina Maria Silva Gomes lives 

near Morro dos Macacos, one of 

the sprawling hillside favelas, or 

shantytowns, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

In a densely populated community 

where 90 percent of adults have not 

completed high school and 57 percent 

of households are single-parent homes, 

Regina’s life hasn’t been easy. Several 

years ago, when the death of her 

husband was tragically followed by the 

deaths of her two sons, she was left to 

raise her five young grandchildren on 

her own. It would have been easy to 

give up hope, but Regina’s resilience 

and perseverance opened doors where 

circumstances had closed them. 

Regina’s dear friend and mentor, 

Donna Anna, a local community leader, 

recognized Regina’s potential and asked 

her to lead a project to clean up their 

community. The streets were littered with 

trash and infested with rodents. It was 

a dirty job, but a job nonetheless. For 

Regina, it was an opportunity to support 

her grandchildren. It also provided a 

way for her to serve her community and, 

in her words, gave her “a reason to live.” 

That was four years ago. Today 

Regina’s life has changed—and so has 

the community around her. Her job 

collecting recyclables led her to two 

programs that are part of 

Regina’s Story

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The Coca-Cola Company’s 5by20 

initiative: Coletivo Recycling, which helps 

formalize and streamline recycling 

cooperatives, and Coletivo Artisans, 

which offers design training and sales 

channels to artisan groups. 

Through these programs, Regina 

received business skills training and 

coaching that allowed her to make her 

business more efficient. With the help 

of the 5by20 initiative, she developed 

a computer program to track the credit 

at the local grocery store that residents 

earn from the bottles they bring to her 

recycling center. The program also 

makes it easier to stay organized and 

track the revenue she generates. Her 

business has united the community in 

a collectively beneficial cause: keeping 

their neighborhood clean and protecting 

the environment. 

With her recycling business up and 

running, Regina started a second 

business by bringing together a team 

of local women artisans who turn the 

empty plastic bottles they collect into 

beautiful handcrafted works of art. She 

sells these in a small shop next to the 

recycling center and through a catalog. 

Today, with the skills she learned 

through the 5by20 initiative Coletivo, 

both her businesses are growing, 

and Regina is making her community 

stronger and healthier. 

A few months ago, Regina proudly 

purchased her first home—located just 

outside the favela where she spent most 

of her life. “I leave [the favela] at night 

to go home,” Regina says, “but I come 

back here every day to work because 

this is where my soul lives.”

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Regina Maria Silva Gomes, a 5by20 

entrepreneur from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Charitable

Giving

Inside every bottle of 

Coca-Cola® is the 

commitment of a company 

that cares about community. 

From preserving and 

protecting resources, to 

reducing consumption, to 

serving as a resource in 

times of need, our Company 

is committed to being more 

than a model corporate 

citizen—we are committed 

to building a better future for 

the communities around the 

world where we live 

and work.

For nearly three decades, 

The Coca-Cola Company has given 

back to communities mainly through 

The Coca-Cola Foundation, our 

global philanthropic arm. Through 

the Foundation, we partner with 

governments, non-governmental 

organizations (NGOs) and other 

charitable organizations to support 

community improvement in four main 

areas: water stewardship; active, 

healthy living; community recycling; and 

education. We also fund local priorities 

such as women’s empowerment, youth 

development, HIV/AIDS education and 

prevention, economic development and 

community improvement. Foundation 

grants make up about 69 percent of 

our giving worldwide, with the remaining 

31 percent coming directly from 

The Coca-Cola Company.

In 2012, 74 percent of the Foundation’s 

funding and 60 percent of all charitable 

giving supported our four global 

priorities: active, healthy living; water 

stewardship; education; and community 

recycling programs. Following are 

descriptions of some of the programs we 

supported in 2012.

Active, healthy living

In 2012, our Foundation awarded $15.6 

million to support 135 physical activity 

and nutrition programs, including 

Troops for Fitness, which benefited from 

a $3 million grant to the Garfield Park 

Conservatory Alliance to support the 

Park’s Families Wellness Initiative. This 

program makes affordable nutrition 

and active-lifestyle programs available 

to Chicago residents who are most in 

need of wellness services. The grant also 

supports the Chicago Park District’s plan 

to hire U.S. veterans to teach militarystyle fitness classes.

Healthy habits are best started at an 

early age. Many of the world’s children 

are underexposed to the benefits 

of physical exercise. That’s why, on 

virtually every continent, the Foundation 

supports programs that encourage 

young people to get up and move. For 

example, the Foundation supports the 

EPODE International Network (EIN), a 

public-private partnership committed 

to preventing childhood obesity 

and noncommunicable diseases by 

promoting physical activity and nutrition 

education. Two years ago, 

The Coca-Cola Company became the 

founding global partner of EIN. EPODE’s 

methodology is a globally recognized 

approach to the prevention of childhood 

obesity. It promotes active, healthy 

lifestyles through community-based 

programs and family education. EIN, 

the world’s largest obesity prevention 

network, has 25 community-based 

programs in 15 countries reaching 150 

million people. In 2012, the Foundation 

awarded $1.07 million to EIN to support 

capacity building for 14 communitybased active, healthy living programs 

targeting obesity reduction in at-risk 

neighborhoods.

In the United States, the San Francisco 

Recreation & Parks Department’s 

Mobile Recreation Program will use a 

$100,000 grant award to provide 1,600 

youths, ages 5 to 17, with outdoor 

recreation opportunities they may not 

otherwise experience, including biking, 

skateboarding, rock climbing, disc golf 

and water sports.

Turkey’s Active Parks Project brings 

mobile workout stations and trainers 

to parks in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir 

to encourage citizens to equate leisure 

time with physical fitness. Studies show 

that one-third of Turkey’s population 

is overweight and unaccustomed to 

recreational exercise. This program aims 

to change that statistic. In just two years, 

the Active Parks Project has reached 

close to 4,000 people, and the pilot has 

led to an extension of the program in 

local schools.

Goal: Give back at least 1 percent 

of our operating income annually.

Progress: Achieved. We have 

made a commitment to give 

back a portion of what we have 

earned. In 2012, we gave back 

$101.6 million—1 percent of our 

operating income.

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Another unique program funded by the 

Foundation is the National Organization 

on Disability, which will use a $100,000 

grant to support the Wounded Warrior 

Careers program, benefiting veterans in 

North Carolina, Colorado and Texas.

Water stewardship

The Coca-Cola Company participates in 

global efforts to help improve access to 

clean water through the installation of 

water systems and the conservation and 

protection of a more sustainable water 

supply. We are involved in hundreds of 

community water partnership projects 

worldwide that address locally relevant 

issues such as watershed protection, 

access to safe drinking water, sanitation, 

agricultural water efficiency, and 

education and awareness.

In 2012, the Foundation awarded $18.4 

million to support 58 water initiatives 

worldwide, including a $7 million 

grant to support one of the largest 

philanthropic commitments of its kind, 

the Replenish Africa Initiative (RAIN). 

RAIN is making safe drinking water 

available in countries where lack of 

water adversely affects the health and 

economic prosperity of the population. 

A $30 million pledge over six years will 

bring fresh water and sanitation to more 

than 2 million Africans by 2015. RAIN’s 

objective is to deliver life-sustaining 

water in a more sustainable manner 

by establishing healthy watersheds, 

community water programs and 

sanitation. Grant funding in 2012 

launched projects in Algeria, Ethiopia, 

Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, 

Mozambique, Senegal, Somaliland, 

Tanzania and Zambia. In addition, 

funding also supports multi-year 

projects in the Democratic Republic of 

the Congo, Liberia, Morocco, Nigeria, 

Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa and 

Tunisia. These projects will focus on 

water supply and sanitation, hygiene 

promotion, productive water use and 

watershed protection.

In China, Every Drop Matters is the 

flagship water initiative in our ongoing 

collaboration with the United Nations 

Development Programme. The 

Foundation’s grant of $800,000 supports 

a feasibility study to improve water 

quality and accessibility for 30 million 

people living in China’s Dongjiang 

River Basin. A separate $2 million grant 

supports the acceleration of water and 

sanitation efforts related to the United 

Nations Millennium Development 

Goals, including improving resilience 

and adaptation to climate change in 20 

countries. 

In addition to these programs, The 

Coca-Cola Foundation supports many 

other community water programs 

around the world. Here are a few of 

them:

In Latin America, The Coca-Cola 

Foundation contributed $1.25 million to 

the Millennium Water Alliance to support 

phase one of a three-year project to 

provide more than 110,000 people clean 

water and hygiene education in Mexico, 

Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and 

Colombia.

In India, nearly 30,000 children will 

benefit from $1.25 million in funding to 

improve water and sanitation facilities 

for 50 local schools through World Vision 

India and Plan International’s India 

Chapter. In addition, a $145,000 grant to 

HARITIKA will support efforts to recharge 

groundwater in severely stressed water 

areas and expand areas for farming 

and cultivation in Patna, India. HARITIKA 

is an NGO working to improve the lives 

of people living in poverty in central 

India.

In the United States, a $250,000 grant 

to the Chattahoochee River Restoration 

Project will benefit 194,000 residents 

of Columbus, Georgia, by helping 

to restore a 2.5-mile section of the 

Chattahoochee River. A $250,000 

grant to the Bonneville Environmental 

Foundation will support watershed 

conservation efforts along seven miles 

of the East Fork Bear River in Utah. The 

project will remove two dams, combine 

two irrigation diversions and install 

screens on three irrigation diversions. 

The goals are to permanently restore 

3 billion liters of water per year, and 

to provide species protection for the 

Bonneville cutthroat trout. The project 

will be conducted in partnership with 

Trout Unlimited and the National Fish 

and Wildlife Foundation.

Community recycling

Recycling is only effective when people 

have a convenient way to do it. In 2012, 

The Coca-Cola Foundation invested 

$2.4 million in 15 recycling programs in 

communities across the United States 

and around the globe. These programs 

focus on litter abatement, recovery and 

reuse, increased community recycling 

awareness and support for research 

and innovation. In Australia, a $200,000 

grant to Keep Australia Beautiful 

National Association, Inc., will fund 

beverage container recycling grants 

to help collect 55 tons of debris while 

benefiting 300,000 people with recycling 

awareness and education. 

The Foundation also supports efforts 

worldwide to minimize the impact of 

litter on our waterways and tropical 

regions. In Ecuador, the Foundation 

invested $40,000 in the Fundacion 

Galapagos Ecuador program to 

minimize human impact on the 

Galapagos Islands, a UNESCO World 

Heritage Site. In the Ukraine, a $50,000 

grant to the Society for the Protection of 

Birds will support a coastal cleanup and 

awareness-raising campaign expected 

to benefit an estimated 500,000 people 

and collect or divert 15 tons of debris.

In some areas, the Foundation is 

supporting innovative recycling 

programs that involve students and local 

residents. In Malaysia, a $250,000 grant 

will help establish a unique campus 

recycling program that will reward 

participating students with bicycles, 

supporting both green transportation 

and active, healthy living through 

the University Putra Malaysia. In the 

United States, through a $1.3 million 

grant award, Keep America Beautiful’s 

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Bin Grant program will increase the 

number of single-stream recycling carts 

in Chicago. Residents will use the carts 

to collect recyclable household waste. 

The Bin Grant Program issues grants to 

purchase community recycling bins to 

assist in reclaiming reusable materials 

in public settings like parks and schools 

and at public events.

Read more about our support of 

community recycling programs in the 

Sustainable Packaging section of this 

report.

Education

The Coca-Cola Foundation has a 

strong history of supporting education 

initiatives and cultivating bright young 

minds. In 2012, the Foundation awarded 

$15 million to 76 education initiatives 

around the world to support 

scholarships, access to educational 

programming, mentoring and drop-out 

prevention.

The Coca-Cola First Generation College 

Scholarship Program, a signature 

program of the Foundation, has 

awarded more than 5,000 scholarships 

totaling $31 million since 1993 to 

students who are the first in their 

immediate families to attend college. In 

2012, close to 200 institutions benefited 

from first-generation scholarship 

funding, including Georgia Institute 

of Technology, which was awarded 

$1.13 million to provide scholarships 

to enable nearly 500 first-generation 

college students to take courses in 

the Sam Nunn School of International 

Affairs at Ivan Allen College. Foundation 

funding also supports complementary 

study and work abroad programs in 

Latin America, Asia and Europe, as well 

as two professorships. 

In some areas of the world, what’s 

needed most is a place to learn. 

Through The Coca-Cola Foundation’s 

Little Red SchoolhouseTM program in 

the Philippines, some 550 students are 

benefiting from the construction of five 

three-room classroom schools with 

furnishings, toilets and a sanitary water 

system. The project is supported by a 

$407,000 grant from the Foundation. 

In Africa, a $100,000 grant through 

The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation will 

support the Discovery Channel’s Global 

Education Partnership. This initiative will 

help expand learning centers, benefiting 

200,000 students and 4,500 teachers 

across Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, 

Namibia and South Africa.

Students at Ohio State University are 

also benefiting from continued funding 

from The Coca-Cola Foundation. A 

$500,000 grant was awarded to support 

the Critical Difference for Women 

Program, a women’s empowerment 

initiative providing re-entry scholarships 

and support services for academically 

deserving non-traditional female 

students. In Turkey, through INJAZ 

Palestine, the Foundation funded 

a $100,000 grant to provide nine 

Palestinian college students with meritbased scholarships to study abroad for 

one year at Bilkent University in Ankara.

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Human and 

Workplace 

Rights

An essential ingredient in 

every one of our products is 

our profound commitment 

to human rights and 

workplace rights. Respecting 

human and workplace 

rights is fundamental to our 

culture and imperative for 

a sustainable business. In 

our Company and across 

the Coca-Cola system, we 

are working to make sure 

all people are treated with 

dignity and respect. Our work 

in this area is overseen by the 

Public Issues and Diversity 

Review Committee of our 

Board of Directors.

We consider human and workplace 

rights—as articulated in the United 

Nations Universal Declaration of 

Human Rights and the International 

Labour Organization’s Declaration on 

Fundamental Principles and Rights 

at Work—to be inviolable. We take 

a proactive approach to respecting 

these rights in every workplace of 

The Coca-Cola Company, in our bottling 

system, in our supply chain and in the 

communities in which we operate. 

The foundation of our approach lies in 

four key documents: our Human Rights 

Statement; our Workplace Rights Policy; 

our Supplier Guiding Principles; and our 

Global Mutual Respect Policy, which we 

introduced in 2012.

All four documents are consistent 

with the United Nations (UN) and 

International Labour Organization (ILO) 

declarations. Together, they describe 

our high standards and expectations, 

addressing such subjects as freedom 

of association, forced labor, child labor, 

discrimination, hours of work, safety, 

workplace security, and community 

and stakeholder engagement. Our 

Human Rights Statement, our Workplace 

Rights Policy and our Global Mutual 

Respect Policy apply to all entities in 

which The Coca-Cola Company owns 

a majority interest. Many of our larger 

bottling partners have their own human 

rights policies. 

For several years, we have undertaken 

the complex work of ensuring that our 

entire business system and supply 

chain align with our policies. We expect 

our Company, our bottling partners 

and our suppliers to avoid causing or 

contributing to adverse human rights 

impacts as a result of business actions 

and to address such impacts when 

they occur. Furthermore, our Company, 

bottling partners and suppliers are also 

responsible for preventing or mitigating 

adverse human rights impacts directly 

linked to their operations, products or 

services by their business relationships. 

To meet these expectations, our 

Company, bottling partners and 

suppliers are adopting processes for 

identifying, preventing and mitigating 

negative impacts on human rights. 

Additionally, all are required to 

implement a process for remediation of 

any adverse human rights impacts they 

cause or contribute to. 

Our efforts to promote respect for 

human rights across the Coca-Cola 

system and throughout our supply chain 

are being recognized. In 2011, Calvert 

Investments, Inc., announced that we 

met its “environmental, social and 

governance criteria as a result of clear 

progress in labor and human rights.” 

For more information, read Calvert’s 

analysis of our progress. 

Checklists and good practices: 

implementing the UN Guiding 

Principles on Business and 

Human Rights

In 2011, the UN Human Rights Council 

adopted the UN Guiding Principles on 

Business and Human Rights (UN Guiding 

Principles), which provide guidance for 

addressing the risk of adverse impacts 

on human rights linked to business 

activity. We formally endorsed those 

principles after working for several years 

with Professor John Ruggie, the former 

UN Special Representative for Business 

and Human Rights. His “Protect, Respect 

and Remedy” framework for respecting 

human rights in a business context, 

along with the UN Guiding Principles, is 

now among our primary touchstones 

as we develop our own programs and 

practices.

According to the UN Guiding Principles, 

any company implementing respect 

for human rights in a corporate context 

must put three primary components 

into place: 

• A policy commitment to meet the 

responsibility to respect human rights 

• A due diligence process to identify, 

prevent, mitigate and be accountable 

for human rights abuses

• Processes to enable the remediation 

of any adverse human rights impacts 

the company causes or to which it 

contributes

We are implementing all three of these 

components in our Company and are 

working with our bottling partners and 

suppliers to help them implement the 

UN Guiding Principles as well. 

We continually analyze potential and 

actual human rights impacts across 

our value chain, from raw materials 

to end use. We identify human rights 

risks, along with policies and actions for 

mitigating them. In addition, we have 

developed five human rights–related 

due diligence checklists for managers 

across our Company. These easy-to-use 

two-page checklists cover such topics 

as migrant labor, child labor, plant siting 

and more. They offer clear steps our 

managers can take immediately—not 

only to comply with our policies but also 

to integrate an ongoing and reflexive 

respect for human and workplace 

rights that is inseparable from our 

daily operations. 

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For our bottlers and suppliers, we have 

identified “26 Good Practices” that we 

encourage them to adopt. Like the 

checklists we use in our own Company, 

these practices enable bottlers and 

suppliers to move beyond legal 

compliance to the integrated, systematic 

and sustained respect for human rights 

and workplace rights envisioned in the 

UN Guiding Principles.

Our support of the UN Guiding Principles 

builds on our work as a participant in 

the UN Global Compact and member 

of the Global Business Initiative on 

Human Rights (and its predecessor, the 

Business Leaders Initiative on Human 

Rights). Our work in those partnerships 

continues. The Coca-Cola Company’s 

perspective on implementation of the 

UN Guiding Principles on Business and 

Human Rights has been featured by the 

Business and Human Rights Resource 

Centre, as well. 

Investigating rights-related complaints

We require all associates of 

The Coca-Cola Company to know our 

human rights and workplace rights 

standards and to apply them in their 

work. Managers, in particular, receive 

intensive training. We also rely on our 

associates to speak up immediately 

if they believe our policies have 

been violated. Associates can report 

perceived violations confidentially and 

without fear of retaliation through 

numerous channels, including our 

EthicsLine—a global Internet and 

telephone information and reporting 

service for associates, customers, 

suppliers and consumers who perceive 

violations of our Code of Business 

Conduct, our Workplace Rights Policy, 

our Global Mutual Respect Policy, our 

Human Rights Statement or applicable 

laws and regulations. We treat all 

inquiries confidentially and investigate 

all concerns. 

In 2012, we investigated 412 perceived 

human and workplace rights complaints 

from employees in our Company, 

down from 426 in 2011. The largest 

numbers of complaints were related to 

discrimination (which includes retaliation 

and harassment) and work hours and 

wages. We found no instances where 

freedom of association had been 

denied. In cases where claims are 

substantiated, we take corrective action. 

Depending on the violation, corrective 

action may take the form of back pay, 

reassignment of duties and in severe 

cases, separation from the Company. 

Aligning our system and suppliers

To help our Company, our bottling 

partners, and our direct suppliers 

achieve compliance with our policies 

and principles, third-party auditors 

trained in our standards conduct 

regular workplace assessments. We 

conduct annual assessments of new 

suppliers and suppliers with a history 

of noncompliance. For suppliers with 

a history of compliance, we conduct 

assessments every three years. More 

than 15,000 workplace assessments 

have been completed since 2003. 

In 2009, we set a goal of ensuring that 

98 percent of our Company-owned and 

-managed facilities meet our workplace 

rights standards by 2015. We met 

that goal in 2011 and maintained a 98 

percent compliance rate once again 

in 2012.

As for our suppliers and bottling 

partners, we expect them to comply with 

the higher standards of international 

norms and applicable laws with 

respect to workplace and human 

rights principles. We encourage them 

to adopt our Human Rights Statement 

and Workplace Rights Policy or 

equivalents; to comply with our Supplier 

Guiding Principles; and to uphold the 

standards we have set for everyone 

doing business with us. We convey 

our expectations and offer compliance 

assistance through our Supplier Guiding 

Principles program. 

Goal: By 2015, achieve a 98 

percent compliance level for 

Company-owned and -managed 

facilities upholding the standards 

set in our Workplace Rights 

Policy. Also, achieve 90 percent 

compliance with our Supplier 

Guiding Principles among 

independent franchise bottling 

partners and suppliers.

Progress: As of December 31, 2012:

• 98 percent of our Companyowned facilities had achieved 

compliance. We met our goal of 

98 percent compliance in 2011.

• 77 percent of our bottling 

partners and 80 percent of our 

direct suppliers had achieved 

compliance.

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Our goal is to have 90 percent of our 

bottling partners and suppliers comply 

with our Supplier Guiding Principles by 

2015. We are making steady progress. 

By the end of 2012, 77 percent of bottlers 

and 80 percent of direct suppliers 

had met the standards of our Supplier 

Guiding Principles. These represent 

a 9-point and 7-point increase, 

respectively, in compliance over 2011.

Reaching deeper into our supply chain

One of our ongoing challenges is 

ensuring respect for human rights and 

workplace rights far “upstream” in our 

supply chain, among our second- and 

third-tier suppliers and beyond. Such 

suppliers can number in the tens of 

thousands, and their operations are 

often not transparent to us. What’s 

more, some of our suppliers, lacking 

stakeholder engagement and oversight 

from government and advocacy groups, 

have had little incentive to formalize 

policies and practices related to human 

and workplace rights.

To begin to integrate respect for human 

rights and protection of workplace rights 

across our supply chain, we began 

piloting a program called Pass It Back 

in 2012. The aim of the program is to 

share our knowledge and best practices 

related to human and workplace rights 

with key suppliers and then work with 

them to “pass it back” across their supply 

chains, sharing what they’ve learned with 

their own suppliers. Our ultimate aim is 

to build respect for human rights and 

protection of workplace rights so that 

they stretch unbroken from our system 

back to the farm, the forest or wherever 

the points of origin of our raw materials 

may be. 

Working initially with a fruit supplier, a 

carbon dioxide supplier and a supplier 

of paper products—who collectively 

represent more than $1 billion in 

procurement spending—we conducted 

an analysis of each business’s human 

rights impacts and policies. We found 

that all three companies generally 

lacked policies and awareness in regard 

to their potential impacts on human 

and workplace rights. We also found 

that all three were enthusiastic about 

making improvements and sharing them 

across the extent of their own supply 

chain. We are now working closely with 

the companies as they develop their 

policies and build their capabilities. The 

process can be slow, but we believe our 

approach will ultimately result in greater 

respect for and protection of human and 

workplace rights across our supply chain. 

Meanwhile, we are considering how 

to expand Pass It Back to include other 

suppliers. We recognize that some supply 

chains may be too complex for the 

program. In those cases, certification—as 

under the Bonsucro Standard for sugar—

may be a more effective tool for ensuring 

that our suppliers align with our policies 

and values.

Addressing human and workplace 

rights in Myanmar 

In 2012, we announced our plans to do 

business in Myanmar for the first time in 

more than 60 years. In 2013, we began 

production at two bottling plants in the 

country—the beginning of $200 million 

in investments planned over the next five 

years that we estimate will create more 

than 22,000 job opportunities. Through 

our presence, we hope to contribute to 

Myanmar’s economic and social success 

in addition to growing our business. 

Prior to re-entering Myanmar, we 

conducted the most comprehensive due 

diligence process in our recent history. 

It included, among many other aspects, 

extensive local stakeholder engagement 

and a thorough review of human rights 

issues in the bottling plants we acquired, 

in the local supply chain and throughout 

the country as a whole. Our human rights 

assessment, conducted in October 2012, 

drew upon reports from the U.S. State 

Department, work from the Institute for 

Human Rights and Business, and from 

contracted reports by UL (Underwriters 

Laboratories Inc.), a global safety science 

company. A team including Coca-Cola 

personnel and representatives from UL 

also conducted an in-person Supplier 

Guiding Principles assessment of our 

two bottling plants, spending nearly 450 

hours over two weeks surveying the 

communities bordering the plants as well 

as two independent distributors.

The bottling plants we audited scored 

in the bottom quarter of audited 

bottlers and suppliers worldwide. Our 

assessments revealed issues common in 

developing economies, including genderand age-based discrimination, hours of 

work and wage issues, and health and 

safety concerns. But rights violations we 

expected based on our initial research, 

such as child labor, were not found. 

Audits of a sample of local distribution 

centers revealed similar issues.

Following the audit, we worked with 

plant managers to implement a 

remediation plan. The plan includes 

detailed steps for corrective action to 

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be taken in the near, medium and long 

term, including continual development 

of the plants’ and distributors’ capacity 

for aligning with our policies and 

guidelines. We will conduct semiannual 

follow-up assessments until all areas 

of noncompliance are corrected and 

annually thereafter until compliance is 

sustained. At that point, the sites will 

be placed on our normal assessment 

schedule of every one to three years, 

depending on compliance performance.

In addition to remediation work at the 

site level, we are partnering with local 

organizations and collaborating with 

other companies to deliver training 

on our workplace standards. We 

will sponsor the training, which will 

be delivered by the British Council in 

conjunction with the ILO. The trainings 

will bring together a broad array of 

supply chain partners. By working 

with other companies, we hope to 

establish the implementation of human 

and workplace rights safeguards as 

standard industry practice in Myanmar. 

In April 2013, we conducted follow-up 

audits of our two Myanmar plants, 

which showed that about 24 percent 

of the identified issues had been 

addressed. (Of 33 issues identified, eight 

had been fully addressed. Additional 

issues also had been addressed, 

but the plants have not yet achieved 

full compliance in those areas.) We 

recognize that changing some aspects 

of workplace culture in Myanmar will 

require a great deal of time, persistence 

and collaboration. We are optimistic 

and enthusiastic about the positive 

contribution we can make to the 

country’s capacity for respecting and 

protecting human and workplace rights.

As part of the lifting of U.S. sanctions 

against Myanmar for human rights 

violations, and in conjunction with 

the authorization of new licenses 

permitting investment in the country, 

the U.S. State Department required 

investing companies in Myanmar to 

report annually, beginning in 2013, on 

their human rights due diligence. Our 

report, which also includes results of 

our due diligence on environmental and 

technical issues, will be available later 

this year on the U.S. State Department 

website. The report will also include an 

overview of the significant steps we are 

taking to mitigate corruption risk in our 

Myanmar operations, including steps 

within the supply chain and distribution 

of Company products.

Confronting the “hard issues”: our 

sixth annual human rights conference

In May 2013, we hosted our sixth human 

rights conference at our corporate 

headquarters in Atlanta, convening 

more than 150 leaders from businesses, 

government and nongovernmental 

organizations (NGOs) to discuss the 

role of businesses in respecting human 

rights. The conference was aimed at 

giving attendees a better understanding 

of how to help their companies 

implement the UN Guiding Principles 

and mitigate human rights impacts. 

The conference addressed a variety of 

difficult issues facing businesses as they 

implement the UN Guiding Principles 

in their businesses and their supply 

chains. Discussions focused on human 

trafficking, conflict minerals, doing 

business in Myanmar and more. 

Helping to eradicate child labor in 

sugarcane fields

Our Human Rights Statement, 

Workplace Rights Policy and Supplier 

Guiding Principles prohibit the use of 

child labor. While there is no child labor 

in our Company-owned operations, we 

are aware that child labor persists on 

some of the farms that grow cane for 

our sugar suppliers, driven by poverty 

and local social norms. Our Company 

does not typically purchase ingredients 

directly from farms, nor are we owners 

of sugar farms or plantations, but as 

a major buyer of sugar, we are taking 

action and using our influence to help 

end child labor in sugarcane fields. 

Our approach is both global and local. 

At the global level, we set corporate 

policy, convene experts, and engage 

with governments, NGOs and other 

companies. At the same time, we 

collaborate with suppliers, industry 

groups and local stakeholders to 

address the issue with farmers. In recent 

years, we have joined collaborative 

efforts in El Salvador that have 

dramatically reduced child labor in 

cane fields. We are also taking action 

in Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, 

Honduras, Mexico, the Philippines and 

14 other countries.

Most recently, we collaborated with 

ILO-IPEC (International Programme 

on the Elimination of Child Labour) to 

design and distribute a training guide 

discouraging the use of child labor 

among sugar farmers in Mexico while 

encouraging more efficient farming 

practices. We also facilitated ILO-IPEC’s 

access to several farms supplying two of 

our authorized sugar refineries, enabling 

ILO-IPEC staff to conduct appropriate 

interventions to address child labor.

In addition, we collaborated with our 

bottler in Bolivia to encourage our major 

sugar supplier to address hazardous 

child labor issues and improve the 

overall labor conditions in its sugar 

supply chain. This work was done in 

collaboration with Hagamos Equipo.

In 2013, we completed our second 

round of funding to Save the Children 

Honduras to raise community 

awareness and support the Honduran 

sugar industry’s continued efforts to 

reduce hazardous child labor.

Preventing human trafficking

Our Company proactively addresses 

human trafficking and forced labor 

in our Human Rights Statement, 

Workplace Rights Policy and Supplier 

Guiding Principles. These policies are 

supported by independent assessments 

of supplier, bottler and Companyowned facilities that are conducted by 

third parties to verify compliance with 

our standards that prohibit human 

trafficking and slavery in supply chains. 

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In February 2012, we hosted a 

conference on human trafficking in labor 

sourcing, which was attended by nearly 

150 business leaders, human rights 

experts, investors, NGOs, legal experts 

and others. The conference focused on 

exploring solutions to eliminate human 

trafficking in labor sourcing. In January 

2013 in Atlanta, we sponsored a panel 

discussion on human trafficking that was 

moderated by former Atlanta mayor 

Shirley Franklin. In May, in conjunction 

with our human rights conference, we 

hosted a one-day multi-stakeholder 

meeting on human trafficking sponsored 

by the Institute for Human Rights and 

Business and Humanity United to 

address two key contributors to human 

trafficking: holding of passports and 

payment of recruiting fees.

We also are a founding member of the 

Global Business Coalition Against Human 

Trafficking, a group of global corporations 

that recognize the critical role business 

can play in ending human trafficking and 

all forms of modern-day slavery.

Collaborating with labor

We respect the rights of workers in 

the Coca-Cola system to join unions 

without fear of retaliation and to 

engage in collective bargaining without 

interference or fear of retaliation. 

More than 30 percent of workers in 

the Coca-Cola system are represented 

by trade unions. Of those, more than 

70 percent are affiliated with the 

International Union of Food, Agricultural, 

Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco 

and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF), 

one of our business system’s most 

important stakeholders. 

Maintaining a productive relationship 

with trade unions enables us to 

collaborate with them on key issues 

affecting our Company’s success. It also 

enables us to solve problems positively 

and constructively and manage risk.

Twice each year, we meet with IUF 

delegates from around the world at our 

Atlanta headquarters to discuss labor 

and workplace issues in our system. 

These meetings enable us to have frank 

conversations and address and resolve 

difficult issues across the table through 

serious and practical engagement from 

both sides. We encourage our bottling 

partners to collaborate with labor 

organizations as well. 

In addition to our work with IUF, we also 

have ongoing and regular engagement 

with a wide variety of human rights 

groups and socially responsible investors. 

Ensuring ethical engagement of 

contract labor

Our Company and bottling partners, 

like many businesses, employ contract 

and agency labor. There are many 

legitimate uses of contract labor, and we 

expect contract workers, through thirdparty providers, to continue to play an 

important role in our business. Through 

enhancements to our Supplier Guiding 

Principles assessments, our Company is 

holding more contract and agency labor 

suppliers accountable for the ethical 

treatment of these workers. Our Supplier 

Guiding Principles also informed our new 

Sustainable Agriculture Guiding Principles

to ensure fair labor practices and the 

respect of human and workplace rights 

on farms in our supply chain. 

Our commitment to human and 

workplace rights, as well as our 

commitment to operating a sustainable 

business, compels us to respect the 

rights of all workers, including those not 

directly employed by our Company or 

bottling partners. So, we are working 

with our business units and our bottling 

partners to develop a proactive, holistic 

approach to managing contract 

labor that protects workers and our 

Company by addressing critical issues 

at each phase of a contract worker’s 

engagement with us—from our initial 

decision to use contract labor through 

the end of the relationship with labor 

suppliers or specific workers. We expect 

our personnel and our bottling partners 

to understand the risks associated 

with contract labor and to carefully 

manage the labor agencies engaged. 

We also expect them to provide training 

and a safe work environment and to 

avoid using termination practices that 

circumvent legal obligations. 

We take a number of steps to ensure 

responsible engagement of the contract 

and agency workers we employ, 

including the following: 

• We stand by our commitments 

and expectations for the treatment 

of all workers as described in our 

Human Rights Statement, Workplace 

Rights Policy and Supplier Guiding 

Principles. Any allegation of worker 

abuse—including abuse of contract 

laborers—is a very serious issue that 

we fully investigate.

• We conduct continuous assessments 

of our operations and of key 

authorized contract labor suppliers to 

ensure the responsible treatment of 

contract laborers.

• We engage with key stakeholders to 

understand their perspective regarding 

potential abuse of contract workers. 

The subject of contract and agency 

labor is a standing agenda item for 

our semiannual meetings with the 

IUF. Through these meetings, we have 

successfully addressed a number of 

concerns regarding contract workers 

in India, Pakistan and the Philippines.

• We provide our largest bottling 

partners with contract labor riskmitigation checklists and other 

tools to help them manage contract 

labor appropriately.

In 2012, we developed a contract labor 

“gap analysis” tool and a contract 

labor human rights due diligence 

checklist for our Company and our 

bottlers. The checklist enables a quick 

self-assessment. The gap analysis 

tool enables bottling partners and 

business units to conduct a deeper 

assessment of their current contract 

labor practices compared to generally 

accepted good practices and to 

quickly see their potential risk. Both 

the tool and the checklist are part of 

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our proactive, holistic approach to 

addressing each phase of a contract 

worker’s engagement with us, from 

our initial decision to use contract labor 

through the end of our relationship with 

a contract worker. 

Collaborating to increase 

sustainable sourcing

We are a leading member of AIMPROGRESS, a forum of 37 fast-moving 

consumer goods manufacturers and 

suppliers working together to promote 

responsible sourcing practices. vAIMPROGRESS conducts in-person and 

virtual supplier training sessions 

around the world as part of the 

organization’s joint training initiative. 

Training covers the four major pillars 

of responsible sourcing: human rights 

and labor standards, health and safety, 

environmental compliance and business 

integrity. Leaders from participating 

companies provide perspective on 

why responsible sourcing is important 

to customers, stakeholders and 

sustainable businesses. Over the last 

two years the sessions have reached 

approximately 2,000 suppliers and 

4,000 people. 

Member companies recognize supplier 

audits completed on behalf of another 

company through a framework called 

mutual recognition. Recognizing 

audits conducted on behalf of another 

company reduces audit fatigue, saves 

time and lowers costs on the part of 

suppliers and shifts the focus from 

auditing to performance. Our work 

with AIM-PROGRESS has advanced our 

mutual audit recognition to 16 percent of 

the suppliers we audit. 

Building capabilities for respecting 

human and workplace rights

To help increase human and workplace 

rights–related capabilities among our 

employees, our Company has organized 

a series of development sessions and 

training programs. More than 20 of these 

training resources are available online via 

Coca-Cola University. Training programs 

include Workplace Rights Policy and 

Human Rights Statement Manager 

Training; Corporate Responsibility to 

Respect Human Rights; Business Case 

for Human Rights; Workplace Rights 

Policy Employee Familiarization; and 

many others.

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Implementing our Global Mutual 

Respect Policy

In December 2012, on Human Rights 

Day (December 10), we introduced our 

Global Mutual Respect Policy. The policy 

focuses on how the Company expects 

employees to treat each other and 

everyone they interact with in their work 

on behalf of the Company. The policy 

specifically addresses:

• Valuing diversity and inclusion

• Creating an environment free from 

discrimination and harassment

• Reporting potential discrimination, 

harassment or any other type of 

disrespectful or excessive behavior 

• Ensuring that there is no reprisal or 

retaliation of any kind as a result 

of reporting or participating in any 

investigation 

Our Global Mutual Respect Policy 

augments our Workplace Rights Policy 

by making our already firm stance 

against discrimination, intimidation 

and harassment even more explicit. 

It also provides a single, consistent 

policy on these topics covering all 

Company employees worldwide. As 

with our Workplace Rights Policy, anyone 

perceiving a violation of our Global 

Mutual Respect Policy can report their 

concerns to their manager, to a Human 

Resources or Employee Relations 

representative, to Company legal 

counsel or to our EthicsLine.

Making the Coca-Cola system a great 

place to work

Inside every bottle of Coca-Cola is the 

passion, hard work and ingenuity of 

some 700,000 people around the world 

and across our system—the people who 

make, market and deliver our products. 

One of our 2020 Vision goals is to be a 

great place to work. And we believe that 

work should be a place of exploration, 

creativity and professional growth—a 

place where people are inspired and 

motivated to achieve extraordinary 

results. We want our people to take 

pride in their work as they refresh the 

world, inspire moments of optimism 

and happiness, create value and make 

a difference. 

Around the world, a “best place 

to work”

For many years, our Company has 

been named to numerous “employer 

of choice” lists—a strong endorsement 

of our workplace culture and policies, 

and one component we use to track our 

progress toward our people goals. Such 

awards, which take employee opinion 

into account, are also a great asset in our 

recruiting. In 2012 and 2013, we earned 

placement on 20 employer of choice lists, 

including (see map on page 39): 

• World’s 25 Best Multinational 

Workplaces 2013 from Great Place to 

Work® Institute

• Best Workplaces in Argentina, Brazil, 

Chile, Denmark, France, Nigeria, Peru, 

Spain and the United Kingdom from 

Great Place to Work® Institute

• Regional Best Workplaces in Europe 

and Latin America from Great Place to 

Work® Institute

• Best Employers Middle East (Middle 

East North Africa Business Unit and 

CPS Egypt) from Aon Hewitt 

• Best Companies to Work For in India 

from Business Today

• Súper Empresas in Mexico from 

Expansión magazine

• Top Employers, South Africa from 

CRF Institute

• Best Places to Work in Spain from 

Actualidad Económica

• 50 Most Desired Companies in Turkey 

from Bloomberg Businessweek

• Asia’s Best Employer Brand Award 

from Employer Branding Institute

Continuing our commitment to 

workplace safety

Every worker has a fundamental right 

to a safe and healthy workplace. Our 

Workplace Rights Policy requires that 

we take responsibility for maintaining 

a productive workplace in every part of 

our Company by minimizing the risk of 

accidents, injury and exposure to health 

hazards for all of our associates and 

contractors. We’re working to help our 

bottling partners minimize such risks for 

their employees and contract workers 

as well.

The Coca-Cola Operating Requirements 

(KORE) define the policies, standards 

and requirements for managing safety, 

the environment and quality throughout 

our operations. KORE also requires that 

our manufacturing and distribution 

facilities implement BS OHSAS 18001 

(British Standard Occupational Health 

and Safety Assessment Series 18001, a 

framework for an effective occupational 

health and safety management 

system) or an equivalent internationally 

recognized safety management system.

To guide us in achieving a safe work 

environment for our associates, KORE 

defines a rigorous set of operational 

controls to manage known risks. 

The controls generally align with top 

global requirements and consensus 

standards. In addition, we engage 

recognized external audit firms to 

assess the compliance of each of 

our manufacturing operations with 

applicable laws and regulations and 

our Company occupational safety and 

health requirements.

We provide substantial safety training 

to our associates using the training 

requirements defined in KORE as a 

global baseline. Training covers newhire induction and periodic refresher 

training for all associates and other 

workers conducting work on our behalf.

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Our safety record in 2012

Despite improvements in 10 of the 17 

countries where we have Companyowned bottling facilities, our overall 

lost-time incident rate increased 

5 percent between 2011 and 2012—from 

2.2 to 2.3. This increase was driven 

primarily by improved reporting of onsite contractors and ancillary operations 

in Europe.

In addition, we regret to report the 

deaths of five Company associates 

and 10 contractors in 2012. Vehiclerelated incidents in India, China and the 

Philippines accounted for all but two of 

those deaths. The remaining two deaths 

were due to falls from height—one 

in the United States and one in India. 

We continue to educate workers on 

fleet safety, contractor safety and fall 

protection. We also have work under 

way to further enhance our response to 

serious safety incidents.

Working to improve safety systemwide

In 2012 and 2013, we took a number 

of steps to improve safety in our 

Company and across our system. The 

senior leaders of our three operating 

businesses—Coca-Cola Americas, 

Coca-Cola International and Bottling 

Investments Group—designated 

themselves as senior executive 

sponsors for safety and health and 

will engage our system leadership 

in efforts to raise standards and 

performance on safety systemwide. 

Also, we incorporated our Global 

Safety Council within our Global Supply 

Chain Council, ensuring integration 

and alignment with operations at a 

higher level than ever before. The 

Global Safety Council includes senior 

safety leaders from within our Company 

and from our bottling partners and 

works to support our system vision 

of creating and maintaining a “zeroincident” culture. The Global Safety 

Council is working to develop the safety 

capabilities of our leadership, ensure 

robust safety-management processes, 

align and enhance our metrics 

systems and advance behavior-based 

safety programs.

We also improved results reviews at the 

Operating Committee level and above, 

ensuring the necessary leadership focus 

on safety improvement.

In 2012 and 2013, we launched 

or enhanced several platforms to 

increase safety capabilities across our 

system, including:

• A “Safety and Environment Successful 

Solutions” portal, which provides 

a common online location where 

safety leaders can create and share 

successful safety practices from across 

the system.

• A monthly online training series 

geared especially toward safety 

and environmental professionals 

and available to all Coca-Cola 

system associates.

• Local initiatives led by our bottlers and 

business units.

Ongoing focus on 

route-to-market safety

Improving safety in our manufacturing 

facilities is just part of our work. A 

significant portion of the risks to our 

employees and contractors can be 

found outside the walls of our plants—

in distribution centers, on the road 

and when delivering our products to 

our customers. Further improvement 

in these areas will take time, but we 

took some significant steps in 2012 and 

2013, including:

• Designating a dedicated corporate 

“Route-to-Market Safety and 

Environment Principal” to engage our 

system in creating and implementing 

our improvement strategy.

• Increasing system resources, including 

the addition of a new fleet safety 

manager for our Company-owned 

bottler in India. Focus on India is a 

priority based both on the number of 

safety incidents in that country as well 

as the high reliance on contractors for 

distribution and route sales there.

• Beginning implementation of fleet 

safety workshops to engage bottling 

partners in assessing their operations 

and creating action plans to address 

any gaps.

• Maintaining our presence on the 

board of directors of the Network of 

Employers for Traffic Safety.

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Coca-Cola İIçecek’s “12 Golden Health and 

Safety Rules” campaign.
In addition, our bottlers and business 

units led local initiatives. One example 

of such an initiative is Coca-Cola Iberia’s 

comprehensive safety program, which 

was launched in 2013 and intended to 

reduce accidents not only in its own fleet 

but also among distributors and third 

parties distributing Coca-Cola products 

in Spain and Portugal.

Greater adoption of behavior-based 

safety programs

Like many companies, we are 

expanding our focus on behavior-based 

safety in order to continually increase 

the level of employee engagement 

in the safety improvement process. 

Organizations throughout our system 

have the flexibility to evaluate and 

implement locally relevant programs, 

and early results are encouraging. As 

an example, since implementing its 

behavior-based program in 2010, our 

French concentrate production facility, 

Coca-Cola Midi S.A.S., has reduced its 

lost-time incident rate by 78 percent, 

its medical treatment cases rate by 83 

percent and its lost-time incident severity 

rate by 93 percent.

Looking ahead: raising the bar

Our work to improve safety 

systemwide will accelerate in 2014. 

The improvements we are preparing to 

implement include:

• Improvement of safety audits. We will 

create an “always audit-ready” culture 

by conducting only unannounced 

safety audits. Frequency of audits will 

vary by facility based on risk. We will 

also shift from contracted auditors to 

an in-house auditing team. 

• Enhanced capability and development 

systems for Quality, Safety and 

Environment personnel. We will 

implement more robust methods 

of ensuring our talent pipeline is in 

place and will improve our capability 

assessment tools.

• Continued focus on fleet safety and 

other priority areas. We will create 

focused networks to more effectively 

tap the expertise of existing safety 

resources throughout our Company 

and across our system.

As diverse and inclusive as our brands

Diversity is one of our seven core values. 

It is also imperative if our business is 

to continue to thrive in a multicultural 

world.

We work hard to ensure an inclusive and 

fair work environment. Our workplace 

diversity strategy includes programs 

that attract, retain and develop diverse 

talent; provide support systems for 

groups with diverse backgrounds; and 

educate all associates through regular 

diversity training. For more information, 

see our Global Diversity Strategic 

Framework.

In 2012 and 2013, we continued to move 

toward our vision of a more diverse 

and inclusive Company and system. 

Following are some highlights of our 

progress. 

Our Global Women’s Initiative wins 

Catalyst Award

We were honored to receive the 2013

Catalyst Award for the achievements 

related to our Global Women’s Initiative 

(GWI), a program led by our Chairman 

and CEO, Muhtar Kent.

Catalyst is a leading nonprofit 

organization with a mission to expand 

opportunities to women and business. 

The Catalyst Award annually honors 

innovative organizational initiatives with 

proven, measurable results that address 

the recruitment, development and 

advancement of women.

Created in 2007, GWI is a broad 

program that develops female 

leaders inside the Coca-Cola system, 

economically empowers women 

entrepreneurs in the marketplace 

through our 5by20TM initiative and 

supports community organizations 

serving women through philanthropic 

outreach. 

Through GWI, we have:

• Increased the percentage of women 

at leadership levels in our Company 

from 23 percent in 2008 to just over 30 

percent at the end of 2012.

• Improved the number of women on 

our Company’s immediate leadership 

pipeline from 28 percent in 2008 to 

just over 34 percent at the end of 2012.

• Increased external recruitment of 

women for leadership positions from 

13 percent in 2007 to 40 percent in 

2012. 

• Advanced the percentage of women 

in key leadership programs from 

 21 percent in 2007 to 44 percent in 

2012.

• Expanded Women’s Linc, our 

Company’s affinity group for women, 

to ten business units globally, with 

further expansion planned for 2013 

and 2014. Prior to this expansion, 

Women’s Linc was mainly active in the 

United States.

• Empowered approximately 300,000 

female entrepreneurs across our value 

chain through the 5by20 initiative.

• Contributed more than $7 million 

and immeasurable human hours to 

organizations around the world that 

serve women. 

Additional diversity-related recognition

In addition to the Catalyst Award, we 

were honored to receive the following 

recognition during our 2012–2013 

reporting period for our efforts to build a 

diverse and inclusive Company:

• On the DiversityInc Top 50 Companies 

for Diversity list for the 11th straight 

year. 

• A perfect score on the Human Rights 

Campaign Corporate Equality Index for 

the seventh straight year.

• One of the Black Enterprise Magazine 

Best Companies for Diversity for the 

ninth straight year.

• A score of 90 on the Hispanic 

Association on Corporate 

Responsibility’s Corporate Inclusion 

Index—an increase of five points from 

2011. Only one company received a 

higher score.

• The Hispanic Federation’s Corporate 

Leadership Award, given to companies 

showing outstanding commitment 

to the Hispanic community by 

supporting causes important to that 

community. This was the first time a 

major corporation in the nonalcoholic 

beverage industry received the top 

award.

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Launching our Multicultural Leadership 

Council

In late 2012, we announced the 

establishment of our Multicultural 

Leadership Council, a panel of U.S.-

based employees working together 

to accelerate leadership opportunities 

within our Company for multicultural 

associates. While we have long 

focused on the hiring, development 

and advancement of multicultural 

associates, our Multicultural Leadership 

Council will bring additional momentum 

and employee insight to those efforts.

“Gold” partnership with the Human 

Rights Campaign

In 2012, we also became a gold-level 

partner of the Human Rights Campaign 

(HRC), the largest advocacy organization 

for lesbian, gay, bisexual and 

transgender (LGBT) people in the United 

States. As an HRC partner, we sponsor 

the organization and collaborate with 

it on initiatives to establish equality for 

LGBT people in the Coca-Cola system 

and elsewhere.

Progress on diversity at Coca-Cola 

Refreshments

In 2010, our Company acquired the 

North American business of Coca-Cola 

Enterprises Inc. and formed Coca-Cola 

Refreshments USA, Inc. (CCR), as a 

wholly owned subsidiary. Since then, we 

have helped CCR implement programs 

for ensuring the same leadership in 

diversity, inclusion and fairness that have 

characterized our Company for more 

than a decade. Among other measures, 

we helped CCR establish eight new 

Diversity and Inclusion Councils, which 

help drive diversity policy. CCR continues 

to further embed diversity and inclusion 

in its human resources processes.

In 2012, CCR completed implementation 

of many of the same workplace fairness 

monitoring and reporting processes that 

our Company has used for more than 

a decade, including fairness studies 

of performance management, annual 

incentive awards and the granting 

of stock options and performance 

share units. In addition, CCR provided 

workplace fairness and inclusiveness 

training to all of its 8,000 people 

managers and established a three-year 

roadmap for diversity and inclusion.

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Access 

to Critical 

Medicines

In too many places around 

the world, people lack access 

to lifesaving medicines. 

We’re helping to change 

that. Through our efforts with 

partners representing both 

private and public sectors 

as well as civil society, we’re 

applying our supply chain 

and logistics expertise to help 

deliver essential medicines to 

communities that need them. 

Project Last Mile

One of our system’s greatest assets 

is our extraordinary reach into more 

than 200 countries worldwide, made 

possible by our vast global supply 

and distribution network. In 2010, in 

partnership with The Global Fund to 

Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria 

(the Global Fund), we committed to 

provide our route-to-market expertise 

to help government and nongovernmental organizations deliver 

critical medicines to rural Africa and 

other remote parts of the world—an 

effort called Project Last Mile.

Project Last Mile was originally 

developed in cooperation with the 

Global Fund, the Bill & Melinda Gates 

Foundation, Accenture Development 

Partnerships, Yale University’s 

Global Health Leadership Institute 

(GHLI), Tanzania’s Medical Stores

Department (MSD) and others. Project 

Last Mile’s first project was a publicprivate partnership designed to help 

Tanzania’s medicine distribution 

organization, MSD, build a more 

efficient supply chain by using our 

system’s proven logistics models for 

delivering beverages. 

Since 2010, Project Last Mile in 

Tanzania has:

• Demonstrated that private sector 

business practices can be applied to 

solve challenges in the public supply 

chain. 

• Reduced lead time for the 

procurement of medicines and 

reduced the risk of critical medicine 

shortages by implementing planning 

and procurement processes that 

mirror Coca-Cola bottler practices. 

• Empowered MSD to reorganize and 

expand its distribution system from 

500 warehouse drop-off points to 

direct delivery to more than 5,500 

health facilities. In pilot areas, MSD 

reported improvements of 20 to 30 

percent in medicine availability.

• Created a balanced scorecard to 

help track and measure supply chain 

performance effectively.

A case study released by Yale 

University’s GHLI in September 2012 

documented key lessons learned 

from the partnership. It notes “the 

collaboration in Tanzania demonstrated 

that private sector business practices 

were directly applicable to solving 

the challenges faced by a public 

organization.” Through study of the 

supply chain in Tanzania, analysis of 

more than 80 interviews with various 

stakeholders and numerous field 

observations, GHLI identified five factors 

that have led to Project Last Mile’s 

success: 

• Flexibility to adjust from a global idea 

to local implementation 

• Visible champions within each partner 

organization 

• Country ownership

• Alignment and coordination among 

partners

• Investment in implementation capacity 

Building on the successes in Tanzania, 

Project Last Mile has expanded to 

Ghana. Working closely with the Bill & 

Melinda Gates Foundation and Ghana 

Health Services, this partnership is 

initially focusing on the supply chain and 

marketing of vaccines. 

Addressing HIV/AIDS 

We recognize that HIV/AIDS is a global 

health emergency. We have responded 

by establishing corporate policies 

and practices guided by international 

standards, including the International 

Labour Organization’s Code of Practice 

on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work and 

the Joint United Nations Programme on 

HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

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In Africa, our Company has worked 

with local health officials and experts in 

health management organizations to 

implement workplace and community 

programs and to provide healthcare 

benefits for the approximately 65,000 

Company and bottler employees in 

Africa. Health benefits for both Company 

and bottler employees cover confidential 

voluntary testing and antiretroviral drugs 

for those who test HIV positive. Benefits 

cover both employees and dependents. 

In 2012, The Coca-Cola Africa 

Foundation granted nearly $1 million 

to partner organizations working to 

help those affected by HIV/AIDS. Hope 

Worldwide, one of The Coca-Cola Africa 

Foundation’s partner organizations, 

addresses the plight of children 

orphaned or otherwise made vulnerable 

by HIV. That partnership has benefited 

an estimated 140,000 children. Our 

Company is also working with Africare

to implement a comprehensive and 

integrated community HIV/AIDS support 

project in South Africa, where rates of 

HIV/AIDS are among the highest in the 

world.

Also in 2012, Muhtar Kent, our 

Chairman and CEO, lent his and the 

Company’s name to a CEO statement 

released in advance of a UNAIDS 

conference in Washington, D.C., 

calling on 47 countries to lift travel and 

residency restrictions on people living 

with HIV/AIDS.

Our partnership with (RED)

On World AIDS Day in 2011 (December 1), 

our Company announced a multi-year 

partnership with (RED) to help raise 

awareness and money for the Global

Fund with the aim of virtually eliminating 

mother-to-child HIV transmission by 

2015. Our partnership with (RED) will 

complement our collaboration with the 

Global Fund on Project Last Mile. 

Through the partnership, we will 

contribute more than $5 million over 

four years. Part of that donation is being 

used to fund awareness campaigns, 

including one in late 2012 that featured 

a one-hour TV special documenting 

the development of (THRED), a mobile 

game app that raises awareness about 

our partnership with (RED) and helps 

raise money for that organization. 

Another $3 million will be donated 

directly to the Global Fund to purchase 

antiretroviral medicines and to distribute 

educational literature; the donation 

represents the equivalent of more 

than 7.5 million doses of antiretroviral 

medicines to prevent the progression 

and transmission of HIV. 

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Disaster 

Relief & 

Strengthening 

Communities 

with the 

Red Cross 

Red Crescent 

Inside our global Coca-Cola 

system are hundreds of local 

businesses with deep roots in 

their communities. Our local 

presence gives us a unique 

capacity to lend a hand when 

disaster strikes by delivering 

hydration and supplies in 

the first hours and days. In 

times of crisis, we provide 

financial support, beverages, 

logistical support and the time 

and effort of our employees. 

We are also often involved 

in long-term reconstruction 

projects, helping to rebuild 

communities and markets 

through our business 

presence, as well as through 

philanthropic giving.

The Coca-Cola Company and its bottling 

partners have worked regularly with 

Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies 

around the world since 1917 and have 

collaborated on projects in more than 

70 countries in just the last decade. In 

January 2011, we announced a global 

partnership with the International 

Federation of Red Cross and Red 

Crescent Societies (IFRC) to expand 

our collaboration. The aim of our 

partnership is to employ the capabilities 

and expertise of our Coca-Cola system 

to maximize the speed and effectiveness 

of the societies’ disaster response, 

while working together to build public 

engagement through the humanitarian 

values and activities of the IFRC. 

In addition to responding to disasters 

together, we have worked with the 

Red Cross Red Crescent to strengthen 

communities in the following ways:

• In 2012, we conducted joint campaigns 

with the Red Cross in Denmark, 

Finland and Norway that involved 

consumers in providing clean drinking 

water to communities in Africa. 

For every bottle of Company water 

brands sold, almost 1 gallon (3 liters) 

of clean drinking water was provided 

through Red Cross water access and 

sanitation projects. To date, these 

campaigns have made an additional 

estimated 117 million gallons (450 

million liters) of clean water available 

to communities in Burundi, Kenya, 

Lesotho, Mozambique, South Sudan 

and Uganda.

• The Coca-Cola Foundation provided 

a grant in November 2012 to support 

a partnership between Coca-Cola 

France and the French Red Cross to 

promote humanitarian commitment 

among young people. The partnership 

includes two main programs: the “Red 

Touch’” program, which uses a web 

platform to encourage young people 

to share social innovation ideas, and 

“Valeurs Humanitaires,” which aims to 

raise awareness of humanitarian and 

citizenship values among secondary 

school students. 

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Lending a hand around the world

From Superstorm Sandy in the United 

States and the Caribbean to flooding in 

Pakistan to dangerously cold weather 

in the Ukraine, we were part of relief 

efforts in many countries in 2012 and 

2013. Here are some of the ways we 

helped:

• In February 2012, our system 

committed financial support to relief 

efforts in the Ukraine related to severe 

cold weather. Emergency measures 

were introduced as temperatures 

plunged to minus 22°F (minus 30°C), 

power supplies failed, and schools 

and businesses closed. Additionally, 

Coca-Cola Beverages Ukraine 

arranged deliveries of more than 1,040 

gallons (4,000 liters) of drinking water 

and juices to rescue sites and medical 

and social services centers.

• Following a wave of earthquakes 

that killed 25 people and injured 400 

more in Italy’s Emilia region in June 

2012, our system supported recovery 

efforts by delivering beverages to 

emergency officials caring for more 

than 14,000 people who were forced 

into temporary shelters. To date, our 

Coca-Cola system has donated more 

than 13,000 gallons (50,000 liters) 

of water, in addition to supplying 

ongoing requests for Coca-Cola®, 

Fanta® and Nestea® beverages.

• In July 2012, we committed financial 

support for relief efforts during the 

most devastating wildfires in Colorado 

history. The fires burned more than 

340 homes, forced evacuation of 

35,000 people and consumed 16,750 

acres (6,781 hectares). The Coca-Cola 

system provided more than 1,500 

cases of beverages for relief efforts. 

• In September 2012, Coca-Cola 

Pakistan collaborated with Provincial 

Disaster Management Authority to 

provide immediate flood-relief goods 

to the flood-affected people of Punjab. 

Our Coca-Cola system provided 

ration packages for approximately 

2,500 people, mineral water for 

an estimated 15,000 people and 

Minute-Maid® high nutrition juices 

for approximately 12,000 people. The 

ration packages consisted of cooked 

and dry food items, rice, lentils and oil.

• In October 2012, Superstorm Sandy 

affected most of the East Coast of the 

United States and was responsible for 

nearly 200 deaths in the United States 

and the Caribbean. We responded 

by pledging financial support 

from The Coca-Cola Foundation to 

benefit multiple organizations. The 

Coca-Cola system also donated more 

than 26,000 cases of beverages 

and employees worked hundreds 

of volunteer hours. Additionally, our 

employees organized drives to collect 

and donate food, clothing and other 

necessary items for communities in 

need.

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Water 

Stewardship

Inside every bottle of 

Coca-Cola is the story of 

a company that understands 

the priceless value of 

water, respects it as the 

most precious of shared 

global resources and works 

vigorously to conserve water 

worldwide. We can’t imagine 

treating water any other way.

Clean, accessible water is essential to 

the health of communities. It is critical 

to ecosystems and indispensable for 

economic prosperity. And it is essential 

for our business. Water is the main 

ingredient in our beverages, central 

to our manufacturing process and 

necessary for growing the agricultural 

products we use as ingredients.

We have a particular interest in 

protecting the water sources that sustain 

communities because the communities 

that host our bottling plants are also 

our consumer base; we sell our 

products where we make them. If those 

communities stay strong, our business 

will stay strong; if the watersheds we 

share with them are conserved, those 

communities, and our business, can 

thrive. So, in addition to the ethical and 

ecological imperatives that drive our 

water stewardship, we also have a 

vested business interest in conserving 

and improving local water sources.

Our global system is working to 

replenish, or balance, the water used in 

our finished beverages—an estimated 

52 percent so far, with an ultimate goal 

of being water-neutral by 2020.* Our 

system is becoming more efficient in its 

water use by reducing the amount used 

per liter of product, even as production 

volumes increase. And Coca-Cola 

bottling plants around the world are 

recycling wastewater, treating it to 

stringent standards and returning it to 

nature at a level that supports aquatic 

life—sometimes returning it cleaner 

than we found it.

Though we share concern about water 

sources and increasing water stress in 

many parts of the world, we believe the 

world contains enough water to meet 

everyone’s needs—but only if everyone 

works together to better manage water 

resources. As a consumer of water 

and as a company with a presence 

that is both global and local, we have 

a particular obligation—and a unique 

opportunity—to be a responsible 

steward of water.

Collaborating to replenish the 

water we use

Between 2005 and the end of 2012, we 

balanced an estimated 52 percent of the 

water used in our finished beverages 

based on 2012 production volume, for 

an estimated total of 81.1 billion liters of 

water replenished to communities and 

nature.*

We are working toward water balance 

through diverse, locally-focused 

community water projects that 

often grow out of the source water 

vulnerability assessments (SVAs) 

conducted by our bottling plants.

The projects we engage in typically have 

at least one of four objectives:

• To improve access to water and 

sanitation

• To protect watersheds

• To provide water for productive use

• To educate and raise awareness 

about water issues, including 

engagement on water policy.

Goal: By 2020, safely return 

to communities and nature an 

amount of water equal to what we 

use in our finished beverages and 

their production.

Progress: In progress. We estimate 

we have balanced 52 percent* 

(81.1 billion liters) of the water used 

in our finished beverages (based 

on 2012 production volume) and 

returned approximately 160 billion 

liters through treated wastewater.

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The Coca-Cola Company GRI Report > World > Water

$260MM invested in community 

water projects to date with 

our partners

1.82MM people have benefited

from our water access and 

sanitation projects globally

468 community water projects

under way or completed in 

100+ countries

~52% (81.1B liters)* of the water 

used in our finished beverages 

has been replenished to date
In many cases, projects also help 

improve local livelihoods, help 

communities adapt to climate change, 

improve water quality and enhance 

biodiversity.

Since 2005, we have engaged in 468 

projects with partners such as World 

Wildlife Fund (WWF), United States 

Agency for International Development

(USAID), The Nature Conservancy, Water 

for People, United Nations Human 

Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), 

and the United Nations Development 

Programme (UNDP). To date, our 

initiatives for improving water access 

and sanitation alone are estimated to 

have benefited more than 1.82 million 

people.

Our bottling partners’ SVAs and source 

water protection plans (SWPPs) provide 

opportunities to link our replenish 

actions to watersheds and communities 

where we operate. For example, the 

SVA for one bottling plant identified 

rising nutrient concentrations in the local 

watershed, which provided both source 

water for our manufacturing plant and 

an important eco-tourism attraction 

and recreational amenity for the local 

community. Through the SVA and 

SWPP processes, we were able to raise 

concern over water quality, rally the 

local government and community, and 

encourage area farmers to implement 

farming practices that reduced the 

nutrient load on the watershed. We 

are increasingly pursuing synergies 

between our source-water protection 

and replenish programs so that we can 

identify and implement locally relevant 

projects that support the increased 

sustainability of local watersheds and 

communities while reducing risks to our 

business.

How we quantify replenishment: 

an evolving methodology

The Nature Conservancy, with support 

from LimnoTech and the Global 

Environment & Technology Foundation, 

helps us calculate the volume of 

water we have replenished using an 

approach based on widely accepted 

tools and methodologies. While we 

believe these methods are sound, we 

acknowledge that the science and 

methodology shaping quantification 

of water replenishment are new and 

developing. It may be premature to 

rely on our water benefit calculations 

as hard fact. For more about how 

we quantify replenishment, read our 

report, Quantifying Replenish Benefits in 

Community Water Partnership Projects.

Approaching 100 projects with UNDP

As part of our work to replenish water 

sources, we support Every Drop Matters, 

the longstanding partnership between 

the Coca-Cola Eurasia and Africa group 

and UNDP. Every Drop Matters aims 

to help nations in Eurasia and Africa 

achieve Millennium Development Goals

by meeting challenges related to water 

supply, sanitation, water resources 

management and climate change.

Through Every Drop Matters, our system 

has joined UNDP in undertaking nearly 

100 projects in more than 20 countries 

including Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, 

Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 

Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, 

Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, 

Montenegro, Romania, Russia, Serbia, 

Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, 

and Uzbekistan. Projects include 

watershed restoration, sustainable 

agriculture initiatives, capacity-building 

among government water managers, 

and more. Our commitment was to 

invest $14 million to support Every Drop 

Matters and other UNDP programs 

by the end of 2012, with an ongoing 

expectation of a $3 million annual 

contribution for at least three more 

years. To date, Every Drop Matters 

has directly benefited almost 900,000 

people in Eastern Europe by improving 

access to safe drinking water or 

improved water governance.

Our recent work through Every Drop 

Matters includes these projects:

• Developing water governance in 

Romania. Romania has ample water 

sources but lacks effective water 

governance. We implemented a pilot 

study enabling Romanian authorities 

to secure a grant of $2.5 million to 

develop a rural water governance 

strategy.

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90+ projects with UNDP,

benefiting almost 900,000 

people in Eastern Europe and 

Asia by improved access to 

safe drinking water or improved 

water resources
• Building infrastructure in Kazakhstan. 

In the town of Kok-Ozek, as in many 

communities in the former Soviet 

Union, the water system brought 

water as far as a central depot, but 

did not include infrastructure for 

delivering water to households. In 

partnership with UNDP and local 

authorities, we built a piping network 

designed to deliver water to every 

household and to schools and 

community health centers in the town 

center. More significantly, we helped 

the community establish a cooperative 

that will oversee water distribution, 

maintenance and sanitation, helping 

to support the sustainability of the 

new system. Our model was identified 

as a best practice by the UNDP 

board of directors and by the Kazakh 

government, and may be replicated 

throughout the country.

Learn more about our Every Drop 

Matters work with UNDP. 

Our valued partnership with WWF

Since 2007, The Coca-Cola Company and 

WWF have worked together to conserve 

and protect freshwater resources around 

the world while helping to improve 

the efficiency of Coca-Cola’s global 

operations. To date the partnership has 

led to major conservation gains, including 

helping to improve the ecological health 

of seven of the world’s most important 

freshwater basins across five continents, 

helping improve the Coca-Cola system’s 

water efficiency by 20 percent, working 

to prevent an estimated 5 million metric 

tons of CO2

 emissions across Coca-Cola’s 

global manufacturing operations, and 

promoting more sustainable agricultural 

practices in the Company’s supply chain. 

This year, building on the 

initial successes of our nearly 

decade-long partnership, WWF and 

The Coca-Cola Company announced 

new, bold global environmental goals 

and an expanded global partnership. 

Under the renewed and expanded 

partnership, the Company and 

WWF jointly developed new 2020 

environmental sustainability goals for 

the Coca-Cola system—the Company 

and its nearly 250 bottling partners in 

more than 200 countries. These goals 

include: 

1. Improve water efficiency by 25 percent

2. Help ensure healthy, resilient 

freshwater systems

3. Reduce CO2

 emissions embedded in 

“the drink in your hand” by 25 percent

4. Responsibly source material for 

PlantBottleTM packaging

5. Sustainably source key agricultural 

ingredients

To read the great results accomplished 

by our partnership with WWF, see our

Partnership 2012 Annual Review. 

And for even more information, visit our 

partnership page on our Company’s 

website and view the video we 

developed with WWF. 

Bringing RAIN to Africa

In 2009, The Coca-Cola Africa 

Foundation launched the Replenish 

Africa Initiative (RAIN), a $30 million 

program that is on track to provide at 

least 2 million people across Africa 

with safe water by 2015 and to fund 

water projects in every African country. 

RAIN-funded projects improve sanitation 

and hygiene, increase productive use of 

water and protect watersheds. To date, 

RAIN has provided access to safe water 

for approximately 800,000 people in 

33 of Africa’s 58 nations. It has helped 

replenish more than 1.3 billion liters of 

water and improve 1,600 communities.

Because the lack of water and sanitation 

facilities in African nations is particularly 

hard on the continent’s girls and 

women, we have focused much of the 

investment in RAIN to date on water 

and sanitation partnerships aimed at 

improving the lives of an estimated 

400,000 girls and women across Africa.

One recent success: A water purification 

system that delivers safe, fresh water 

to the people of rural Elliotdale, a poor 

community in South Africa’s Eastern 

Cape province. The new system spares 

Elliotdale’s girls and women the chore 

of spending hours fetching water at 

rivers far away. It allows girls to spend 

more time in school. And it provides 

safer, better-tasting water to the whole 

community. Watch a video about the 

project here.

In 2012, as part of RAIN, we joined 

The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation in 

committing $3.5 million to the U.S. 

Water Partnership (USWP) to help 

advance sustainable water access in 

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~800,000 people in 33 of Africa’s 

58 nations to date have been 

provided access to safe water

2MM Africans will be provided 

safe water access by 2015
five African countries where less than 

half of the population has access to 

safe water: Democratic Republic of 

the Congo, Ethiopia, Madagascar, 

Mozambique and Somaliland. Funds 

will support a variety of sustainable 

water access activities ranging from 

expanding water access in urban 

settlements to providing water access in 

hospitals and promoting multiple uses 

of water that empower women. Some 

of the funding will also be dedicated 

to operational support enabling USWP 

to bring additional resources to African 

countries characterized as high-need for 

safe water and sanitation.

Supporting development of Africa’s 

water expertise

Also in 2012, in addition to our work 

through RAIN, we joined Oxford 

University’s School of Geography and 

the Environment in launching The Africa 

Water Stewardship Scholarship. The 

scholarship is intended to help build the 

capacity of outstanding African students 

to pursue master’s-level study of water 

science, policy and management 

and become the next generation of 

Africa’s water leaders. We are exploring 

additional work with Oxford University in 

parallel with this scholarship.

View a recent blog post on a student’s 

experience.

Partnering with Dean Kamen to deliver 

safe drinking water

In 2012, we announced our partnership 

with Dean Kamen and DEKA Research

and Development to bring Kamen’s 

SlingshotTM technology—a low-energy 

machine designed to purify water in any 

form—to communities around the world 

where access to safe drinking water is 

extremely limited. DEKA R&D will install 

and commission the Slingshot systems 

and remotely monitor performance 

while Coca-Cola will provide on-theground support of persons trained to 

operate and maintain the systems. We 

piloted the Slingshot technology in five 

schools in Ghana in 2011, providing safe 

drinking water to nearly 1,500 children. 

In 2013, the partnership aims to deliver 

safe drinking water to schools, health 

clinics and community centers in rural 

regions of countries within Africa and 

Latin America.

Longer term, Coca-Cola and DEKA 

R&D will form additional partnerships 

to expand the project to communities 

in India, the Middle East and Asia, in 

addition to Africa and Latin America. 

When fully scaled, the partnership aims 

to add more than half a billion liters 

of safe drinking water per year to the 

global water supply.

Learn more about this partnership and 

the Slingshot technology.

Alignment with our business

Many of our community water 

projects, while strategically aligned 

with our business system’s water 

stewardship strategy, are funded 

through our Coca-Cola Foundation and 

our foundations worldwide. Read about 

some of them in the Charitable Giving 

section of our Sustainability Report. 

Additionally, information about specific 

water stewardship work at bottling 

plants and communities across our 

system can be found in reports issued 

by our bottling partners.

The challenge of sustaining water 

balance

While we are energized by our success 

to date, we recognize that we have 

much more to do if we are to meet 

our goal of replenishing the water we 

use by 2020. And meeting that goal 

is only a first step. We also intend to 

continue to balance the water we use 

over time—a complex and neverending challenge. Sustaining water 

balance will require us to continue to 

treat all process wastewater, even as 

our business grows and as government 

regulation of treatment becomes stricter 

in some parts of the world. In order to 

sustain this commitment, we will need 

to replenish more water to balance our 

water use as our business grows. And 

it will require us to sustain the outcomes 

of our community water projects 

through monitoring and evaluation, to 

ensure that those projects continue to 

deliver the intended benefits to people 

and nature.

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Setting a new goal for water efficiency

We have made steady progress in 

improving our water efficiency, which 

we define as the amount of water we 

use per liter of product. Between 2004 

and 2011, we met our initial goal of 

improving water efficiency system-wide 

by 20 percent compared to a 2004 

baseline. Our new goal is to improve 

efficiency by 25 percent over our 2010 

water use ratio of 2.26 liters of water 

used per liter of product produced.

Understanding our water footprint

Water footprinting—an approach to 

assess the total volume of water used 

to produce a product—is helping us 

extend our view of how we use water 

across our supply chain. Our studies 

have shown that around 80 percent 

of the total water footprint of our 

products comes from our agricultural 

supply chain. As a founding partner 

of the Water Footprint Network, we 

have worked with WWF, Conservation 

International and others to assess 

the water embedded in our product 

ingredients so we can better understand 

the implications for our business, and 

work to reduce impacts.

In collaboration with The Nature 

Conservancy, in 2010, we issued 

a report, Product Water Footprint 

Assessments: Practical Application in 

Corporate Water Stewardship, exploring 

the utility and practical application of 

the water footprint methodology for 

understanding our water use throughout 

the value chain, and for identifying the 

impacts of that use and associated 

response actions.

Water footprint studies were conducted 

related to the following Company 

products and ingredients:

• Coca-Cola® in a 0.5 liter PET bottle 

produced in the Netherlands;

• Beet sugar supplied to Coca-Cola 

Europe’s bottling plants; and

• Orange juice produced for the North 

American market.

The largest portion of the product 

water footprints assessed as part of 

these studies came from the field, 

not the factory, which demonstrated 

significant opportunity to engage more 

directly with our agricultural suppliers in 

advancing more sustainable water use. 

Guided in part by these assessments, 

to date, we have focused studies on 

the “blue,” green” and “grey” water 

footprints of sugar beets, orange juice 

and Coca-Cola® to help us pinpoint 

potential sustainability impacts in 

specific watersheds.

We expect to increasingly assess not 

just the quantity of the water used 

to grow our product ingredients, 

but the impact of that use as well. 

Understanding impact is important, 

because large water footprints can 

be sustainable in water-rich areas, 

while very small water footprints might 

compromise sustainability in places 

where water is scarce. Gaining a clear 

understanding of impacts makes good 

environmental sense and provides us 

with better guidance for prioritizing 

areas of concern. Coca-Cola Europe 

has proposed a methodology for water 

footprint sustainability assessments

that considers impacts as well as 

water quantity. Also, please refer to the 

Sustainable Agriculture section of our 

Sustainability Report for more details on 

our efforts with suppliers.

Goal: By 2020, improve water 

efficiency in manufacturing 

operations by 25 percent 

compared with a 2010 baseline.

Progress: We have improved our 

water efficiency 5.9 percent since 

2010 and 21.4 percent since 2004.

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Mitigating water risk for communities 

and for our system

To mitigate water-related risks to our 

system and to the communities we 

serve, we have required every one 

of our system’s 863 bottling plants to 

conduct a local source vulnerability 

assessment, or SVA. We also require a 

water source sustainability assessment 

as part of the due diligence process 

when we acquire land for a new 

plant or purchase a business with 

existing manufacturing plants. These 

assessments inventory the social, 

environmental and political risks to the 

water sources supplying our facilities 

and the surrounding communities. SVAs 

include the following elements, among 

others:

• A description of the physical 

water resource system from the 

water source(s) to the facility’s 

water treatment system, including 

groundwater, surface water and 

ocean water.

• An inventory of water resource 

management agencies and their 

policies, regulations, planning 

priorities, and enforcement activities.

• An inventory of relevant stakeholders, 

including communities, water 

providers, regulatory agencies, 

NGOs, labor and trade organizations, 

learning institutions, political entities 

and others.

• Maps showing the areal extent of the 

local watershed and surface water 

system.

• Basic descriptions of the local 

hydrogeology and groundwater 

resources, and a map of the 

local groundwater resources and 

groundwater basin.

• A review of available water quality 

data and known current and historical 

water quality issues.

• A “conceptual hydrologic model” 

for the watershed and groundwater 

basin. Models include a water balance 

calculation and account for inputs 

such as rain and outputs such as 

withdrawals and evaporation.

• A water scarcity evaluation that 

identifies current water stress and 

drought conditions.

• An evaluation of the potential for 

natural disasters and security issues to 

threaten the facility’s source water.

• An evaluation of how the facility’s 

water use could limit the availability 

and quality of water for people in the 

local community.

• An assessment of the facility’s 

wastewater treatment system and its 

effectiveness in removing known and 

suspected contaminants, along with 

an assessment of the potential impact 

our wastewater discharge could have 

on the surrounding ecosystem and 

community.

The SVAs performed to date show that 

water quality is a ubiquitous concern 

in communities where we do business. 

Water scarcity, increasing competition 

for water and infrastructure reliability 

have also been commonly cited. In 

some locations, policy, economic and 

social risks can be more challenging to 

assess. And lack of watershed data is 

a common barrier to completing robust 

technical assessments.

SVAs sometimes deliver good news: 

We’ve seen that in some communities, 

public sector water managers are 

investing in risk-mitigation planning and 

water sustainability resiliency, indicating 

risks that are lower than we estimated 

prior to assessment.

From assessment to action

Once bottling plants have completed 

their SVAs, we require them to develop 

and implement a comprehensive 

SWPP detailing specific risk-mitigation 

actions and deadlines for completing 

them. Plans address challenges at 

Goal: Assess the vulnerabilities 

of the quality and quantity of 

water sources for each of our 

system’s bottling plants and begin 

implementing a locally relevant 

source water protection program 

by the end of 2012.

Progress: In progress. By the end of 

2012, 788 of the 863 bottling plants 

in our system (91%) had completed 

source vulnerability assessments 

and 587 plants had begun 

implementation of source water 

protection plans. Work on this goal 

began in 2008. Due to challenges 

in obtaining data, ongoing 

discussions with stakeholders and 

the sheer volume of work required, 

some plants have not yet met our 

goal. We aim for all plants to have 

source water protection programs 

in place by the end of 2013.

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the watershed level, from hydrological 

vulnerabilities to local water 

management, and often are the 

basis for community water projects 

aimed at protecting and improving 

water sources. Because many issues 

identified in an SVA are concerns 

shared among many if not all water 

users in a given watershed, we use 

our findings to engage governments, 

local communities, businesses and civil 

society, and plan for collaborative action.

We required that our Company-owned 

bottling facilities and independent 

bottling partners conduct SVAs for each 

bottling plant location, and develop 

SWPPs by the end of 2012. We confirm 

compliance with this requirement 

through a formal governance process. 

As of the end of 2012, approximately 

91 percent—788 plants of 863—had 

completed SVAs and developed 

SWPPs. Nearly 70 percent of our global 

manufacturing system — 587 of 863 

plants — have begun implementation 

of SWPPs with the balance to begin 

implementation in 2013.

Though work on this goal began in 2008 

and good progress has been made 

to date, challenges in obtaining data, 

ongoing discussions with stakeholders 

and the sheer volume of work required 

have impeded the progress of some 

plants in our system. Of the plants that 

did not meet our deadline, many are in 

the final stages of completion. Through 

our governance processes, our system’s 

senior leaders are working with plants 

to implement corrective action plans 

and bring them into alignment with 

our goal. Governance ensures not only 

that assessments and planning are 

conducted, but also that SWPPs are 

implemented.

As more plants in our system move 

from assessment and planning to 

implementation of their plans, we will 

detail their progress in future reports.

Treating and recycling wastewater

We reduce our impact on water systems 

and contribute to improved water quality 

by treating wastewater before returning 

it to the environment. Our stringent 

treatment process ensures that the 

wastewater we discharge meets, and 

in many cases exceeds, standards set 

by local regulations. (In some countries, 

we have introduced the very first 

wastewater treatment facility.) In 2012, 

our system released approximately 160 

billion liters of treated wastewater.

In 2006, we set the goal that, by the end 

of 2010, all water used in our system 

operations would be discharged at 

a level that supports aquatic life. We 

identified that level through a three-part 

process:

• We identified what was in our 

wastewater by analyzing several 

samples of untreated wastewater 

from different operations across our 

system.

• Working with experts from outside 

our system, we evaluated aquatic 

toxicology science to determine how 

varying concentrations of certain water 

quality parameters (acidity, alkalinity, 

biological oxygen demand, etc.) affect 

aquatic life.

• We reviewed wastewater regulations 

from around the world to see how 

governments were addressing those 

same parameters.

We then combined all of our information 

to arrive at the maximum allowable 

concentrations for each parameter. 

Goal: By the end of 2010, return 

to the environment—at a level 

that supports aquatic life—the 

water we use in our system 

operations through comprehensive 

wastewater treatment.

Progress: In progress. We aspire 

to treat all wastewater from our 

manufacturing processes. As of 

the end of 2012, we had achieved 

98 percent alignment with our 

wastewater treatment standards.

Our system has invested $1B+

over the last decade in our 

wastewater treatment initiatives

98% facility alignment

with our wastewater standards

Returned ~160B liters

through treated wastewater

98%

Click to see 

Coca-Cola’s full 

water infographic.

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Our internal wastewater treatment 

standards call for all water we discharge 

to be treated to those levels. 

To date, 99 percent of our Companyowned plants are compliant with our 

wastewater treatment standards and 

either fully treat wastewater on site 

or use a municipal or governmentapproved wastewater treatment plant 

with secondary treatment. Our plant in 

Lachine, Quebec, Canada, is working to 

upgrade their wastewater management 

system by early 2014. As we expected, 

though, aligning an entire system 

spanning more than 200 countries and 

territories has proved to be challenging. 

Delays in financing, government 

permitting and construction have slowed 

this process, as have war and civil 

unrest in countries such as Yemen and 

Syria. As a result, we have not yet met 

our goal of 100 percent alignment.

At the end of 2012, 98 percent, or all but 

17 of the 863 Coca-Cola related bottling 

plants, had achieved alignment. Though 

much depends on variables beyond our 

control, we are working closely with our 

bottling partners and are hopeful that 

16 of the 17 noncompliant plants will 

achieve compliance with our standards 

by early 2014. The 17th noncompliant 

plant is in Syria. Compliance efforts there 

will resume when that country’s security 

issues have stabilized.

Our position: the human right to 

water and sanitation

In 2010, the United Nations (U.N.) 

General Assembly passed a nonbinding resolution by majority vote to 

officially recognize the human right to 

water and sanitation and declared that 

clean drinking water and sanitation 

are “essential to the realization of all 

human rights.” The U.N. called upon 

nations and international organizations 

to provide financial resources, capacity 

building and technology to help all 

countries provide safe, clean, accessible 

and affordable drinking water and 

sanitation for all residents.

As a beverage company, we recognize 

the indispensable nature of water 

in advancing healthy ecosystems, 

communities, business, agriculture 

and commerce. Water is fundamental 

to life, yet in many areas around 

the world, it also is under stress. At 

Coca-Cola, we respect the human and 

ecological needs for water. We also 

are engaged in internal and external 

discussions about what it means in 

practice to respect the human right 

to water and sanitation. Through our 

Water Resource Sustainability program, 

we have implemented a rights-based 

approach to water in requiring our 

operations to assess vulnerabilities to 

community sources of water, determine 

potential impacts from our use of water 

and discharge of wastewater, and then 

address issues in a SWPP.

As a participant in the United Nations 

Global Compact (UNGC), we are one of 

a number of businesses committed to 

aligning our operations and strategies 

with ten universally accepted principles 

in the areas of human rights, labor, 

environment and anti-corruption. One 

of the UNGC’s initiatives is the CEO 

Water Mandate, a unique public-private 

initiative designed to assist companies 

in the development, implementation 

and disclosure of water sustainability 

policies and practices. We were one of 

the first six companies to commit to the 

Mandate when the UN launched it in 

2007. You can see our progress against 

the Mandate’s principles here.

As part of our participation in the CEO 

Water Mandate, we helped fund and 

develop Water Action Hub, a website 

that helps NGOs, governments and 

communities connect and collaborate 

on water issues of mutual interest. The 

Hub connects stakeholders working 

on such wide-ranging issues as water 

efficiency, storm water management, 

sustainable agriculture, source-water 

protection, effluent management and 

more. The site also provides profiles 

of specific water-stressed regions and 

descriptions of water-related projects 

in progress. We are also working with 

the CEO Water Mandate on a guide for 

business respecting the human right to 

water and sanitation.

Standing with others for access to safe 

water, sanitation and hygiene

In 2012, we were also proud to 

be the 100th signatory of the 

WASH Sustainability Charter. The 

charter is based on sustainability 

principles developed by more than 

50 organizations and overseen by 

SustainableWASH.org, which promotes 

best practices for sustainable water, 

sanitation and hygiene. The charter 

seeks to “align WASH stakeholders 

around collaboratively developed 

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sustainability principles and catalyze 

adoption of these principles around the 

world.” Signatories agree to incorporate 

these principles and catalyze their 

adoption worldwide, and to encourage 

and assist each other by doing so.

Looking ahead: the 

water-energy-food nexus

We are increasingly addressing water 

stewardship in the context of the “waterenergy-food nexus”—the inextricable 

connections among resources that 

demand a 360-degree perspective and 

an integrated approach. Through our 

work with the World Resources Institute’s 

Aqueduct project, the 2030 Water 

Resources Group (2030 WRG), and other 

efforts, we support initiatives that take a 

balanced approach and build synergies 

as they seek to equally ensure water, 

energy and food security for everyone.

Already, many of our water projects 

are helping communities mitigate and 

adapt to the impacts associated with the 

intersections of water, energy and food. 

For example, some projects increase the 

ability of watersheds to absorb threats 

associated with increasingly severe 

weather events and help build resilience 

in response to the higher demands for 

water, energy and food. Others focus 

on increasing crop yields to meet the 

needs of a growing population while 

reducing the impacts on water sources 

through water body alterations, aquifer 

recharge, rainwater harvesting and 

more. And we are assisting in efforts to 

reduce energy demands by promoting 

local water sources that eliminate the 

need to treat and transport water, which 

is energy intensive.

Also, we have extended our water 

stewardship efforts beyond our bottling 

plants and local water sources to our 

agricultural supply chain, one of the 

largest in the world. Because embedded 

water associated with our products is 

much greater at the farm than in our 

own operations, we are helping our 

suppliers improve efficiency and reduce 

their water use. Some examples of our 

work to date:

• As a member of Bonsucro, we 

have worked with peer companies, 

sugarcane producers and NGOs 

to implement the first global metric 

standard for more sustainable 

sugarcane production.

• Through our Coca-Cola Foundation, 

we provide financial support to 

Project Catalyst, which promotes 

farmer-driven innovations that reduce 

pesticide and fertilizer runoff into the 

Great Barrier Reef lagoon and the 

freshwater catchments that drain 

into it.

• We are partnering with EARTH 

University and our supplier, TicoFrut, to 

promote sustainable citrus production 

in Costa Rica.

• In the United States, we are 

collaborating with multiple partners 

to help farmers and ranchers use 

water more efficiently, with the aim of 

improving flow and water quality in 

rivers in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, 

Mississippi and Utah.

• We are working in partnership with 

Cargill Incorporated and WWF on a 

sustainable corn project intended to 

improve the livelihoods of farmers 

and protect biodiversity by improving 

yields, reducing waste, conserving 

water, protecting wetlands and 

reducing the environmental impact of 

agriculture in Jilin Province, China.

In all, we have contributed to 

sustainable agriculture initiatives in 

25 countries, helping farmers protect 

water, increase crop yields and reduce 

environmental impacts. And we plan to 

do more.

An important priority for the Company 

going forward is to work with major 

suppliers, retail customers and 

commercial partners to help advance 

their water management and optimize 

their water efficiency in the context of 

the water-food-energy nexus.

You can read more about our 

sustainable agriculture initiatives and 

our efforts to conserve energy and 

reduce carbon emissions, all of which 

we are increasingly undertaking with 

~60MM gallons of water are 

collected for use each year by 

1,000 syrup drums, donated in 

2012 for reuse as rain barrels in 

communities across the U.S.

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water stewardship in mind, by visiting 

the links below.

World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct

2030 Water Resources Group

Bonsucro

Sustainable Agriculture Initiatives

Energy Efficiency & Climate Protection

Promoting policy reform through the 

2030 Water Resources Group

While improving and protecting water 

sources is critical, we believe the most 

effective way to achieve long-term 

water security for communities and our 

business is by setting sound water policy 

at the national level for each country. 

We’re working to improve water policy in 

several countries around the world as a 

founding member of the 2030 WRG.

Created in 2007 by businesses and 

governmental organizations, 2030 WRG 

is a neutral, public-private platform 

housed within the International Finance 

Corporation (IFC). At the invitation of 

governments, 2030 WRG helps water 

officials accelerate reforms aimed at 

promoting more sustainable water 

resource management for the long-term 

development and economic growth 

of their countries. 2030 WRG helps 

countries first diagnose gaps in their 

water supplies, and then develop and 

test solutions. We are supporting 2030 

WRG with an investment of $2 million 

for 2012 and 2013. We also engage 

directly with 2030 WRG and with the 

governments of countries where 2030 

WRG is working.

2030 WRG’s recent work in Jordan, one 

of the most parched nations on earth, 

reflects the organization’s approach 

and capacity for influence. Working 

with the ministers of water, planning 

and agriculture, 2030 WRG provided an 

analysis of Jordan’s water supply and 

demand and proposed three solutions 

for accelerating Jordan’s progress 

toward water security: saving water by 

increasing the efficiency and productivity 

of water use; growing crops that are 

less water-intensive; and optimizing 

use of existing resources through such 

cost-effective supply-side measures as 

wastewater recycling. 2030 WRG’s work 

is now being integrated into Jordan’s 

national water strategy.

2030 WRG has also engaged with 

regional and national governments in 

Mexico, India, South Africa, Mongolia 

and China. Read more about 2030 

Water Resources Group’s work in the 

organization’s most recent annual 

report.

Stakeholder engagement and the 

social license for water use

Our stake in local water sources is just 

one of many. For us to do business—

and to be part of the solutions 

addressing water stress—it is essential 

for us to secure the trust and goodwill 

of the people in the communities where 

we operate. Such trust can only come 

from candid, continual dialogue—an 

ongoing conversation in which we show 

residents how much water we are 

using, how we are using it, and what 

we are doing to improve water sources, 

while carefully listening and seeking to 

understand residents’ specific concerns 

about water.

If they are to be effective, our efforts to 

protect local water sources must involve 

collaboration with local stakeholders, 

including governments, community 

members, water agencies, NGOs 

and others. As our bottling partners 

implement their SWPPs, they engage 

local stakeholders and collaborate on 

solutions that serve local communities 

and ecosystems as well as our 

business.

In 2012, we used the Ceres Aqua 

GaugeTM, a methodology and tool that 

assesses corporate water management. 

Based on both internal and external 

information, a full assessment of 

our water strategy was conducted 

against leading practices to identify 

strengths and areas for improvement 

and formulate recommendations. An 

increased focus on our engagement 

with customers on water stewardship 

and water stewardship within our 

supply chain were key areas for 

improvement. As we work to reset our 

sustainability goals in 2013, the Aqua 

Gauge assessment is helping inform 

new commitments.

In 2009, we worked with The 

Environmental Law Institute to produce 

A Guide to Stakeholder Engagement for 

Improved Water Stewardship. The guide 

is intended to help our bottling partners 

identify stakeholders, facilitate the 

engagement process, prioritize issues, 

understand regulatory requirements, 

and forge productive partnerships, 

among other objectives. The guide also 

provides a suite of tools for stakeholder 

engagement and promotes stakeholder 

engagement according to five core 

principles: transparency, inclusiveness, 

representivity, accountability and 

respect.

“The 2030 Water Resources Group 

connects actors across the golden 

triangle of government, civil society 

and business, creating a robust 

understanding of the challenge 

and a newfound respect for water. 

Through WRG’s work, we are 

advancing the necessary solutions 

which will close communities’ 

water supply gaps.”

—Muhtar Kent

Chairman of the Board and 

Chief Executive Officer

The Coca-Cola Company

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* See the section of this report entitled ‘How 

We Quantify Replenishment: An Evolving 

Methodology’ for important qualifying information 

and perspective on our work to estimate water 

replenishment and other water-related benefits. 

We define “water neutral” as the point where 

we are returning the water we use back to 

communities by treating all wastewater and 

returning it to the environment at a level of purity 

that supports aquatic life and replenishing an 

amount of water equivalent to our product volume 

through locally-relevant water projects.
Sustainable 

Packaging

Packaging plays an essential 

role for our business in 

meeting consumer needs 

and preventing waste by 

protecting our products 

during delivery. In fact, 

inside every one of our 

bottles—and in our cans 

and other packages, too—

is the story of a company 

trying to make its packaging 

more environmentally and 

economically sustainable. 

We work to deliver the quality 

beverages our consumers 

expect in the most efficient 

way possible, with a key 

focus on recyclability, 

minimizing resources and 

increasing the use of recycled 

and renewable materials. 

Additionally, we support 

programs that encourage 

consumers to recycle used 

beverage packaging.

Approximately 85 percent of our unit 

case volume is delivered in recyclable 

bottles and cans, and because the 

majority of our packaging is fully 

recyclable, we are working to maintain 

and grow this percentage. As we do so, 

we consider environmental concerns 

along with our need to protect the safety 

and quality of our products and to 

transport them efficiently. We also take 

into account the different preferences of 

consumers around the world.

Working to make our packaging more 

sustainable is more than just the right 

thing to do, it is smart business. We 

work to employ sustainable packaging 

innovations that not only delight 

consumers but also are efficiently 

produced and readily recovered or 

recycled.

By taking into account all aspects of 

packaging development, from raw 

materials and development to transport 

and recovery, we are able to mitigate 

risks in production that could both 

erode our profitability and negatively 

impact our brand equity. Such risks 

include cost fluctuations or supply chain 

disruption of packaging materials such 

as petroleum or aluminum and also 

potentially being viewed as a contributor 

to global pollution—even though a 

significant percentage of our packages 

are recovered and recycled. All in all, 

our strategic approach to developing 

more-sustainable packaging enables 

us to meet the needs of our consumers 

and reduce our business risk along with 

our impact on the environment.

Beyond our own cans and bottles: 

an ambitious new recovery goal 

Our beverage containers are recovered 

through industry-financed collection 

organizations, through communitybased and government programs and 

through our system directly. They are 

also recovered by informal collectors. 

We are working to increase recovery 

rates across all of these channels. In 

2012, we helped to recover 371 million 

pounds of aluminum and PET plastic 

containers in the United States and 

Canada alone.

In 2009, we set the goal of recovering 

bottles and cans equivalent to 

50 percent of those that we send 

to market annually. While we have 

made solid progress toward that 

goal through our longtime support of 

community recycling programs, precise 

measurement of recovery rates has 

been hampered by a lack of available 

data. Many communities, especially in 

developing and emerging markets, do 

not collect recovery data. Also, there is 

no practical mechanism for tracking the 

collection of packaging by the millions 

of informal collectors that operate in 

every market in which we distribute our 

products. Based on available data we 

estimate that, to date, we are recovering 

39 percent of the equivalent bottles and 

cans that we send to market. 

In July 2013, to improve recovery tracking, 

and to raise the bar for our system 

and for communities worldwide, we 

announced our new goal of achieving a 

75 percent recovery rate for the number 

of bottles and cans equivalent to what we 

introduce in developed markets by 2020. 

Currently, the recovery rate in developed 

markets is estimated at 50 percent. While 

that rate is moving in the right direction, 

it is not enough, we believe, to achieve 

our goal of improved environmental and 

economic sustainability.

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We will work with multiple recovery 

channels, including municipal recycling 

programs, industry recovery efforts and 

our own direct recovery initiatives. To 

meet our new goal, we will work in 36 

developed markets to increase recovery 

and recycling rates. We are also working 

with other companies and with local 

organizations worldwide to identify 

and compile independently verified 

recovery and recycling data so that we 

can establish authoritative baseline 

information on current recovery rates. 

We intend to help improve recovery 

rates in developing markets as well. 

We are working to first establish 

solid baseline information, a more 

challenging task in developing markets, 

before setting a global goal. We will set 

that goal by 2015.

In select markets in Latin America, the 

Asia Pacific region, Eurasia and Africa, 

we are piloting our new Recovery 

Tracking Methodology, or RTM. Our RTM 

involves locating credible sources of 

recovery data in each market and then 

assigning one of three quality levels 

to each data set. We expect our new 

methodology to substantially improve 

data validation, increase our baseline 

understanding of recycling in each 

market and enable us to better set 

targets for improved recovery rates. We 

are working to have the RTM rolled out 

in all markets by the end of 2013.

Moving all of our developed markets 

toward a 75 percent recovery rate 

will require an enormous effort from 

everyone: businesses, governments, 

nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) 

and, of course, consumers. We intend 

to provide leadership that helps bring all 

sectors of society together to advance 

progress. We know a 75 percent 

recovery rate is attainable in developed 

markets, based on markets like Japan 

and Belgium that have already achieved 

or exceeded it. 

As we progress toward our new 2020 

goal, we are as committed as ever to 

achieving our original goal of recovering 

bottles and cans equivalent to 50 

percent of those that we introduce into 

the marketplace annually by 2015.

Supporting community-based 

programs worldwide

To promote recycling and increase 

recovery rates, the Coca-Cola 

system also supports numerous litter 

prevention programs and community 

organizations, including through 

The Coca-Cola Foundation. Following 

are some of the programs and 

organizations we support:

Happy Recycling Machine. 

Coca-Cola Singapore brought together 

government, civil society and a very 

special vending machine to help 

increase recycling rates across the 

country. When consumers placed their 

empty plastic beverage bottles in the 

machine, they received an award for 

being environmentally responsible. 

The campaign collected 51,827 

recycled bottles while educating the 

public on the importance of supporting 

environmental sustainability.

Keep America Beautiful. We helped 

found the nonprofit organization 

Keep America Beautiful 60 years 

ago, and our support continues. 

A grant from The Coca-Cola Foundation

to Keep America Beautiful allowed 

25,000 single-stream curbside 

recycling carts to be donated to 

the city of Chicago. The grant was 

matched by a commitment from 

The Coca-Cola Company to provide an 

additional 25,000 carts over the next 

five years. The carts will be part of the 

city’s overall deployment to 600,000 

households, which is expected to 

significantly raise recycling rates in the 

Windy City.

Project Recover. Project Recover, 

an initiative supported by 

The Coca-Cola Company that involves 

local government and nonprofit 

organizations in Thailand, helps create 

cooperative communities centered on 

the recovery and recycling of beverage 

packages. The project provides job 

opportunities for members of the local 

community, as they are able to collect 

recyclable materials and turn them in to 

the cooperative for payment.

Reimagine Beverage Containers. 

Coca-Cola Recycling, a part of our 

Company’s North America Group, is 

working with Envipco to pilot Reimagine 

Beverage Containers recycling centers, 

which provide interactive collection kiosks 

to encourage recycling. More than 13 

million containers have been recycled 

since the Reimagine pilot program 

launched in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in 

late 2010. On average, each week more 

than 1,500 consumers bring their cans 

and PET plastic bottles to the recycling 

center, and more than 1 million cans and 

bottles are recycled each month. Read 

more about our support of community 

recycling programs around the world 

in the Charitable Giving section of 

this report.

We’re working toward recovery 

of 75 percent of all bottles and 

cans in these markets:

Australia

Austria

Belgium

Bulgaria

Canada

Cyprus

Czech Republic

Denmark

Estonia

Finland

France

Germany

Great Britain 

Greece

Hungary

Iceland

Ireland

Italy

Japan

Latvia

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Malta

Netherlands

New Zealand

Northern Ireland

Norway

Portugal

Slovakia

Slovenia

South Korea

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

Taiwan

United States

Goal: By 2015, recover 50 percent 

of the equivalent bottles and cans 

used annually.

Progress: In progress. We estimate 

that 39 percent of the equivalent 

bottles and cans we send to 

market are recovered.

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Inspiring more consumers to recycle

Millions of consumers worldwide have 

adopted the recycling habit. Still, many 

of our plastic bottles and one-third 

of our cans are not recycled. To help 

increase recycling rates, we are working 

to invent creative ways to engage with 

consumers. Following are just some of 

our efforts from 2012 and 2013.

EKOCYCLE. In July 2012, we launched the 

EKOCYCLETM program, a collaboration 

with musical artist and producer 

will.i.am and other consumer brands. 

EKOCYCLE is a stand-alone brand 

initiative dedicated to helping encourage 

recycling and sustainability among 

consumers through the marketing of 

lifestyle products made in part from 

recycled material.

The EKOCYCLE initiative aims to educate 

consumers about everyday recycling 

choices and empower their decisions to 

purchase products made in part from 

recycled products. EKOCYCLE educates 

consumers about waste that can be 

repurposed into recycled content for 

fashionable and valuable lifestyle 

products. It also encourages demand 

for recycled materials and reinforces the 

importance of recycling. Watch a video 

about EKOCYCLE.

Happiness Recycled. Collaborating with 

Zero Waste Scotland, we connected with 

more than 18,000 people and got our 

message out to 160,000 more through 

promotions at four events in France 

and Great Britain during the summer 

of 2013. Using fun, interactive recycling 

bins designed by animators—and 

cheering on recyclers with a pompon 

squad—we encouraged showgoers 

to recycle their bottles and cans. Then 

we gave them souvenir photos and 

temporary tattoos to remind them to 

recycle after the event. Using social 

media during and after, we spread the 

word well beyond the show’s grounds, 

inspiring consumers through Twitter, 

Facebook and more. The promotion was 

more than just a good time: In a postevent survey, 22 percent of those we 

connected with said they were recycling 

more. Watch a video about Happiness 

Recycled. 

London 2012 Olympic Games. As a 

Worldwide Partner of the Olympic 

Movement and the longest continuous 

sponsor of the Games, we wanted to 

help make the London 2012 Olympic 

Games the most sustainable Games 

of modern times. As part of that effort, 

we helped implement a “zero waste 

infrastructure,” including waste and 

recycling bins designed and positioned 

to maximize recovery rates. We also 

reached beyond the Olympic venues to 

place 260 new recycling bins around 

London. The bins on Oxford Street 

alone now collect over 1 metric ton of 

recyclable waste each day.

In addition, our bottler Coca-Cola 

Enterprises collaborated with waste 

reprocessor eCO Plastics to fast-track 

plans for a major new bottle-to-bottle 

recycling facility in Lincolnshire, England. 

This £15 million investment more than 

doubled the amount of bottle-grade 

recycled plastic (rPET) available in Great 

Britain and enabled us to commit to 

recycling all clear PET bottles from 

Games venues and turn them back into 

new bottles within six weeks. 

We also sought to inspire more people 

to recycle during the 70-day Olympic 

Torch Relay around the UK with a 

distinctive “Recycle to the Beat” hybrid 

vehicle to make recycling more fun. 

All of the approximately 15 million PET 

plastic bottles we collected throughout 

the Games were reprocessed and back 

on the shelves of British retailers within 

six weeks. Watch a video about our 

recycling program at the London 2012 

Olympic Games.

Continued collaboration in reducing 

marine debris

When used packaging is not disposed 

of properly, it too often ends up littering 

the world’s waterways. Our packaging 

is among the marine debris that can be 

found on shorelines around the world, 

so we are addressing the matter of 

marine debris in earnest. 

We work with a number of 

organizations, including Ocean 

Conservancy, to better understand 

the causes of marine debris. Together, 

we are gathering science-based 

information and engaging other 

companies in developing sustainable 

solutions.

In 2011, working with Ocean 

Conservancy, we helped launch the 

Trash Free Seas Alliance, a group of 

diverse businesses, NGOs, scientific 

institutions and community groups that 

share the common goal of eliminating 

ocean trash. By bringing these groups 

together, we hope to speed restoration 

of the world’s seas. In 2013, we worked 

with the Trash Free Seas Alliance to 

host knowledge-sharing sessions 

that highlighted the threat of marine 

debris, including a presentation from 

Conservation International on the Ocean 

Health Index. 

We have also partnered with Ocean 

Conservancy for the past 18 years 

as a sponsor of the International 

Coastal Cleanup, the world’s largest 

volunteer effort for ocean health. Each 

year, Coca-Cola system associates 

are among the more than 500,000 

volunteers who help clean up the 

world’s waterways during the event.

Using more recycled and renewable 

materials

Approximately 60 percent of our total 

beverage volume is sold in plastic 

bottles made from polyethylene 

terephthalate, better known as PET 

plastic. Driving demand for PET plastic 

is a consumer preference for packaging 

that is lighter in weight, shatter-resistant, 

resealable and easily recyclable. In 

addition, PET plastic enables us to 

Goal: Source 25 percent of our PET 

plastic from recycled or renewable 

material by 2015.

Progress: In progress. Five percent 

of our packaging materials 

currently comes from recycled or 

renewable materials.

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improve resource efficiency while 

maintaining our commitment to 

exceptional beverage quality.

In 2009, we set a goal of sourcing 25 

percent of our PET plastic for bottles 

from recycled and renewable materials 

by 2015. In 2009, to help meet that 

goal, we introduced our breakthrough 

PlantBottleTM packaging program. 

PlantBottle packaging is helping to make 

PET packaging more sustainable by 

making the bottle with up to 30 percent 

of plant-based material. 

Continuing with our commitment 

to rPET

In the early 1990s, we became the first 

company to use food-grade recycled 

PET plastic—known as rPET—in 

packaging. Our enabling of rPET-related 

research began decades before that. 

We recognized early that creating end 

markets for recycled PET plastic would 

be critical to our bottle recovery efforts 

and to the success of PET plastic as 

packaging material. 

Today, we are still working to increase 

the amount of rPET in our packaging. 

But we have encountered challenges. 

Over the last decade, demand for rPET 

has increased significantly; demand for 

rPET fiber, used to make clothing and 

other non-food products, is particularly 

high. And while increased demand 

is a positive development for the rPET 

market, greater demand has also 

driven up prices and reduced supply. In 

addition, food-grade rPET requires more 

processing and commands a premium 

over non-food-grade rPET, making it 

even more of a challenge for us to costeffectively incorporate more rPET in our 

packages. 

Our strategy? To help increase 

recycling and recovery of PET bottles 

(and thus increase the supply of 

rPET) while developing innovations 

like PlantBottle, which requires fewer 

nonrenewable ingredients than 

conventional PET plastic. Meanwhile, 

we remain committed to using rPET 

in our packaging, as it makes sense 

economically. Our system has invested 

in six bottle-to-bottle facilities that 

improve our capacity for using rPET. In 

the United States, we recently worked 

with rPET suppliers to reach agreement 

on more favorable terms for rPET stock. 

Additionally, we continue to invest in the 

exploration of technologies and recovery 

systems that could enable more 

efficient and cost-effective production 

of food-grade rPET. And because the 

use of rPET is approved in just a limited 

number of countries, we are working 

with governments of the nations where 

we do business to remove legal barriers 

to the use of recycled materials in 

beverage packaging.

Bringing PlantBottle to scale

Because innovative technology is most 

meaningful when it is widely adopted, 

we have worked steadily toward our 

goal of using PlantBottle for all of our PET 

packaging by 2020.

At the end of 2012, we had distributed 

more than 14 billion PlantBottle 

packages in 24 countries. In 2012, we 

expanded PlantBottle packaging into 

such countries as Serbia, South Korea 

and India. In existing PlantBottle markets 

like the United States, Canada, Mexico 

and Brazil, we expanded the number 

of brands using PlantBottle packaging. 

We distributed approximately 7 

billion PlantBottle packages during 

the calendar year ending December 

31, 2012. Approximately 6 percent 

of the total new PET plastic used by 

The Coca-Cola Company contains our 

first-generation PlantBottle packaging 

material. We remain focused on building 

out our supply chain to meet our goal 

of PlantBottle packaging comprising 100 

percent of the new PET plastic we use 

by 2020.

We expect our use of PlantBottle 

packaging to be a key contributor to 

achievement of our goal to reduce 

carbon dioxide (CO2

) emissions 

embedded in the “drink in your hand” 

by 25 percent by 2020. Already, our 

use of PlantBottle packaging has 

eliminated the need for the equivalent 

of more than 300,000 barrels of oil 

and helped to save the equivalent 

emissions of approximately 130,000 

metric tons of CO2

—the amount of CO2

emitted annually from more than 27,000 

passenger vehicles. 

Advancing innovation through 

increased adoption of PlantBottle 

packaging

To accelerate supplier interest and 

investment in PlantBottle packaging, 

we are enabling other companies 

to have access to the technology. In 

2011, we entered into a partnership with 

H.J. Heinz Company to put its ketchup 

in PlantBottle packaging. So far, more 

than 164 million bottles of Heinz ketchup 

in PlantBottle packages have been 

distributed throughout North America. 

We will continue to explore the potential 

for similar partnerships. 

Building a foundation of trust

Transparent environmental and social 

performance measures, developed in 

collaboration with credible partners, 

are at the foundation of our PlantBottle 

packaging program. Because 

PlantBottle packaging is made from 

sugarcane waste, sustainable cultivation 

and harvesting of sugarcane are among 

our chief concerns. Issues such as 

water consumption, land use, impacts 

on biodiversity and child labor are all 

pertinent. Because such concerns are 

rarely addressed by typical packaging 

lifecycle assessment tools, we have 

built on our Company’s existing 

sustainable agriculture program and 

engaged with partners such as World 

Wildlife Fund to help advance our 

understanding of how to identify and 

select sustainably sourced feedstocks. 

We have also worked to ensure that 

the program does not adversely affect 

local food security. And we are investing 

in research to advance technologies 

that use agricultural residues or wastes 

to help us continue to grow PlantBottle 

packaging more sustainably. 

Toward the bottle of the future

Currently, up to 30 percent of the 

material used in PlantBottle packaging 

comes from plants (in some markets, 

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the plant-based content may be less 

where we also include recycled content 

in the bottle). We are limited to 30 

percent because, currently, commercial 

technologies only exist for making one 

of the two ingredients in PET plastic. 

Our ultimate goal is to develop PET 

plastic that is 100 percent plant based. 

In 2011, we announced multimillion 

dollar investments in three innovation 

companies that have technology 

solutions for replacing the other 

ingredient in PET plastic and can help 

turn our 100 percent vision into reality in 

the coming years. 

To further drive progress, we created 

a plant-PET technology collaborative

in 2012. Our fellow members of the 

collaborative are Ford Motor Company, 

H.J. Heinz Company, Nike, Inc., and 

The Procter & Gamble Company. By 

leveraging the combined efforts of these 

companies in ways that are consistent 

with applicable antitrust/competition 

law rules, the collaborative is hoping 

to speed development of a completely 

plant-based PET material. 

Read more, or watch a video, about 

PlantBottle packaging, what it is made 

of and much more. 

Achieving greater efficiency through 

lightweighting

In the design of our packages, we strive 

for “lightweighting”—using the least 

amount of natural resources required 

to protect our products and ensure 

their safe transport to consumers. In 

2008, we set the goal of improving the 

packaging material efficiency per liter 

of our product sold by 7 percent by 

2015. We are proud to have achieved 

that goal for at least 85 percent of our 

packaging volume, including packages 

made from glass, refillable PET plastic, 

“one-way” glass, PET, aluminum and 

steel. We intend to maintain or increase 

our 7 percent improvement in efficiency 

between now and our goal year of 2015. 

To date we have: 

• Trimmed the weight of our 20-ounce 

PET plastic bottle by more than 25 

percent

• Shaved 30 percent from the weight of 

our 12-ounce aluminum can

• Lightened our 8-ounce glass bottle by 

more than 50 percent

Lightweighting is often a market-bymarket effort. For example, our bottling 

partner in Puerto Rico has developed a 

500-milliliter bottle for DASANI® water 

that weighs 9.8 grams—the lightest 

bottle in our system. We are working to 

top that by developing an 8-gram bottle 

that we hope to introduce globally in 

2014. 

Smarter packaging for a smaller 

carbon footprint

In July 2013, we announced our 2020 

goal of reducing the carbon footprint of 

the “drink in your hand” by 25 percent. 

Packaging is the largest contributor to our 

carbon emissions, making up 38 percent 

of our CO2

 as of 2010, our baseline year 

for our new goal. Our system’s efforts 

to design more efficient packaging, 

employ more renewable material and 

increase the amount of recycled content 

in our packaging is expected to make a 

significant contribution toward reducing 

our carbon footprint.

Looking ahead: joining the Circular 

Economy 100

In early 2013, we joined the Ellen 

MacArthur Foundation in launching 

the Circular Economy 100, a three-year 

program aimed at bringing together 

leading global companies to facilitate 

projects promoting a global “circular 

economy”—an industrial economy that 

is, by design or intention, restorative. 

The Circular Economy 100 will provide 

executive education and insight on key 

themes and emerging trends, allow 

opportunities to share knowledge, 

and identify and develop solutions 

to common challenges. By 2015, 

participating companies are expected 

to identify and be committed to initiating 

new circular initiatives. Read two reports 

on the circular economy developed 

by the foundation with McKinsey & 

Company. 

Read more about our efforts to make 

our packaging more sustainable. 

Goal: By 2015, improve packaging 

material efficiency per liter 

of product sold by 7 percent 

compared with a 2008 baseline.

Progress: On track. Between 2008 

and 2012, we improved packaging 

material efficiency per liter of 

product sold by 7 percent for at 

least 85 percent of our packaging 

volume. We intend to maintain or 

improve upon that level between 

now and our target year of 2015.

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Climate 

Protection

Inside every bottle of 

Coca-Cola is the commitment 

of a company that is deeply 

concerned about climate 

change. Our concern is 

based on the scientific 

consensus that global climate 

change is occurring and that 

human-caused greenhouse 

gas emissions are a 

contributing factor. 

The implications of climate change on 

our planet are profound and wideranging. Public health, agriculture, 

biodiversity and water sources may all 

be negatively affected. The potential 

effects on people, communities and 

ecosystems are sobering to consider 

and demand immediate action.

Of course, climate change also poses 

risks to our business as well. More 

frequent and intense droughts and 

floods can harm global agriculture, 

limiting the supply or increasing the cost 

of ingredients we use in our products. 

Extreme weather could impair our 

bottling plants, disrupt our supply chain 

and affect consumer demand. Perhaps 

most seriously, climate change could 

significantly limit water resources for our 

operations, for our supply chain and for 

the communities we serve.

Our system generates greenhouse gas 

emissions by consuming energy through 

manufacturing, by consuming fuel in our 

global delivery fleet and by chilling our 

products for optimum refreshment. Our 

broader supply chain, which includes 

the manufacturing of our packaging and 

the farming that grows our ingredients, 

generates millions of additional tons of 

greenhouse gases.

Growing our business without 

increasing greenhouse gas emissions 

is a tall order, but it is a process we are 

committed to. We have made progress. 

But, like much of the world, we need 

to do more—and soon. Following is an 

overview of our progress from 2012, and 

a look at where we’re heading in 2013 

and beyond.

An ambitious new goal for reducing 

carbon in our value chain

In July 2013, we joined our longtime 

partner World Wildlife Fund (WWF)

in announcing a number of new 

environmental goals. Among them: 

a commitment to reduce the carbon 

footprint of our beverages by 25 percent 

by 2020. This new goal complements 

our existing goals for 2015. 

Our new goal stems from the 

recognition that to make a meaningful 

difference, we must reduce emissions 

generated by not only our bottling 

plants and distribution fleet but also our 

entire value chain, including agriculture, 

packaging, and refrigeration. An initial 

analysis showed that, in our baseline 

year of 2010, our value chain emitted 

approximately 59 million metric tons 

of greenhouse gases, and only about 

5.2 million metric tons came from 

manufacturing. We estimate that 

achieving our new goal will enable us 

to prevent more than 20 million metric 

tons of CO

2

 emissions by 2020. That’s 

four times our system’s annual carbon 

emissions from manufacturing, and the 

equivalent of taking 3.8 million cars off 

the road for a year.

Goal: Reduce the carbon footprint 

of “the drink in your hand” by 25 

percent by 2020.

Progress: New. We are working 

to reduce the greenhouse gas 

emissions across the entire value 

chain of our products by making 

comprehensive reductions across 

our manufacturing processes, 

packaging formats, delivery fleet, 

refrigeration equipment and 

ingredient sourcing. 

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This new goal is ambitious and is 

among the most progressive climaterelated commitments from any 

company. To ensure that we succeed, 

we will collaborate with our partners 

and suppliers and continue to move 

forward with energy-efficiency and 

climate-protection initiatives already 

under way across our system. This work 

includes:

• Continuing to improve the 

sustainability of our packaging 

through design optimization and 

the increased use of recycled 

and renewable materials such as 

PlantBottleTM packaging

• Improving the energy efficiency of our 

cooling equipment

• Committing to more sustainable 

sourcing of key ingredients

• Incorporating more fuel-efficient 

modes of product delivery

• Improving energy efficiency within our 

manufacturing operations

• Phasing out the use of 

hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in all new 

cold-drink equipment

• Increasing our use of clean energy

To help us reach our new goal, we are 

developing annual reduction targets for 

the next seven years and working with 

our supplier partners to find ways of 

meeting them. We are also developing 

processes for measuring progress. 

And we are equipping “climate 

ambassadors” who will champion our 

goal systemwide and provide training 

and other assistance to help our 

Company, bottlers and suppliers strive to 

reduce emissions.

A 3 percent increase in manufacturing 

emissions in 2012

In 2008, we set the goal of growing 

our business but not our systemwide 

carbon emissions from manufacturing 

operations through 2015. Our 

manufacturing sites emitted 5.48 million 

metric tons of greenhouse gases in 

2012, a 3 percent increase over 2011. 

That number puts us 15 percent higher 

than our 2004 baseline and off track for 

reaching our goal of bringing emissions 

levels back down to that baseline 

by 2015. We consider this upward 

trend to be both disappointing and 

unacceptable. We are working diligently 

to reduce emissions through a variety of 

measures, including expanded use of 

clean energy.

Though our manufacturing-related 

emissions increased in 2012, our 

emissions intensity—the ratio of 

emissions to production volume—-

improved by nearly 2 percent over 

2011. In all, our emissions intensity has 

improved 19 percent since 2004. Even 

with our year-over-year increase in 

emissions in 2012, our emissions are 

still 1.2 million metric tons lower than 

“business as usual” forecasts for the 

year. We have successfully slowed 

growth in emissions relative to volume; 

now we are aiming to stop and, 

ultimately, reverse it. 

Emissions in developed countries down 

8 percent since 2004

In 2012, our emissions from 

manufacturing operations in developed 

countries increased slightly—about 2 

percent—compared to 2011. Even so, 

manufacturing-related emissions in 

developed countries are approximately 

8 percent lower than our 2004 baseline, 

keeping us well on track toward our 

goal of a 5 percent reduction by 2015. 

We’re bringing emissions down in 

part through our continuing work with 

bottlers on the “Top 10 Energy-Saving 

Challenge.” The program, developed 

with WWF and launched in 2011, equips 

bottlers and plant managers with 10 

high-return, low-risk energy-saving 

practices they can readily implement. 

Each practice delivers high financial 

return and contributes significantly 

toward achieving our climate targets. 

To date, 526 of our system’s nearly 

900 manufacturing facilities are 

implementing the practices. A total of 

127 facilities have completed the entire 

Top 10 challenge, and more than 270 

Goal: Grow our business but not 

our systemwide carbon emissions 

from manufacturing operations 

through 2015 compared with a 

2004 baseline.

Progress: Off Track. Our global 

manufacturing emissions in 2012 

were 1.2 million metric tons lower 

than the business-as-usual forecast 

for 2012. However, total (absolute) 

emissions were 3 percent higher 

than emissions from 2011, and now 

stand 15 percent higher than our 

2004 baseline.

Goal: By 2015, reduce emissions 

from our manufacturing operations 

in developed countries by 5 percent 

compared to our 2004 baseline.

Progress: On track. In 2012, 

emissions from our manufacturing 

operations in developed countries 

were 8 percent below our 

2004 baseline.

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have made at least 80 percent progress.

In September 2012, the United States 

Environmental Protection Agency

recognized Coca-Cola Refreshments 

USA, Inc., the Company’s bottling and 

customer service organization for 

North America, with a Green Power 

Leadership Award for its agreement to 

generate energy from a 6.5-megawatt 

combined heat-and-power system at an 

Atlanta facility. This cogeneration plant 

captures methane gas from a nearby 

landfill and converts it to clean-burning 

fuel. The plant generates at least 48 

million kilowatt-hours of electricity 

annually, resulting in an emissions 

reduction of approximately 20,000 

metric tons of CO2

 per year, equivalent 

to the CO2

 emissions from the electricity 

use of more than 4,000 average-sized 

homes per year.

At our Company headquarters in 

Atlanta, Georgia, our informationtechnology staff are working to limit CO2

emissions from powering our corporate 

data centers even as the load on our 

computer servers increases. In 2013, 

we completed an upgrade of 30 air 

handlers in one of our data centers. 

We expect this improvement to reduce 

our CO2

 emissions by an estimated 650 

metric tons annually—the equivalent of 

taking 90 cars off the road. 

As we make steady progress toward 

our goal for developed countries, we are 

also working hard to reduce emissions 

in developing countries. One example: 

Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Private 

Limited (HCCBPL), our largest bottling 

partner in India, has committed to 

expand the amount of energy it draws 

from renewable sources to 40 percent 

by 2020. HCCBPL will attempt to achieve 

that goal by exploring the use of a solar 

rooftop as well as wind- and biomassgenerated power at several of their 

bottling plants.

Improved energy efficiency for eight 

consecutive years

Using energy more efficiently enables us 

to reduce our carbon footprint, conserve 

natural resources and contain costs. 

The total amount of energy consumed 

by manufacturing sites across our 

system has grown as our business has 

grown—from 54.4 billion megajoules in 

2004 to 62.4 billion megajoules in 2012. 

But our energy efficiency ratio—the 

amount of megajoules used per liter of 

product—has continuously improved. 

In 2012, our ratio was 0.43 megajoules 

per liter—a 2 percent improvement over 

2011 and an 18 percent improvement 

overall since 2004. By improving our 

energy efficiency ratio, we avoided 

approximately $200 million in energy 

costs in 2012 and over $1 billion 

cumulatively since 2004.

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Complementing efficiency efforts in 

manufacturing, we have also improved 

the energy efficiency of our cold-drink 

equipment worldwide by more than 

40 percent compared to year 2000 

levels. We have deployed nearly 5.5 

million energy management devices 

(EMDs) for cold-drink equipment, 

reducing average energy consumption 

by an estimated 5 billion kilowatt-hours 

per year and delivering corresponding 

annual emissions reductions of 

approximately 3.1 million metric tons—

equivalent to the electricity used by over 

464,000 homes. Energy-efficient colddrink equipment saves our customers 

money, too—an estimated $440 million 

per year.

In 2012, to help our manufacturing 

facilities continue to improve energy 

efficiency, we developed 20 step-by-step 

guidelines to implementing energysaving actions and shared them with 

our bottlers. We also upgraded our 

internal website dedicated to strategies 

for saving energy, and our system held 

more than 20 workshops on increasing 

energy efficiency.

Improving packaging to reduce our 

carbon footprint

Packaging is the largest contributor to 

our potential carbon emissions, making 

up 38 percent of our CO2

 emissions as 

of 2010. Our system’s efforts to design 

more efficient packaging, use more 

renewable packaging material and 

increase the amount of recycled content 

will make a significant contribution 

toward reducing our carbon footprint. 

A 14 percent decrease in our fleet 

emissions

More than 200,000 of our signature red 

delivery trucks say “Coca-Cola” around 

the world. We aspire for them to say 

“sustainable” as well. So in addition to 

conventional fuels, we are powering our 

fleet with a mix of efficient alternative 

fuels, including electricity, natural gas, 

diesel-electric and biodiesel. In North 

America, we operate a hybrid electric 

fleet of more than 750 trucks that 

use about 30 percent less fuel than 

conventional diesels—the largest such 

fleet on the continent. For our presence 

at the London 2012 Olympic Games, we 

deployed 14 delivery vehicles powered 

by landfill gas. 

Our system’s trucking fleet, which 

includes trucks operated by our 

Company and our bottling partners, 

accounted for about 8 percent of our 

emissions in 2012. Our fleet emitted 

4.6 million metric tons of greenhouse 

gases in 2012—a 14 percent increase 

from our 4.03 million metric tons of fleet 

emissions in 2011.

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Pushing forward with HFC-free cooling 

equipment 

Because of the high global warming 

potential of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), 

we are phasing out the use of HFC 

refrigerants in our cold-drink equipment. 

With more than 14 million dispensers, 

vending machines and coolers in the 

marketplace, we have an enormous 

opportunity to make a difference. We 

believe we can avoid the emission of 

more than 52.5 million metric tons of 

CO2

 equivalent over the next several 

years—equivalent to the annual 

greenhouse gas emissions of over 

10.9 million passenger vehicles.

In 2011, we reaffirmed CO2

 as our 

system’s HFC-free refrigerant of choice 

for new equipment purchases; at the 

end of 2012, HFC-free deployments 

across our system exceeded 800,000. 

Still, our efforts to deploy more HFC-free 

cooling systems in 2012 fell short of our 

ambition. Our goal was for 50 percent of 

all new cold-drink equipment to be HFCfree by the end of 2012. But only about 

21 percent (approximately 245,000 

units) of our 2012 cold-drink equipment 

purchases were HFC-free. Difficulties in 

procuring HFC-free equipment in Brazil, 

India and other countries contributed to 

the slowdown in our progress. We are 

developing strategies to address these 

challenges and get back on track for our 

2015 goal.

Carbon-neutral at the London 2012 

Olympic Games

As the longest continuous sponsor 

of the Olympic Movement, we have 

a significant presence at all Olympic 

Games. We provide hydration and 

refreshment through our products, 

sponsor Games-related events and 

activities and much more. In London 

in 2012, our presence at the Summer 

Olympic Games was, for the first time, 

carbon neutral. (We achieved our first 

carbon-neutral presence at a Winter 

Olympics during the Vancouver 2010 

Olympic Winter Games.) We achieved 

carbon neutrality in London through 

a combination of reduction activities 

and carbon offsets. Reduction activities 

included investment in a state-of-theart, low-carbon warehouse and storage 

facility, the purchase of 14 delivery 

vehicles powered by landfill gas and 

the use of beverage coolers that were 

entirely HFC-free. We compensated for 

the emissions we could not prevent 

through the purchase of Gold Standard®

certified carbon offsets. 

CDP recognizes our reporting 

We strive to be transparent in our 

carbon reporting. In 2012, we were 

featured in CDP’s (formerly the Carbon 

Disclosure Project) Carbon Disclosure 

Leadership Index (CDLI). The index, an 

evaluation tool for investors and other 

stakeholders, highlights companies 

in the Global 500 that have displayed 

a strong approach to climate change 

information disclosure. Companies 

are scored on their climate change 

disclosure. High scores, according 

to CDP, “indicate good internal data 

management and understanding 

of climate change related issues 

affecting the company.” In 2012, the 

CDLI comprised 51 companies from 

the Global 500 based on analysis of 

responses to CDP’s annual climate 

change questionnaire, which focuses on 

greenhouse gas emissions, emissions 

reduction targets and the risks and 

opportunities associated with climate 

change.

Climate Counts says we’re “soaring”

In December 2012, we scored ten 

points higher than in 2011 in the annual 

rankings by the nonprofit organization 

Climate Counts. Climate Counts scores 

the world’s largest companies on their 

climate impact to “spur corporate 

climate responsibility and conscious 

consumption.” Climate Counts awarded 

us a score of 85 in 2012, putting us in 

the “Soaring” category—Climate Counts’ 

highest—for “companies demonstrating 

exceptional leadership on climate 

change.” Only 15 companies of 145 were 

recognized in that category. 

Expanding Arctic HomeTM to Europe

In early 2013, we extended our 

successful Arctic Home campaign 

to 17 countries in Europe, with a 

multimedia advertising campaign, 

Goal: As of 2015, all new cold-drink 

equipment will be HFC-free.

Progress: Off track. In 2012, our 

system purchased approximately 

245,000 units of HFC-free 

equipment (approximately 21 

percent of new equipment 

purchases), bringing our global 

total to over 800,000 units.

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special packaging and a launch event at 

London’s Science Museum. Arctic Home 

aims to raise awareness and funds 

to preserve the habitat of polar bears, 

which is being seriously threatened by 

climate change. Beginning its third year 

in November 2013, Arctic Home is a fiveyear, $2 million commitment initiated 

with our longtime conservation partner, 

WWF. Read more about Arctic Home.

Collaborating to curb emissions

We continue to partner with peer 

companies, NGOs, governments and 

others in addressing our greenhouse 

gas emissions and to encourage 

progress in response to climate 

change. We are proud to have recently 

supported The 3% Solution, a study 

by WWF and CDP that demonstrates 

how U.S. business can address climate 

change while driving significant 

economic value. Released in June 2013, 

the report identifies emission-reduction 

investments with positive net present 

value that can save the U.S. private 

sector $780 billion while cutting carbon 

emissions by 1.2 gigatonnes over 10 

years. A 3 percent annual reduction 

would not only curb greenhouse gas 

emissions, but it would also address 

the U.S. corporate “share” of global 

emissions. Built upon rigorous analysis 

by leading consulting firms, including 

McKinsey & Company and POINT 380, 

The 3% Solution includes case studies 

from various sectors and offers the most 

compelling business case made to date 

for setting ambitious carbon reduction 

targets.

Moving forward as the evidence 

mounts

Communities around the world are 

already confronting the effects of 

climate change, including drought, 

flooding, storms, wildfires and record 

high temperatures. In 2012, Arctic sea 

ice diminished to its lowest level ever 

recorded. And in May 2013, atmospheric 

CO2

 concentrations exceeded 400 

parts-per-million for the first time in 

human history. Though we believe it is 

still possible to mitigate the worst effects 

of climate change, we believe the global 

community—civil society, governments 

and businesses, including us—must 

act quickly and do more to address 

greenhouse gas emissions.

Our Company aspires to do much. 

We will continue to expand our sources 

of clean energy. We are developing 

the means by which we will achieve 

our new goal of reducing the carbon 

footprint of “the drink in your hand” by 

25 percent. And we will continue to 

lend our voice in support of relevant 

public policy and cross-sector initiatives 

that seek to reduce greenhouse gas 

emissions and protect the climate and 

communities worldwide.

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Sustainable 

Agriculture

Inside every bottle of 

Coca-Cola®—indeed, in 

most of our products—are 

ingredients that get their start 

on a farm. We buy many tons 

of sugar, fruit, corn, tea, coffee 

and other ingredients every 

year. Our business depends 

on the long-term availability 

of these products. 

At the same time, the future of the 

planet may depend on crops being 

grown more sustainably. As our 

longtime partner World Wildlife Fund 

(WWF) and others note, unsustainable 

agricultural practices have serious 

impacts on people and the environment. 

According to WWF, agriculture uses 

about 69 percent of the world’s fresh 

water. It is the leading source of 

pollution in many countries, a primary 

driver of deforestation and one of 

the largest producers of greenhouse 

gas emissions contributing to climate 

change. Half the planet’s topsoil has 

vanished over the last 150 years due in 

part to poor farming practices. In our 

value chain, agriculture accounts for 

the largest share of water use and the 

third-largest share of carbon emissions, 

after packaging and refrigeration. 

If growers are to provide the food 

necessary to support the over 9 billion 

people expected to inhabit the planet 

by 2050, they must find ways to make 

agriculture more efficient and aligned 

with ecological limits—and change must 

happen soon.

Promoting agricultural sustainability 

is also a socioeconomic imperative. 

Agriculture is the world’s largest industry, 

producing $1.3 trillion in food annually 

and employing over 1 billion people. For 

three-quarters of the world’s extremely 

poor people, farming is the only viable 

way to make a living. Farming in the 

21st century must protect the rights and 

livelihoods of agricultural workers and 

support strong, healthy communities.

For all of these reasons, we have 

worked with our suppliers for several 

years to make our supply chain more 

sustainable. In 2012 and 2013, our work 

took a major stride forward. Following is 

a look at our progress.

An ambitious new goal for 

sustainable sourcing

Throughout 2012, our system 

collaborated with WWF and other 

partners to develop a goal that we 

believe is both bold and achievable: 

to sustainably source key agricultural 

ingredients by 2020. These ingredients 

include cane sugar, beet sugar, highfructose starch-based syrup (primarily 

corn), tea, coffee, palm oil, soy, pulp and 

paper fiber, oranges, lemons, grapes, 

apples and mangoes. 

We set this new goal for a few reasons. 

First, sustainable sourcing can ensure 

continuity in our supply of safe, 

high-quality raw materials, reducing 

business risk and delivering sustainable 

business value for us and for our supply 

chain partners. Just as important, 

sustainable sourcing is essential if 

we are serious about improving our 

environmental, economic and social 

impacts, as the footprint of agriculture 

in our supply chain exceeds that of our 

system’s operations. And, increasingly, 

customers, consumers, environmental 

partners and other stakeholders 

expect us to demonstrate end-to-end 

accountability for our impact all the way 

to the farm level. 

To guide progress toward our new 

goal, we have established Sustainable 

Agriculture Guiding Principles for our 

suppliers. These principles define what 

we mean when we refer to “more 

sustainable sourcing,” articulate our 

expectations, and set criteria for human 

and workplace rights, environmental 

stewardship and farm management. 

We are working with suppliers and 

with WWF to implement the guidelines 

throughout our system. In April 2013, 

we asked suppliers to provide action 

plans for meeting our sustainability 

criteria along with baselines for where 

they currently stand in relation to our 

goal. We will evaluate their plans and 

work collaboratively to set a path toward 

achieving our goal of sustainably 

sourcing key agricultural ingredients 

by 2020. 

Our new goal is a significant step in the 

shift toward more sustainable sourcing 

that we and our suppliers have been 

making for several years. Some of our 

suppliers already comply with many, if 

not all, of our guiding principles. In the 

coming months, we will identify the best 

existing sustainability practices among 

our suppliers and encourage their 

application across our supply chain. 

We plan to begin validating suppliers 

for compliance in 2015 and are working 

with internal stakeholders, suppliers 

and partner organizations to establish 

details on the assurance process. 

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We expect our guiding principles to 

ultimately have the greatest impact 

at the farm level, where we believe 

some of the greatest strides toward 

sustainability can be made. But working 

to change the practices of hundreds of 

small-scale farmers—such as those in 

the coffee and sugarcane industries—

presents challenges, and the process 

will take time. We are working with 

nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) 

and other partners around the world 

to develop the best ways of connecting 

and collaborating with farmers.

As more of our suppliers adopt 

sustainable practices, we will work 

with them to find a fair balance in the 

prices we pay for ingredients. We expect 

to take a “preference, not premium” 

approach, rewarding suppliers who 

comply with our guiding principles 

sooner by strengthening our business 

with them. We also want to encourage 

suppliers to adopt sustainable practices 

by recognizing their progress whenever 

we can. For example, in 2013, we 

presented sugar supplier Raízen with 

our Company’s Supplier Sustainability 

Award for its work leading the sugar 

industry toward more Bonsucro 

Standard–certified sugar.

Listening to the experts

In February 2013, we convened a 

small number of globally renowned 

agriculture and environment experts to 

discuss the global movement toward 

sustainable agriculture and our role 

within it. The group shared positive 

feedback on our sustainable agriculture 

strategy to date and also challenged 

us to do more, both within our supply 

chain and beyond it, as a leader in our 

industry. Our new 2020 commitment is, 

in part, a response to that challenge.

Slow but steady growth in 

Bonsucro-certified sugar

One of our first major steps toward 

sustainable sourcing was our work 

with Bonsucro, a collaboration among 

peer companies, sugarcane producers, 

WWF and other NGOs, to implement 

the first global metric standard for more 

sustainable sugarcane production. The 

Bonsucro Standard requires evaluation 

against 20 criteria and 69 indicators on 

the environmental, social and economic 

impacts of sugarcane production and is 

divided into five principles: 

• Obey the law.

• Respect human rights and labor 

standards.

• Manage input, production and 

processing efficiencies to enhance 

sustainability.

• Actively manage biodiversity and 

ecosystem services.

• Continuously improve key areas of the 

business.

Bonsucro launched its Production 

Standard and certification program 

in 2010. In 2011, a sugar mill in 

São Paulo, Brazil, became the first 

to achieve Bonsucro Certification, 

and our system was the first buyer 

of the mill’s certified sugar. As of 

September 2013, 31 sugarcane mills in 

Brazil and Australia, representing more 

than 695,000 hectares (approximately 

1.7 million acres), or 2.92 percent of the 

world’s surface under sugarcane, have 

been Bonsucro Certified. The amount of 

sugar certified under the standard has 

increased steadily since the first mill was 

certified in 2011. 

As part of our new 2020 commitment, 

we have drafted plans to achieve 

Bonsucro standards, or the equivalent, 

in our sugar supply.

Promoting sustainable farming 

worldwide 

With partners such as WWF and 

the United Nations Development 

Programme (UNDP), our system has 

contributed to more than 40 agriculture 

sustainability initiatives in 25 countries. 

Projects are aimed at improving crop 

yields and livelihoods for farming 

families while reducing costs and 

environmental impacts. Most of these 

projects begin as pilot programs, 

enabling farmers and suppliers to first 

determine what works before programs 

are expanded. Following are summaries 

of several of these programs.

40+ sustainable agriculture 

projects are supported in 

25 countries

31 sugarcane mills have been 

Bonsucro Certified in Brazil and 

Australia

51,000 small farmers in Kenya 

and Uganda are benefitting from 

Project Nurture, a project we’ve 

invested in with the Bill & Melinda 

Gates Foundation to increase local 

mango and passion fruit sourcing

$2B has been contributed to 

the planting of 25,000 acres of 

orange groves in Florida in 2013

Largest citrus planting devoted 

to orange groves in Florida in the 

past 25 years

~4,100 new jobs to be added to 

the economy

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Improving mango yields in 

Andhra Pradesh

In 2011, Coca-Cola India and Jain 

Irrigation announced the launch of 

Project Unnati, which is encouraging 

mango farmers in the state of Andhra 

Pradesh to adopt drip irrigation and a 

method of farming called ultra-highdensity plantation practice. Ultra-highdensity plantation practice enables 

mango orchards to reach their full 

fruit-bearing potential in three to four 

years rather than the seven to nine 

years enabled by conventional farming, 

meaning farmers earn money from the 

fruit sooner. The practice also makes it 

possible for farmers to plant as many 

as 600 trees per acre, dramatically 

increasing yields. Conventional farming 

methods allow for about 40 trees per 

acre. 

During the first phase of the project, 

200 demonstration farms between one 

and three acres in size will employ the 

ultra-high-density plantation technique 

along with drip irrigation, which uses 

less water per kilogram of mangoes 

produced. Later, the demonstration 

farms will be used to train other farmers. 

In all, Project Unnati has the potential to 

double mango yields and improve the 

livelihoods of more than 50,000 farmers 

over a five-year period.

Farming for a healthier 

Great Barrier Reef

Through The Coca-Cola Foundation, 

our Company’s primary international 

philanthropic arm, we provide 

financial support to Project Catalyst, an 

award-winning, five-year, $26 million 

partnership among our Company, WWF, 

Reef Catchments (Mackay Whitsunday 

Isaac Natural Resource Management), 

the Australian government, farmers, 

and other partners, including sugarcane 

processors, financial institutions, 

agrochemical companies, trading 

houses, machinery manufacturers 

and research and development firms. 

Project Catalyst promotes farmer-driven 

innovations that reduce sediment, 

pesticide and fertilizer runoff into the 

Great Barrier Reef lagoon and the 

freshwater catchments that drain into 

it. The project provides funding and 

technical expertise to farmers who have 

developed new practices to promote 

sustainability but need resources to 

implement them. Communication is 

also a key part of Project Catalyst, as 

newsletters and a website promote 

innovations, enabling growers to share 

best practices and lessons learned. 

Since its launch in 2009, Project Catalyst 

has increased from 19 participating 

sugarcane growers and 4,800 hectares 

(approximately 11,860 acres) of farmland 

to 140 growers and more than 198,000 

hectares (approximately 490,000 

acres). The project has improved the 

quality of more than 205,500 megaliters 

(more than 54 billion gallons) of runoff 

by reducing the amount of nitrogen, 

phosphorus, herbicide and other 

pollutants in the runoff, thereby reducing 

impact on the Great Barrier Reef. 

Through The Coca-Cola Foundation, 

we have contributed more than 

$2.78 million to the project. 

With the aspiration of scaling Project 

Catalyst globally, we and our partners 

have begun conversations with Brazilian 

and Colombian sugarcane farmers’ 

associations on soil management and 

other best practices.

Drought relief in Guangxi

The Guangxi Sustainable Sugarcane 

Initiative is part of our partnership with 

UNDP, the Chinese government and 

the government of the Guangxi Zhuang 

Autonomous Region in southern China. 

Launched in 2010 in the counties of 

Shangsi and Longzhou and expanded 

to Jiangzhou and Fusui in 2011, the 

initiative seeks to provide sugarcane 

farming communities in droughtstricken Guangxi with improved access 

to drinking water and more efficient 

irrigation, along with enhanced land use 

efficiency through land consolidations. In 

addition to deployment of drip irrigation, 

new infrastructure will direct treated 

wastewater from a sugar mill to the 

sugarcane field, providing efficient and 

timely irrigation and better yields. 

To date, the initiative has directly 

benefited about 6,933 sugarcane 

farmers and indirectly benefited more 

than 143,000 sugarcane farmers. Other 

new projects in Guangxi are to be 

undertaken in late 2013 or early 2014 

and are expected to be completed in 

2015.

Protecting freshwater and small farms 

in South Africa

Through Project Khula, The Coca-Cola 

Foundation is working with WWF and 

a number of local partners, including 

Illovo Sugar and others, to help 

small-scale sugarcane farmers in the 

KwaZulu-Natal region of South Africa 

improve their yields and livelihoods 

while reducing environmental impacts. 

The Coca-Cola Foundation provided 

a $150,000 grant to help support the 

project. 

Launched in September 2010 

and named for the Zulu word for 

“growth,” Project Khula leverages 

the mentorship program of a local 

growers association to train small-scale 

farmers in better land and catchment 

management practices. It aims to 

support development of more than 

3,000 small-scale growers on over 

8,400 hectares (approximately 20,756 

acres), and to help the local sugar mill, 

the local government and other local 

stakeholders organize smaller farms 

into cooperatives. The cooperatives are 

expected to help improve productivity 

and provide opportunities for funding 

expansion of the program. 

Mentors will work with farmers to help 

maintain and restore riparian areas 

and increase pesticide use-efficiency. 

The project also seeks to remove 

invasive plant species threatening 

freshwater ecosystems and to develop 

improved sustainability practices that 

can be adopted by other South African 

sugarcane growers. 

To date, the project team has assisted 

in the formation of two planned 

cooperatives, engaging 97 farmers who 

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farm about 100 hectares (250 acres). 

Sugarcane plantings on the farms could 

eventually produce as much as 8,000 

metric tons of sugar every two years, 

providing farmers and their families with 

a potential collective income of 3 million 

rand.

Improving livelihoods for fruit farmers 

in Kenya and Uganda

Our goal is to triple our juice business 

by 2020. To make sure we can source 

enough juice to meet that target—and 

to help improve the livelihoods of smallscale fruit farmers, many of whom are 

women—we formed Project Nurture, 

an innovative four-year, $11.5 million 

partnership launched in 2010 with the 

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 

the nonprofit organization TechnoServe. 

By increasing production of mango and 

passion fruit suitable for both the fresh 

fruit and juice markets, Project Nurture 

is intended to double the incomes of 

more than 51,000 small-scale mango 

and passion fruit farmers in Kenya 

and Uganda by 2014. Our East Africa 

business unit will invest a total of 

$4 million in the project, along with 

$1.5 million in in-kind contributions, 

including infrastructure investment, 

technical expertise and fruit purchases. 

Through Project Nurture, local 

farmers will find a market for their fruit. 

Consumers will be able to support their 

local farmers through the purchase 

of beverages. And our business will 

benefit from procuring locally produced 

fruit, lowering our costs and increasing 

supply chain flexibility. The program has 

established a goal that by 2014 at least 

30 percent of participating farmers will 

be women. 

By the end of 2012, nearly 40,000 

farmers—14,000 of whom were 

women—had received training through 

Project Nurture. More than 36,000 

metric tons of fresh fruit from Project 

Nurture farms were sold. Participating 

farmers’ annual fruit incomes have, on 

average, already more than doubled 

through a combination of increased 

volume sales and improved quality. 

Project farmers are selling into three 

market channels: fruit processing, 

fresh domestic and fresh export. 

Minute Maid Mango NectarTM, launched 

in Kenya in 2010, is the first product to 

use juice sourced from Project Nurture 

and provides consumers with the 

opportunity to support local mango 

farmers. 

As part of the project, TechnoServe 

has worked with select farmers and 

exporters to ship fresh mangoes 

and passion fruit to the Middle East. 

Farmers have been trained in quality 

specifications, logistics and price 

negotiation. Project Nurture provides 

assistance with agronomy and 

postharvest handling as well. Through 

the project, two more Kenyan mango 

varieties, Apple and Tommy, have been 

developed for use in the manufacture 

of Minute Maid® juice and juice drinks. 

Juice made with the Apple variety is now 

in production.

Building hope for mango growers 

in Haiti

Based on our Project Nurture model, 

the Haiti Hope Project is a five-year, 

$9.5 million partnership intended to 

double the incomes of 25,000 Haitian 

mango farmers. Our partners in the 

project include the Inter-American 

Development Bank, through the 

Multilateral Investment Fund, the U.S. 

Agency for International Development 

and TechnoServe. The Clinton Bush Haiti 

Fund, the Soros Economic Development 

Fund and others are among the 

supporters of the project. The project 

has partnered with a local financial 

institution, Sogesol, to launch a farmer 

credit program. Our project team also 

works closely with Haitian government 

authorities to align the project’s goals 

with those of the local government. 

We began implementing Haiti Hope 

in September 2010, nine months after 

Haiti’s catastrophic earthquake. Since 

then, the project team has established 

relationships with farmer groups 

representing thousands of mango 

farmers. More than 16,000 farmers 

had joined the program by the end of 

2012, and nearly half were women. 

In addition, more than 1,400 farmers 

have received credit through the 

project. A detailed training program 

continues to be implemented covering 

gender, organizational, technical and 

commercial issues. More than 2,300 

training sessions have been conducted. 

The Coca-Cola Company has pledged 

to invest $3.5 million to the project over 

its five-year span as part of the overall 

$9.5 million partnership. As part of 

our Company’s overall contribution, 

in January 2011, our Odwalla brand 

launched Haiti Hope Mango TangoTM 

smoothies and pledged to donate 

10 cents for every bottle sold, up to a 

projected half a million U.S. dollars a 

year for the duration of the project. 

Click to see 

Coca-Cola’s full 

climate protection 

infographic.

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Global

Business

Principles

Global change requires 

global effort. That’s why, in 

addition to our own goals, we 

also measure our progress 

toward sustainability in part 

against the principles outlined 

in the United Nations (UN) 

Millennium Development 

Goals, the UN Global 

Compact and the CEO Water 

Mandate.

Millennium Development Goals

The eight Millennium Development 

Goals (MDGs) were born from the 

actions and targets contained in the 

Millennium Declaration adopted by 

189 nations and signed by 147 heads 

of state and governments during the 

UN Millennium Summit in September 

2000. The MDGs set a target date of 

2015, by which all countries and leading 

development institutions agree to fight a 

range of the world’s main development 

challenges, such as poverty, hunger 

and HIV/AIDS. These goals serve as a 

blueprint for making the world a better 

place. Working toward them offers faith 

and hope, and even more reasons to 

believe in a better world. We are proud 

to contribute to the realization of the 

MDGs through our efforts.

UN Global Compact

The UN Global Compact is a strategic 

policy initiative for businesses that 

are committed to aligning their 

operations and strategies with 10 

universally accepted principles in 

the areas of human rights, labor, 

environment and anti-corruption. 

The Coca-Cola Company committed to 

the principles of the UN Global Compact 

in March 2006.

As set forth by the UN, the 10 UN Global 

Compact principles are as follows:

Human Rights

Principle 1: Businesses should 

support and respect the protection of 

internationally proclaimed human rights; 

and

Principle 2: make sure that they are not 

complicit in human rights abuses.

Labour

Principle 3: Businesses should uphold 

the freedom of association and the 

effective recognition of the right to 

collective bargaining;

Principle 4: the elimination of all forms of 

forced and compulsory labour;

Principle 5: the effective abolition of child 

labour; and

Principle 6: the elimination of 

discrimination in respect of employment 

and occupation.

Environment

Principle 7: Businesses should 

support a precautionary approach to 

environmental challenges;

Principle 8: undertake initiatives 

to promote greater environmental 

responsibility; and

Principle 9: encourage the development 

and diffusion of environmentally friendly 

technologies.

Anti-Corruption

Principle 10: Businesses should work 

against corruption in all its forms, 

including extortion and bribery.

The Coca-Cola Company plays an active 

role in a number of UN Global Compact 

Local Networks around the world 

by serving on Steering Committees, 

conducting business community 

outreach and supporting network 

events. In 2012, we participated in the 

Rio+20 United Nations Conference on 

Sustainable Development in Rio de 

Janeiro, Brazil, including a working 

group on anti-corruption, giving us 

an opportunity to share experiences 

with Coca-Cola colleagues who are 

championing sustainability at the 

local level.

CEO Water Mandate

Launched in July 2007, the CEO Water 

Mandate is a unique public-private 

initiative designed to assist companies 

in the development, implementation 

and disclosure of water sustainability 

policies and practices. Companies that 

endorse the mandate are required to 

report progress annually against a set of 

standard principles, including:

• Direct operations

• Supply chain and watershed 

management

• Collective action

• Public policy

• Community engagement

• Transparency

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education

Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality

Goal 5: Improve maternal health

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development

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Our 

Governance 

and Ethics

A business focused on 

sustainability demands 

integrity in every respect. From 

our Board of Directors to our 

Code of Business Conduct, we 

have made transparency and 

accountability two of our most 

closely held values.

Our Board of Directors

Our Board is elected by shareowners 

to oversee their interest in the longterm health and the overall success 

of the Company’s business and its 

financial strength. The Board serves 

as the ultimate decision-making body 

of the Company, except for those 

matters reserved to, or shared with, 

the shareowners. The Board selects 

and oversees members of senior 

management, who are charged by the 

Board with conducting the business 

of the Company. Our Board currently 

has 17 members, 16 of whom are not 

employees of The Coca-Cola Company. 

Learn more about our Directors.

In order to fulfill its responsibilities, the 

Board oversees the proper safeguarding 

of the assets of the Company, the 

maintenance of appropriate financial and 

other internal controls and the Company’s 

compliance with applicable laws and 

regulations and proper governance. 

Inherent in these responsibilities is the 

Board’s understanding and oversight of 

the various risks facing the Company. 

The Board does not view risk in isolation. 

Risks are considered in virtually every 

business decision and as part of the 

Company’s business strategy. The Board 

recognizes that it is neither possible nor 

prudent to eliminate all risk. Indeed, 

purposeful and appropriate risk taking 

is essential for the Company to be 

competitive on a global basis and to 

achieve the objectives set forth in the 

Company’s 2020 Vision.

The Board implements its risk oversight 

function both as a whole and through 

delegation to Board committees, which 

meet regularly and report back to the full 

Board. All committees play significant 

roles in carrying out the risk oversight 

function. While the Board oversees risk 

management, Company management 

is charged with managing risk. The 

Company has robust internal processes 

and a strong internal control environment 

which facilitate the identification and 

management of risks and regular 

communication with the Board. To learn 

more about the Board’s oversight of risk, 

you can review the discussion beginning 

on page 37 of the Company’s 2013 Proxy 

Statement. The Board has the following 

seven standing committees:

1. Audit

2. Compensation

3. Directors and Corporate Governance

4. Executive

5. Finance

6. Management Development

7. Public Issues and Diversity Review

Each Board committee serves an 

important role in helping the Board 

fulfill its responsibilities. For example, 

the Public Issues and Diversity Review 

Committee helps the Board fulfill its 

responsibilities relating to diversity, 

corporate social responsibility and 

public issues of significance, which may 

affect the shareowners, the Company, 

the business community and the 

general public.

Another example is the Compensation 

Committee, which has overall 

responsibility for evaluating and 

approving compensation plans, policies 

and programs applicable primarily to the 

Company’s senior executive group, which 

includes all officers of the Company 

subject to Section 16 of the Securities 

Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. 

Our strong pay for performance 

philosophy awards executives in a 

way that motivates them to operate 

the Company’s business in a profitable 

and sustainable manner. Additionally, 

our executives are measured across 

the six areas highlighted in our 2020 

Vision: people, portfolio, partners, planet, 

profit and productivity. Further efforts 

are under way to strengthen how we 

recognize sustainability results across 

the Coca-Cola system. 

You can learn more about our Board 

committees, and view each committee’s 

charter, by visiting the Board Committees 

& Charters page.

Our corporate governance

The Coca-Cola Company is committed 

to good corporate governance, which 

promotes the long-term interests of 

shareowners, strengthens Board and 

management accountability and helps 

build public trust in the Company. Our 

Certificate of Incorporation and By-Laws, 

the Board’s Corporate Governance 

Guidelines and other key practices, and 

the charters of our Board committees 

provide the foundation for corporate 

governance at The Coca-Cola Company. 

The Corporate Governance Guidelines 

address such areas as the Board’s 

mission and responsibilities, Director 

qualifications, determination of Director 

independence, Chief Executive Officer 

compensation and performance 

evaluation, and management 

succession planning. 

Our Code of Business Conduct

Our Company’s Code of Business 

Conduct—available in 31 languages—

guides our business conduct. The 

Code articulates our expectation of 

accountability, honesty and integrity in all 

matters. All associates of our Company 

and its majority-owned subsidiaries are 

required to read and understand the 

Code and follow its precepts, both in the 

workplace and in the larger community.

The Code is administered by the 

Ethics and Compliance Committee—

composed of members of the Company’s 

senior leadership—with oversight 

by the Company’s Chief Financial 

Officer, General Counsel and the 

Audit Committee of the Board, which 

is composed solely of independent 

Directors. The Ethics and Compliance 

Committee includes seven members 

representing corporate governance 

functions and operations, which helps 

ensure consistency in the administration 

of our Code across our enterprise.

Non-employee Directors of our 

Company and its subsidiaries are bound 

by our Code of Business Conduct for 

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Non-Employee Directors, which reflects 

the same principles and values as our 

Code of Business Conduct. The NonEmployee Director Code is administered 

by the Board’s Committee on Directors 

and Corporate Governance, which 

is composed solely of independent 

Directors.

To ensure an ongoing commitment 

to and understanding of our Code 

of Business Conduct, we offer online 

training to all associates with Companyprovided computers covering topics 

related to ethics and compliance, 

including our Anti-Bribery Policy. All newly 

hired associates receive the training upon 

hire and all others receive the training 

at least once every three years. In 2012, 

approximately 20,000 management 

and non-management employees were 

asked to certify their compliance with the 

Code of Business Conduct, Human Rights 

Statement, Workplace Rights Policy and 

the Company’s anti-bribery requirements. 

In addition to a number of optional 

training courses on various topics, 

associates are requested to participate 

in ethics training on an annual basis, 

resulting in an average of 60 minutes of 

ethics training per associate per year.

Reporting ethics violations

We urge anyone who has a question or 

concern about our business conduct to 

contact our EthicsLine, a global Internet 

and telephone information and reporting 

service for associates, customers, 

suppliers and consumers who perceive 

violations of our Code of Business 

Conduct, Workplace Rights Policy or 

applicable laws and regulations. We treat 

all inquiries confidentially and investigate 

all concerns.

Remaining vigilant against corruption

Doing business with integrity means 

avoiding bribery or corruption in any 

form. It also means complying with the 

anti-corruption laws of the countries 

where we operate. Our Anti-Bribery 

Policy provides guidance on how to 

conduct business in a fair, ethical and 

legal manner.

We conduct periodic anti-bribery 

assessments and audits of our business 

to raise overall awareness, detect 

potential misconduct and monitor 

compliance with anti-corruption laws 

and policy. We have reviewed practices 

at all our business units for risks related 

to corruption, and we concentrate our 

assessments and audits on the highestrisk locations. We periodically engage 

independent third parties to perform 

assurance procedures to ensure our 

program elements are functioning 

properly and to identify best practices 

that we can implement broadly. The 

Company launched an update to our 

Anti-Bribery Policy and refreshed our 

training in 2012. We continue to leverage 

opportunities to share learnings and 

successful practices across our system.

In Myanmar, it is not uncommon for 

the traffic police and other government 

employees to request facilitating 

payments (small payments to low-level 

officials to speed routine interactions 

or approvals) from commercial drivers. 

The company whose operation we 

acquired was not immune to this 

practice. We determined that on a 

certain date following the acquisition, 

with training preceding, we would end 

this practice of facilitating payments 

altogether. We reviewed local processes 

and implemented necessary mitigation 

practices, including training programs, 

the development of local-language cards 

that drivers can provide to authorities 

that state our policy prohibiting such 

payments, and reviews to ensure that our 

vehicles are appropriately roadworthy 

and licensed.

We participate in several global forums 

on anti-corruption, including the World 

Economic Forum’s Partnering Against 

Corruption Initiative and the UN Global 

Compact’s Anti-Corruption Working 

Group. Through these engagements, we 

have been able to continuously identify 

and share anti-corruption best practices. 

In 2012, Transparency International - USA, 

an international anti-corruption advocacy 

organization, recognized the Company 

for our efforts to promote transparency 

and integrity around the world.

Additionally, we have a global program 

to screen vendors and potential vendors 

deemed to be high risk and obtain their 

agreement to abide by the Company’s 

Anti-Bribery Policy.

Our public policy engagement

Public policy affects our business, our 

people and the communities where we 

do business. Through engagement, we 

seek to responsibly use our resources to 

advance public policy that is consistent 

with the sustainability of our business 

and our Company values.

Pursuant to the Company’s political 

contributions policy, we base our 

political contributions on several criteria, 

including legal compliance, Board and 

management oversight, public policy 

support and public transparency. While 

we do use our resources to advance 

public policy in a number of countries, 

our main focus is in the United States.

We provide a report of U.S. political 

contributions from our Company and 

from associate-funded programs, 

which include The Coca-Cola Company 

Nonpartisan Committee for Good 

Government (Coca-Cola PAC) and 

various other state political action 

committees, on our Company website. 

Read the report, along with our political 

contributions policy.

Additionally, The Coca-Cola Company 

is active in a number of associations 

and organizations. To share just a few, 

we have board membership in the 

American Beverage Association, the 

Grocery Manufacturers Association, the 

Food Marketing Institute and the National 

Restaurant Association. We also have 

active partnerships with World Wildlife 

Fund, the U.S. Agency for International 

Development and Partners for a New 

Beginning. We support the UN Global 

Compact, including the Caring for Climate 

and LEAD initiatives; the Global Reporting 

Initiative; the CEO Water Mandate; 

and the Millennium Development 

Goals. We participate with the Global 

Business Initiative on Human Rights, 

the Global Business Coalition Against 

Human Trafficking, AIM-PROGESS, the 

Global Networks of the International 

Organization of Employers, as well as the 

U.S. Council for International Business, 

the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the 

HR Policy Association, the Labor and 

Employee Relations Network and the 

Brussels European Employee Relations 

Network.

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Stakeholder 

Engagement

An ongoing conversation, continuous 

improvement

Effective and ongoing stakeholder 

engagement is the foundation of our 

business and sustainability reporting 

initiatives. 

We recognize the value of maintaining 

an active dialogue with a diverse group 

of global partners, including employees, 

consumers, customers, bottlers, 

distributors, shareowners, investors, 

nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) 

and nonprofit partners. Maintaining 

open and constructive conversations 

strengthens our relationships, helps 

us to understand other views and 

guides our decisions to deliver on our 

commitments. 

As our sustainability reporting evolves, 

we continue to engage internal and 

external stakeholders to determine 

what areas in our reporting require 

further explanation and clarification. 

We highlight a few examples of our 

global engagement practices and 

outcomes below. 

Engagement on active, healthy living 

in Europe

In 2013, our European business unit 

joined hundreds of stakeholders in a 

dialogue on the topics of nutrition and 

physical activity. Our engagements in 

Europe include the following:

EU Platform for Action on Diet, Physical 

Activity and Health 

The EU Platform is a forum for Europeanlevel organizations willing to commit 

to tackling trends in diet and physical 

activity. Its membership ranges from 

food companies to consumer-protection 

NGOs. Coca-Cola Europe engaged with 

the EU Platform through the Union of 

European Soft Drinks Associations. 

International Sport and Culture 

Association (ISCA)

ISCA is a global platform open to 

organizations working within the field 

of sport. Its membership includes 130 

organizations, including NGOs and 

stakeholders from the public and private 

sectors, as well as 40 million individual 

members from 65 countries. Given 

The Coca-Cola Company’s support of 

sport and physical activity programs 

worldwide, we believed we shared 

many common objectives with ISCA 

and sought a collaborative relationship. 

Through The Coca-Cola Foundation, 

we now support ISCA’s ambition to 

promote physical activity across Europe, 

to elevate it on political agendas in 

the region, and to inspire 100 million 

Europeans to move more often by 2020.

EPODE 

The Ensemble Prévenons l’Obésité 

Des Enfants (EPODE) is a large-scale, 

coordinated, capacity-building network 

approach enabling communities to 

implement effective and sustainable 

strategies to address this challenge. 

EPODE comprises four critical 

components: political commitment, 

public and private partnerships, 

community-based actions, and 

evaluation. The multi-stakeholder 

approach promoted through EPODE has 

already shown encouraging results in 

preventing childhood obesity in France 

and Belgium. EPODE methodology 

has been implemented in nearly 20 

countries across three continents, 

involving more than 20 million people. 

As a founding partner of the 

EPODE International Network

(EIN) since its creation in 2011, 

The Coca-Cola Company is proud to 

help support the spread of EIN’s global 

mission to reduce the prevalence of 

childhood obesity and its associated 

health risks. In 2012, The Coca-Cola 

Foundation awarded $1.07 million to 

support EPODE’s OPEN project, which will 

expand and improve the performance 

of 11 obesity-prevention programs, with 

the goal of increasing the number of 

children and adolescents reached by the 

programs from 1 million to 2.7 million 

by 2016.

Engaging health and nutrition 

stakeholders with the IFBA 

In Brussels, Belgium, and New York 

City, we joined our fellow members 

of the International Food & Beverage 

Alliance (IFBA) in meeting with a variety 

of stakeholders to discuss our progress 

against the five commitments IFBA 

members made in 2008 to the World 

Health Organization.

Ceres 

Ceres is a national coalition of investors, 

environmental organizations and other 

public interest groups working with 

companies to address sustainability 

challenges. For more than a decade, 

The Coca-Cola Company has engaged 

with Ceres on a wide range of 

sustainability issues ranging from our 

sustainability reporting and goals to our 

water policies and approach to other 

material environmental, social and 

governance issues. 

In our 2011/2012 report, we noted 

highlights and outcomes from a 

stakeholder convening arranged by 

Ceres. That conversation resulted 

in a report distilling shareholders’ 

perceptions of what we are doing 

well in our sustainability initiatives and 

reporting—and where they thought 

we could improve. We disclosed the 

feedback from the call and actions taken 

against those suggestions.

As we embark on communicating and 

delivering against a set of ambitious 

2020 sustainability goals, external 

stakeholders will be looking to us to 

transparently identify key metrics and 

milestones as well as demonstrate 

tangible progress. To that end, we 

recently continued our conversation with 

a group of discerning stakeholders in 

a conference call arranged with Ceres. 

We are in the process of reviewing the 

transcript and notes from this call and 

will update our Stakeholder Engagement 

section online as our review and 

assessments are completed.

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Water Stewardship & Replenish 

Report engagement

In addition to our ongoing work with 

Ceres, we maintain stakeholder 

engagement at different levels across 

the Company and benchmark progress 

through our interim reports. As part 

of that effort, we seek stakeholder 

feedback on our water programs, goals 

and work throughout each year. We 

demonstrated our responses to a recent 

stakeholder engagement session in our 

2013 Water Stewardship & Replenish 

Report. Excerpts are included in the table 

to the right.

Sustainable agriculture convening

In February 2013, globally renowned 

agriculture experts joined senior leaders 

from The Coca-Cola Company’s Public 

Affairs, Sustainability, Technical and 

Global Juice Center teams to review 

the Company’s sustainable agriculture 

policies and practices. Feedback and 

guidance from this convening directly 

informed the Company’s recently 

released Sustainable Agriculture Guiding 

Principles and broader sustainable 

agriculture approach. 

Human rights conference 

In May 2013, the Company hosted our 

sixth human rights conference at our 

corporate headquarters in Atlanta, 

convening more than 150 leaders from 

businesses, government and NGOs. 

Sponsored by the U.S. Council for 

International Business, the U.S. 

Chamber of Commerce and the 

International Organization of Employers, 

the event brought together leading 

experts to discuss the role of businesses 

in respecting human rights and 

implementing the UN Guiding Principles 

on Business and Human Rights. 

Participants explored some of the 

complex issues and risk areas, such as 

human trafficking and conflict minerals, 

as well as important considerations 

for people establishing enterprises 

in Myanmar.

We believe it is important to bring in 

a variety of voices to the dialogue 

and prioritize inclusion of diverse 

stakeholders at each convening. 

We want to hear from you

We are striving daily to live up to 

our stakeholders’ expectations for 

transparency and exemplary corporate 

citizenship. To send comments, 

suggestions and critiques on our 

sustainability practices and reporting, 

please visit the Contact Us page. 

Click here to read more about our 

corporate stakeholder engagement 

initiatives on issues related to human 

rights, the International Labour 

Organization and brand collaboration.

STAKEHOLDER FEEDBACK OUR RESPONSE 

(as reported in our 2013 Water 

Stewardship & Replenish Report)

Provide more clarity on water as a 

human right.

We expanded the section on the human 

right to water and sanitation, our position, 

and efforts to help define operational 

practices for business respecting 

these rights.

Provide more detail on water 

efforts with suppliers.

In the Nexus section, we profile our efforts 

and highlight sustainable agriculture 

projects with a water focus/component.

We also disclose our work with Ceres on 

the Aqua Gauge and what that analysis 

showed us about our water programs. 

For example, one outcome was to apply 

more focus on our supply chain. 

Increase details and outcomes 

from stakeholder engagement.

We added details of what our 

Environmental Law Institute/ 

The Coca-Cola Company Stakeholder 

Engagement on Water Guidance 

document informs us in terms of 

stakeholder identification, follow-up 

and transparency.

Discuss challenges in meeting 

goals.

We included honest reflections on the 

challenge in meeting our 100 percent 

replenish goal by 2020 and maintaining it 

thereafter.

What does our source vulnerability 

assessment (SVA) program 

actually require each plant to do/

assess?

We added a detailed list of what each 

site must address as a result of their SVA, 

advancing the process from assessment 

to action.

What have our SVAs found? We added more comprehensive 

descriptions and an overall summary.

How do we plan to meet our 

water efficiency goal?

We engaged with several of our partners 

and critics on our replenishment target 

goal to gain feedback on our progress 

to date and what more they believed we 

could be doing. Additionally, when we 

were looking to set a new water efficiency 

goal, we reached out to key partners and 

critics to get their opinions and feedback 

on the goal, what we thought was 

attainable and what would be considered 

a stretch. Their input helped guide our 25 

percent metric and our valuation of how 

we would attain it.

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Materiality assessment

The Coca-Cola Company addresses 

risk factors and accompanying material 

issues in our Annual Report on Form 

10-K (Item 1A). In accordance with 

the standards set forth in the Global 

Reporting Initiative G4 guidelines, the 

Company is in the process of assessing 

materiality and moving toward our next 

generation of sustainability reporting 

and progress alignment. A formal 

materiality analysis and charting will 

help us take a close and considered 

look at the sustainability issues that 

are of the highest concern to our 

stakeholders and that could significantly 

affect our Company’s ability to execute 

its business strategy.

Meet our partners

The Coca-Cola Company works globally 

with partners to address our collective 

environmental and social challenges 

and responsibly manage the planet’s 

resources. 

As we recognize in our Global 

Challenges section, the problems 

we face and are addressing across 

our value chain require collaborative 

action among many institutions at 

both the global and community levels. 

Working with a variety of extraordinary 

organizations helps us make progress 

toward achieving our sustainability 

goals. The cumulative expertise of our 

partners both inspires and enables us to 

do far more than we could do alone. 

Read more about some of the 

organizations whose accomplishments 

and commitments are representative of 

all the organizations we are fortunate to 

call our partners. 

External recognition

Recognition for 

The Coca-Cola Company’s 

comprehensive strategy and results.

Our global teams work diligently to 

advance our mission and vision in the 

communities we serve. The following list 

includes a sampling of the recognition 

we have received from external 

organizations on our social, economic 

and environmental performance in the 

past year.

Barron’s: #8 on the list of World’s Most 

Respected Companies

Black Enterprise: recognized as one of 

the “40 Best Companies for Diversity”

Bloomberg Businessweek: #41 on the list 

of “Top Performing Companies”

Corporate Responsibility Magazine: #15 

on the “100 Best Corporate Citizens List”

DiversityBusiness.com: #9 of the “Top 50 

Organizations for Diversity”

DiversityInc: #38 of the “Top 50 

Companies for Diversity”

Fast Company: #14 on the list of “The 

World’s Most Innovative Companies”

FORBES and Reputation Institute: #7 on 

the list of “America’s Most Reputable 

Companies”

Forbes: #10 among “America’s 25 Most 

Inspiring Companies”

Fortune: #4 on the list of the “World’s 50 

Most Admired Companies”

FTSE4GOOD Index: included on the 

annual listing in 2012

Harris Interactive: #3 on the 2012 

“Corporate Reputation Poll”

HispanicBusiness.com: #17 in 2013 

of the “Best Companies for Diversity 

Practices”

Human Rights Campaign (HRC): earned 

100 percent score for the seventh 

consecutive year on the “Corporate 

Equality Index (CEI)”

Interbrand: #3 in 2013 of the “Best 

Global Brands”

Interbrand: #23 in 2012 for the “Best 

Global Green Brands”

McDonald’s: recognized for 2012 Best 

of Sustainable Supply (PlantBottleTM 

Packaging)

Newsweek Green Rankings: ranked 

#155 in 2012, up from #289 in 2011

Southeastern Corporate Sustainability 

Rankings: ranked #2 among regional 

companies

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Report 

Parameters

Scope of report

This Sustainability Report 

covers the performance of

The Coca-Cola Company and the 

Coca-Cola system (our Company and 

our bottling partners) for the 2012 

calendar year, from January 1, 2012 

through December 31, 2012. In the 

narrative portion of the report, we 

also discuss events and performance 

through July 2013. As such, references 

to “currently,” “to date” or similar 

expressions reflect information as of July 

31, 2013. 

Data and information in this year’s 

report reflect the performance and 

goals of the Coca-Cola system, unless 

otherwise indicated. We believe this 

increases the transparency of our 

reporting and provides a broader view 

of the impacts of our business and 

value chain. Our new 2020 goals for 

sustainable management of water, 

energy and packaging use, as well 

as sustainable sourcing of agricultural 

ingredients, also apply to the 

Coca-Cola system rather than solely 

to the Company. In this report, we 

continue to report progress against our 

2015 goals in addition to our new 2020 

commitments. Going forward, we will 

focus our performance against our 2020 

goals.

We strive to collect and report accurate 

data, supported by a sound underlying 

methodology. Unless otherwise 

indicated, the data in the report 

reflects all Coca-Cola system locations 

(manufacturing, distribution, offices, 

laboratories and all other locations), 

organizations and fleets worldwide. 

The data generally does not include 

joint ventures, leased operations or 

outsourced operations. 

We included sustainability-related risk 

factors starting on page 11 of our 2012 

Annual Report on Form 10-K and other 

filings with the U.S. Securities and 

Exchange Commission (SEC). We discuss 

some of these issues and include 

others of interest to our stakeholders in 

this report, such as obesity and other 

health concerns; water scarcity and 

quality; and climate change. We feel 

that providing more information on our 

material risks will help investors and the 

public better understand our business 

environment. 

We report in conformance with 

the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) 

framework. This GRI Report is our 

third report launched to specifically 

address GRI requirements. For more 

information on the GRI, please visit 

www.globalreporting.org. This year, 

our Company has self-declared an 

application level of B+ per the GRI G3.1 

guidelines. The “+” sign indicates that 

we received external assurance on our 

GRI Report. This year’s Sustainability 

Report received external reviewlevel assurance by our independent 

accountants, Ernst & Young, on four 

sustainability indicators for the calendar 

year ended December 31, 2012: water 

use ratio, PlantBottleTM packaging, 

lost-time incident rate and front-ofpack labeling. Ernst & Young’s Review 

Report can be found in the Independent 

Assurance section of this report.

We issue our Sustainability Report 

annually; our previous report, the 

2011/2012 Sustainability Report, was 

released in November 2012.

We also structure our reporting on the 

principles outlined in the UN Millennium 

Development Goals, the UN Global 

Compact and the CEO Water Mandate. 

You can find these principles in the 

Global Business Principles section of this 

report. 

Throughout our report, we include 

links to third-party websites to make it 

easier for you to learn more about our 

partners, projects and goals. These 

links are included for reference only, 

and we do not endorse or incorporate 

by reference into our report any of 

the information contained on those 

websites.

Other reports

A detailed description of our business 

operations and financial performance 

is provided in our 2012 Form 10-K

and our 2012 Annual Review. Those 

reports, along with several other reports 

filed with the SEC, are available on 

our Company website. Reports from 

regional and bottling partners are also 

available on our website and provide 

further information on the financial 

and sustainability performance of 

the Coca-Cola system. Please see 

our Company website for the latest 

sustainability news and information. 

Recognizing and addressing global 

challenges

As a global company, we recognize 

there are global challenges affecting 

our operations at every level— from 

our employees and our customers to 

our consumers and the communities 

in which we operate. At Coca-Cola, we 

view challenges such as water scarcity, 

climate change, economic disparity 

and obesity as interdependent—an 

improvement in one may positively 

affect outcomes in another. Similarly, 

a decline in one area may hamper 

progress in another. 

To that end, we continually assess and 

reevaluate the evolving world in which 

we operate and work in earnest to 

find solutions to the global challenges 

facing humanity. As a multinational 

company with strong local connections, 

we tackle these global challenges with 

local action. Our partnerships with 

NGOs, government agencies, academic 

institutions, community organizations, 

non-profits and other thought leaders 

afford us insight into these evolving 

challenges. 

Here is a snapshot of how we’re 

engaging with the Global Shapers 

Community and our International 

Advisory Committee, which highlights 

our approach to recognizing and 

addressing global challenges. 

The Coca-Cola Company GRI Report > In Our Reporting > Report Parameters 81

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Global Shapers partnership 

At Coca-Cola, we believe that solving 

current and future challenges is 

dependent upon involving the ideas and 

engaging the energy of the Millennial 

generation. To that end, we partner 

with the Global Shapers Community, an 

initiative of the World Economic Forum, 

to amplify the voices of young leaders 

worldwide. 

Coca-Cola is a founding partner of the 

Global Shapers Community, which is one 

of several multi-stakeholder communities 

at the World Economic Forum. Global 

Shapers are selected on the basis of 

achievements, leadership potential and 

commitment to make a difference. The 

community is a vast network of over 260 

city-based hubs developed and led by 

highly motivated, young leaders between 

20 and 30 years old who want to develop 

their leadership potential and serve 

society. To that end, hubs undertake local 

projects to improve their communities. 

Coca-Cola engages with Global Shapers 

through mentoring programs and 

collaborative projects to enable their 

impact and to bring the voice of youth 

into our business. See a video about 

Global Shapers here.

International Advisory Committee

The Coca-Cola Company’s International 

Advisory Committee (the Committee) is 

a third-party group, which is composed 

of well-known, outside experts in the 

fields of health policy, environmental 

policy and public policy generally. The 

Committee was formed in 2012 to 

provide strategic guidance in support of 

the Company’s business priorities and to 

strengthen a network of global opinion 

leaders. The Committee assists us in 

understanding related developments 

and trends in the world at large, and 

also in devising appropriate, responsive 

Company policy and action. Several 

members of the Committee provided

insights on global issues and challenges 

facing our Company and communities 

today.

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A member firm of Ernst & Young Global Limited

Report of Independent Accountants

To the Board of Directors and Management of The Coca-Cola Company

We have reviewed selected quantitative performance indicators (the “subject matter”) included in the accompanying Schedule of Reviewed

Performance Indicators (the “schedule”) and as presented in The Coca-Cola Company’s 2012/2013 GRI Report (the "Report") for the year

ended December 31, 2012. We did not review all information included in the Report. We did not review the narrative sections of the Report,

except where they incorporated the subject matter. The Coca-Cola Company’s management is responsible for the subject matter included

in the accompanying table and as also presented in the Report, and for selection of the criteria against which the subject matter is

measured and presented.

Our review was conducted in accordance with attestation standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants,

and, accordingly, included:

• inquiries of persons responsible for the subject matter;

• obtaining an understanding of the data management systems and processes used to generate, aggregate and report the

subject matter;

• analytical procedures over the conformity of the subject matter with the criteria; and,

• performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances.

A review is substantially less in scope than an examination, the objective of which is an expression of opinion on the subject matter.

Accordingly, we do not express such an opinion.

Non-financial information contained within sustainability reports are subject to measurement uncertainties resulting from limitations

inherent in the nature and the methods used for determining such data. The selection of different but acceptable measurement techniques

can result in materially different measurements. The precision of different measurement techniques may also vary.

Based on our review, nothing came to our attention that caused us to believe that the subject matter described above is not presented, in

all material respects, in conformity with the attached criteria.

November 1, 2013

Boston, Massachusetts

1 See “Key Criteria for Measurement” attached for clarification on the criteria assessed for each performance indicator.

2 For calendar year 2012 only

The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC)

Schedule of Reviewed Performance Indicators

For the year ended December 31, 2012

Indicator Name Scope Unit Assertion1

Water use ratio Global

production

facilities within

the Coca-Cola

system

Liters of water used per

liter of product produced

2.12

Lost time incident rate

(LTIR)

LTI X 200,000 / number of hours

worked during the reporting period

2.3

PlantBottlesTM

distributed

Global Number of PlantBottlesTM distributed Approximately 7 billion

Front-of-pack labeling

compliance

North America,

Europe, and

South Africa

Not applicable - qualitative assertion In 2012, The Coca-Cola Company

provided front-of-pack energy (calorie)

information on nearly all beverage

products in North America, Europe,

and South Africa.

2

TCCC and 

TCCC-owned 

or -controlled 

operations

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A member firm of Ernst & Young Global Limited

Key Criteria for Measurement

Unless otherwise specified, the data below encompasses operations in the Coca-Cola system. The reporting period for all data collected is

January 1, 2012 – December 31, 2012.

Indicator

Name

Key Criteria for Measurement

Water use

ratio

Water use ratio (efficiency) is defined as liters of water used per liter of product produced. Total water used is the total of

all water used by the Coca-Cola system in all global production facilities, from all sources, including municipal, well,

surface water and collected rain water. This includes water used for: production; water treatment; boiler makeup;

cooling (contact and non-contact); cleaning and sanitation; backwashing filters; irrigation; washing trucks and other

vehicles; kitchen or canteen; toilets and sinks; and fire control. This does not include return water or non-branded bulk

water donated to the community. Liters of product produced include all production, not just saleable products.

PlantBottlesTM

distributed

PlantBottleTM packaging is a PET plastic bottle made partly with renewable, plant-based materials. Coca-Cola’s firstgeneration PlantBottleTM package replaces conventional fossil-based monoethylene glycol (MEG) – one of the two

primary ingredients in PET plastic – with plant-based MEG. Approximately 30% by weight of the entire PET polymer is

derived from MEG. The term distributed refers to the number of bottles sold by the Coca-Cola system to retailers. For

select groups that do not provide a calculated distributed bottle count of PlantBottleTM, the metric tons of bPET used in

the reporting cycles is used to calculate the number of bottles produced using the bottle sizes and weights. A 5%

reduction factor is then applied to the number of bottles produced to arrive at a more conservative estimate of number

of bottles distributed. 

Lost time

incident rate

(LTIR)

A Lost Time Incident is a work-related injury or illness, including fatality that results in one or more Lost Days. A Lost Day

occurs when, in the opinion of the medical professional of record, the employee’s work-related injury or illness prevents

the person from being able to work. Lost Days are counted as calendar days where counting begins the first day

following the injury and ends when the person is able, in the opinion of the medical professional of record, to return to

work, leaves employment or reaches 180 Lost Days. The first Lost Day is the first day following the injury, regardless of

whether it was a scheduled workday, if the criteria for Lost Day are met.

The Lost Time Incident rate (LTIR) is calculated by multiplying the number of Lost Time Incidents by 200,000 then dividing

by the number of hours worked during the reporting period. The LTIR is out of 100 employees and is based on Lost Time

Incidents per 200,000 hours worked (100 full time equivalent employees working 40 hours per week for 50 weeks). Due

to the possibility of first aids becoming a Lost Time Incident over time, TCCC’s Lost Time Incident rate was determined as

of July 15, 2013 for the year ended December 31, 2012. 

Front of pack

labeling

Front-of-pack (“FOP”) calorie information must be prominently displayed in the visible area of the front of pack defined as

within an area equal to 43% of the area of the 360 degree label with the product logo as its center. The number of

calories (or equivalent term, such as kilocalories or kilojoules, depending on national regulatory approach) per specified

serving, or per container, must be provided. TCCC defines the term “nearly all” to include the following stipulations: All

Company-owned brands, except those that are exempt, are required to be in compliance with the front-of-pack

labeling commitment. Company-owned brands do not include brands to which TCCC has the licensing or distribution

rights. The exemptions include certain glass bottles due to print limitations and re-use of the same bottles for brand

variants. The exemption also includes fountain beverages, plain, unsweetened, and unflavored water, and small and

very small packages (as determined by country-specific regulations) that are exempt from applying basic nutrition

information under local regulations.

The scope of reporting is limited to data collected for TCCC and TCCC-owned or -controlled operations. Employees 

include all hourly, salary and temporary employees who are on the payroll of TCCC and TCCC-owned or -controlled 

operations, as well as contractors and temporary employees who are not on a facility’s payroll, but for whom facility 

management provides day-to-day supervision of their work and provides the details, means, methods and processes 

by which the work objective is accomplished. The number of Lost Time Incidents refers to the total number of Lost Time 

Incidents during the reporting period. The hours worked include total hours worked during the reporting period by all 

employees. This excludes hours not worked, such as vacations, holidays, or absences.

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GRI

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G3.1 Indicator Description Location Reported

Strategy and Analysis

 1.1 Statement from the most senior decision-maker of the 

organization.

From the Chairman and 

CEO, p. 9

Full

 1.2 Description of key impacts, risks, and opportunities. About This Report, p. 4; From 

the Chairman and CEO, p. 9; 

Report Parameters, p. 81

Full

Organizational Profile

 2.1 Name of the organization. The Coca-Cola Company Full

 2.2 Primary brands, products, and/or services. Coca-Cola at a Glance, p. 6 Full

 2.3 Operational structure of the organization, including main 

divisions, operating companies, subsidiaries, and joint 

ventures.

The Coca-Cola System, p. 5 Full

 2.4 Location of organization's headquarters. Atlanta, Georgia Full

 2.5 Number of countries where the organization operates, 

and names of countries with either major operations or 

that are specifically relevant to the sustainability issues 

covered in the report.

About The Coca-Cola 

Company, p. 5

Full

 2.6 Nature of ownership and legal form. Annual Report on Form 10-K Full

 2.7 Markets served (including geographic breakdown, sectors 

served, and types of customers/beneficiaries).

Annual Report on Form 10-K Full

 2.8 Scale of the reporting organization. 2012 Annual Review Full

 2.9 Significant changes during the reporting period regarding 

size, structure, or ownership.

Annual Report on Form 10-K Full

 2.10 Awards received in the reporting period. External recognition, p. 80 Full

Report Parameters

 3.1 Reporting period (e.g., fiscal/calendar year) for 

information provided.

Scope of report, p. 81 Full

 3.2 Date of most recent previous report (if any). Scope of report, p. 81 Full

 3.3 Reporting cycle (annual, biennial, etc.) Scope of report, p. 81 Full

 3.4 Contact point for questions. We want to hear from you, 

p. 79

Full

 3.5 Process for defining report content. About This Report, p. 4; 

Report Parameters, p. 81

Full

 3.6 Boundary of the report (e.g., countries, divisions, 

subsidiaries, leased facilities, joint ventures, suppliers). 

See GRI Boundary Protocol for further guidance.

Scope of report, p. 81 Full

 3.7 State any specific limitations on the scope or boundary of 

the report (see completeness Principle for explanation of 

scope).

Scope of report, p. 81 Full

 3.8 Basis for reporting on joint ventures, subsidiaries, leased 

facilities, outsourced operations, and other entities that 

can significantly affect comparability from period to period 

and/or between organizations.

Scope of report, p. 81 Full
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Report Parameters

 3.9 Data measurement techniques and the bases of 

calculations, including assumptions and techniques 

underlying estimations applied to the compilation of the 

Indicators and other information in the report.

Key Criteria for 

Measurement, p. 84

Full

 3.10 Explanation of the effect of any re-statements of 

information provided in earlier reports, and the reasons 

for such re-statement (e.g., mergers/acquisitions, change 

of base years/periods, nature of business, measurement 

methods).

Lost-Time Incident Rate/Lost 

Days, 2008 to 2012, p. 41

Full

 3.11 Significant changes from previous reporting periods in the 

scope, boundary, or measurement methods applied in 

the report.

Lost-Time Incident Rate/Lost 

Days, 2008 to 2012, p. 41

Full

 3.12 Table identifying the location of the Standard Disclosures 

in the report.

GRI Content Index, p. 85 Full

 3.13 Policy and current practice with regard to seeking external 

assurance for the report.

Report of Independent 

Accountants, p. 83

Full

Governance, Commitments, and Engagement

 4.1 Governance structure of the organization, including 

committees under the highest governance body 

responsible for specific tasks, such as setting strategy or 

organizational oversight.

Me/We/World Performance 

Highlights by Year, p. 13; Our 

Governance and Ethics, p. 76

Full

 4.2 Indicate whether the Chair of the highest governance 

body is also an executive officer.

Coca-Cola Leaders Full

 4.3 For organizations that have a unitary board structure, 

state the number and gender of members of the highest 

governance body that are independent and/or nonexecutive members.

Shareowner Information Full

 4.4 Mechanisms for shareholders and employees to provide 

recommendations or direction to the highest governance 

body.

Shareowner Information Full

 4.5 Linkage between compensation for members of the 

highest governance body, senior managers, and 

executives.

2013 Proxy Statement Full

 4.6 Processes in place for the highest governance body to 

ensure conflicts of interest are avoided.

Code of Business Conduct Full

Process for determining the composition, qualifications 

and expertise of the members of the highest governance 

body and its committees, including any consideration of 

gender and other indicators of diversity.

Corporate Governance 

Guidelines

Full

 4.8 Internally developed statements of mission or values, 

codes of conduct, and principles relevant to economic, 

environmental, and social performance and the status of 

their implementation.

2020 Vision, p. 7; 

Responsible Marketing 

Policy, p. 24; Human and 

Workplace Rights, p. 34; Our 

Code of Business Conduct, 

p. 76

Full
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Governance, Commitments, and Engagement

 4.9 Procedures of the highest governance body for 

overseeing the organization's identification and 

management of economic, environmental, and social 

performance, including relevant risks and opportunities, 

and adherence or compliance with internationally agreed 

standards, codes of conduct, and principles.

Public Issues and Diversity 

Review Committee Charter

Full

 4.10 Processes for evaluating the highest governance body's 

own performance, particularly with respect to economic, 

environmental, and social performance.

Corporate Governance 

Guidelines

Full

 4.11 Explanation of whether and how the precautionary 

approach or principle is addressed by the organization.

Global Business Principles, 

p. 75

Full

 4.12 Externally developed economic, environmental, and 

social charters, principles, or other initiatives to which the 

organization subscribes or endorses.

Global Business Principles, 

p. 75

Full

 4.13 Memberships in associations (such as industry 

associations) and/or national/international advocacy 

organizations.

Our public policy 

engagement, p. 77

Full

 4.14 List of stakeholder groups engaged by the organization. Stakeholder Engagement, 

p. 78

Full

 4.15 Basis for identification and selection of stakeholders with 

whom to engage.

Stakeholder Engagement, 

p. 78

Full

 4.16 Approaches to stakeholder engagement, including 

frequency of engagement by type and by stakeholder 

group.

Stakeholder Engagement, 

p. 78

Full

 4.17 Key topics and concerns that have been raised through 

stakeholder engagement, and how the organization has 

responded to those key topics and concerns, including 

through its reporting.

Stakeholder Engagement, 

p. 79

Full

Economic

Management approach Governance and Ethics, p. 76

EC1 Direct economic value generated and distributed, 

including revenues, operating costs, employee 

compensation, donations and other community 

investments, retained earnings, and payments to capital 

providers and governments.

Annual Report on Form 10-K Full

EC2 Financial implications and other risks and opportunities for 

the organization's activities due to climate change.

Annual Report on Form 10-K Full

EC8 Development and impact of infrastructure investments 

and services provided primarily for public benefit through 

commercial, in-kind, or pro bono engagement.

About Water Stewardship, p. 

49; Sustainable Packaging, 

p. 59

Full

EC9 Understanding and describing significant indirect 

economic impacts, including the extent of impacts.

Women’s Economic 

Empowerment, p. 26

Full
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Environmental

Management approach About Water Stewardship, p. 

49; Sustainable Packaging, 

p. 59; Climate Protection, p. 

64; Sustainable Agriculture, 

p. 70

EN3 Direct energy consumption by primary energy source. Me/We/World Performance 

Highlights by Year, p. 14

Partial

EN4 Indirect energy consumption by primary source. Me/We/World Performance 

Highlights by Year, p. 14

Partial

EN5 Energy saved due to conservation and efficiency 

improvements.

Climate Protection, p. 64 Partial

EN6 Initiatives to provide energy-efficient or renewable energy 

based products and services, and reductions in energy 

requirements as a result of these initiatives.

Climate Protection, p. 64 Partial

EN7 Initiatives to reduce indirect energy consumption and 

reductions achieved.

Climate Protection, p. 64 Partial

EN8 Total water withdrawal by source. 2012 The Coca-Cola System 

Water Use by Source, p. 53

Full

EN10 Percentage and total volume of water recycled and 

reused.

Treating and recycling 

wastewater, p. 55

Full

EN16 Total direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions by 

weight.

Me/We/World Performance 

Highlights by Year, p. 13

Partial

EN17 Other relevant indirect greenhouse gas emissions by 

weight.

Me/We/World Performance 

Highlights by Year, p. 13

Full

EN18 Initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and 

reductions achieved.

Climate Protection, p. 64 Partial

EN21 Total water discharge by quality and destination. Treating and recycling 

wastewater, p. 55

Partial

EN26 Initiatives to mitigate environmental impacts of products 

and services, and extent of impact mitigation.

About Water Stewardship, p. 

49; Sustainable Packaging, 

p. 59; Climate Protection, 

p. 64

Partial

EN27 Percentage of products sold and their packaging 

materials that are reclaimed by category.

Sustainable Packaging, p. 59 Full

Social: Labor Practices and Decent Work

Management approach Human and Workplace 

Rights, p. 34

LA2 Total number and rate of new employee hires and 

employee turnover by age group, gender, and region.

2012 Global Turnover Rates 

by Group and Gender, p. 40

Partial

LA4 Percentage of employees covered by collective bargaining 

agreements.

Collaborating with labor, 

p. 38

Full

LA7 Rates of injury, occupational diseases, lost days, and 

absenteeism, and number of work-related fatalities by 

region and gender.

Our safety record in 2012, 

p. 41; Key Criteria for 

Measurement, p. 84

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Social: Labor Practices and Decent Work

LA8 Education, training, counseling, prevention, and riskcontrol programs in place to assist workforce members, 

their families, or community members regarding serious 

diseases.

HIV/ AIDS Full

LA13 Composition of governance bodies and breakdown of 

employees per employee category according to gender, 

age group, minority group membership, and other 

indicators of diversity.

Me/We/World Performance 

Highlights by Year, p. 12

Partial

Social: Human Rights

Management approach Human and Workplace 

Rights, p. 34

HR2 Percentage of significant suppliers, contractors, and other 

business partners that have undergone human rights 

screening and actions taken.

Aligning our system and 

suppliers, p. 35

Full

HR4 Total number of incidents of discrimination and corrective 

actions taken.

Investigating rights-related 

complaints, p. 35

Full

HR5 Operations and significant suppliers identified in which 

the right to exercise freedom of association and collective 

bargaining may be at significant risk, and actions taken to 

support these rights.

Collaborating with labor, 

p.38

Full

HR6 Operations and significant suppliers identified as having 

significant risk for incidents of child labor, and measures 

taken to contribute to the elimination of child labor.

Helping to eradicate child 

labor in sugarcane fields, 

p. 37

Full

HR7 Operations and significant suppliers identified as having 

significant risk for incidents of forced or compulsory labor, 

and measures to contribute to the elimination of all forms 

of forced or compulsory labor.

Preventing human 

trafficking, p. 37

Partial

Social: Society

Management approach Our Governance and Ethics, 

p. 76

FP4 "Nature, scope and effectiveness of any programs 

and practices (in-kind contributions, volunteer 

initiatives, knowledge transfer, partnerships and 

product development) that promote healthy lifestyles; 

the prevention of chronic disease; access to healthy, 

nutritious and affordable food; and improved welfare for 

communities in need)

Well-Being, p. 16; Access 

to Critical Medicines, 

p. 44; Disaster Relief & 

Strengthening Communities 

with the Red Cross Red 

Crescent, p. 46

SO2 Percentage and total number of business units analyzed 

for risks related to corruption.

Remaining vigilant against 

corruption, p. 77

Full

SO3 Percentage of employees trained in organization's anticorruption policies and procedures.

Remaining vigilant against 

corruption, p. 77

Full

SO5 Public policy positions and participation in public policy 

development and lobbying.

Public Policy Engagement Full

SO6 Total value of financial and in-kind contributions to political 

parties, politicians, and related institutions by country.

Public Policy Engagement Full
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Social: Product responsibility

Management approach Well-Being, p. 16; Marketing 

Responsibly, p. 24

PR3 Type of product and service information required by 

procedures, and percentage of significant products and 

services subject to such information requirements.

Providing transparent 

nutrition information, p. 

20; Report of Independent 

Accountants, p. 83

Partial

FP6 Percentage of total sales volume of consumer products, 

by product category, that are lowered in saturated fat, 

trans fats, sodium and sugars.

Me/We/World Performance 

Highlights by Year, p. 12; 

The Coca-Cola Company 

Policy on Nutrition Labeling 

and Nutrition Information

Full

PR6 Programs for adherence to laws, standards, and 

voluntary codes related to marketing communications, 

including advertising, promotion, and sponsorship.

Marketing Responsibly, p. 24 Full