The Coca-Cola Co. (KO), the world’s largest soft-drink maker, was recognized by the Corporate Eco Forum for its efforts to promote sustainability, including using recyclable plastic bottles,
shifting away from refrigerants that contribute to climate change and supporting the World Wildlife Fund.
The forum, comprising 80 companies from 18 industries with combined annual revenue of more than $3 trillion, gave Atlanta- based Coca-Cola and its Chief Executive Officer Muhtar Kent the C.K. Prahalad Award for Global Sustainability Leadership at a dinner event today in Washington.
Coca-Cola has spent $60 million over the past decade to phase out the use of refrigerants that contribute to climate change, according to the Eco Forum. In 2009, it developed its “PlantBottle,” which the company said is the first fully recyclable PET plastic beverage bottle made partially from plants, and by 2020 it expects to use bottles made completely from materials that are recyclable and renewable.
“If you don’t have measurable goals and hold people accountable, I don’t think you’ll move the needle,” Rick Frazier, Coca-Cola’s vice-president for supply chain, said in an interview.
The company also wants to offset all the water the company and its bottlers use for finished beverages, and in 2009 it replenished 22 percent of that water, helped by 250 partnerships in 70 countries. The company has been working with the World Wildlife Fund since 2004 to preserve threatened river basins.
Article courtesy of Ehren Goossens
Image courtesy of hinnamsaisuy