Coca-Cola Company Essay

Environment is an important aspect in our lives, allover the world, concerns are being raised on how the world can have a sustainable environment. Companies are under pressure to come up with programs that support environment. For the purpose of this paper we are going to examine the Coca-Cola Company environmental programs and polices. Coca-Cola Company is a multinational company that is well known for its production of carbonated soft drinks that are sold in over 200 countries allover the world. Coke soft drinks are sold in stores, vending machines and in restaurants. According to business week, coke is the most recognized brand from the company. This paper is going to analyze the environment issues that impact the company. Many nutritionists argue that soft drinks from Coca-Cola and other companies are harmful when consumed in access especially by the young ones, who may take a lot of soft drinks at the expense of a balanced diet. Studies indicate that those who regularly take soft drinks do have lesser calcium intakes in their body systems. The coca cola company in India has come under a big controversy that concerns pesticides together with other dangerous chemicals that purported to find in the bottled products from the company. In the year 2003, center for Science and Environment (CSE) which is a non governmental organization based in New Delhi, reported that aerated waters that were being produced in India by multinational big companies such as coca-cola, did contain toxins. These toxins included DDT, lindane, Malathion and chlorpyrifors, which can contribute greatly to cancer and also the breakdown of an individual immune system. Among products that were tested was coke which has found to have 30 times the amount of pesticide remains that is allowed by the European Union regulations. This lead to formation of a parliamentary committee that was given mandate to develop pesticide levels for soft drinks; this was first of its kind in the world. The company response was its products are well filtered in order to remove any potential contaminants before being marketed and that the normal have a minimum level of pesticides as required by health standards. In the sate of Kerala in India, sell of Coca-Cola products together with other soft drinks was banned, until the high overruled the decision. Suppliers Coca-Cola Company has a policy with its suppliers to follows all international and national laws that encourage ethical business dealing. The company has built its reputation on trust, respect and integrates. The company promotes the principles of human rights, shun child labor and encourage environmental conservations practices. The Coca-Cola Company has several supplies who supplies various material to the company that are used in production and overall distribution of the company products. (Coca-Cola – Our Brands 2007). To start with the company is supplied with aluminum from different supplies coming from different countries. Aluminum is also supplied to the company’s bottling plants in many parts of the world; it is used for manufacturing of cans and other containers that the company uses in packaging. Other suppliers of the company are farms who grow coco plant, sugar, corn and other plants that are used as raw material by the company. Some companies do enter into dealership with the company of supplying the raw material to the company. Over the years the company has acquired many suppliers as the demand of its products increase. Companies dealing in glass also supply a lot of it to the company as it is used in making of bottles for packaging soft drinks from the company. Effects of demographics Globalization, technology, and population are among key factors that affects the company business. Over a period of three years demographic factors will play an important role on the company sale and overall performance. In line with world growth, it is believed that the world have more aged people than today this is because the birth rate in many countries is falling while at the same time life expectancy is improving. Studies indicate that young people consumer a lot of the company products than the aged ones. In line with this the company may experience slight reduction in consumption of there products. This reduction of consumption may not occur since at the same time the world population is increasing there fore cautioning any decrease that may occur in consumption patterns. Other than aging and population, the company also will have to deal with environmental issues brought about by technology change and global changes. As technology continues to advance, the issue of environment also continues to attract more attention on how viable such technology is. To day people allover the world wants companies which are environmental friendly. Consumers have become more aware of their environment and prefer companies that value the environment and have policies that protect the environment. The company will be affected positively in three years to come if they have embrace technology that sustain environment, if not then the may experience negative effects. Environment and health issues have been a big issue in the company, in 2006 the United States Food and Drug Administration, had to respond to concerns of consumers by carrying out a survey on more 100 soft drinks and also other beverages which established that though, the soft drinks had amount of benzene, it was not a health concern to consumers. The Coca-Cola Company has a vision that seeks to promote sustainable growth and making a positive change in the whole world. In regard to environment the company has made significant and quantifiable progress. The company has integrated environmental issues in its business strategies and decision making methods. As it can be noted the company improved its usage of water ratio by 4%, the energy usage ratio by 5% and the recycling rate went up by 3%. These improvements have a direct benefit to communities where the company operates and to the company stakeholders. However, the company still is undertaking more measures to improve the environment. The company has taken key measures in improving the environment, which focus mainly on environmental performance measures of the company systems. These measures include improving the company operations and improving ways of conducting business which are geared towards minimize environmental effects that the company has. The environment impacts created by the company operations from the company bottling systems are for example sustainable packaging inventiveness, protection of climate and â€Å"eco-freshment†, the company has undertaken alternative refrigeration programs that are more environmental friendly. To further improve the environment, Cocacola Corporation has invested a lot in clean technology that fuels the company innovations; this includes the environment board; the company community and watershed schemes; and making partnerships with charity organization, non governmental agencies and peer companies that targets developing solutions that are innovative towards environmental issues. The Coca-Cola Corporation which is a global corporation has a unique challenge in managing the environmental effects to the company business. The corporation has a challenge because it does not own nor manage many of coca cola bottling companies around the world. Thus, these data will examine the corporation environmental management. Water The most essential need for all life forms is water; however accessing safe and clean water has remained dream to many. It is estimated that around 1. 3 billion people allover the world do not reach to clean and safe water. This has a great impact on the environment as a whole. Allover the world, from United Nations to community organizations are working in order to increase access to water, the company is doing its part by protecting and preserving water resources Water is an important factor in management of environment the corporation in line with undertaking sustainable water methods, it improved it water effectiveness by 4% in the year 2005, over three previous years the company has been improving its water efficiency, and the company projects that water efficiency usage will level off soon. To ensure this, the company has undertaken changes in product mix, meaning the growing of tea and coffee products; this is anticipated to make the company productions ways more water concentrated. The management in 2005 did a comprehensive risk analysis of water dangers that face the company systems and host communities in 811 company bottling plants and has continued in improving efficient water use. Wastewater disposal is an issue that the management is addressing by working with bottling partners in the whole world to improve wastewater treatment. In addition, conservation processes have been undertaken by the company and the company is strict on these processes to achieve and even surpasses applicable laws. The management has put up requirements for their bottling plant to have on site an effluent treatment plants that will be used in attaining the goal of increasing water efficiency. The goal of the company is to be 100% water efficiency by the year 2010 (Coca-Cola – Our Brands 2007). The company is focusing on other projects that will address the issue of water scarcity in world. At the end of 2005, the company had established around 20 watershed joint ventures with local communities and to help in providing access to clean water and also sanitation services in the communities allover the world where the company have their bottling plants. In line with enhancing access to water the management of the company entered into partnerships with Emory Global center for Safe Water, the United Nations Foundations, Millennium Water Alliance and others in establish Global Water Challenge. This all important combination aim at providing safe water for drinking, improving sanitation together with hygienic education in developing countries. The program depends on collaboration of partners, funding, mobilizing additional partners, and sharing of resources, best practices and expertise. Global Water Challenge has a program Water for Schools which focus on supplying water and also sanitation to many schools in Kenya in nyanza province. There is already great prospective of implementing the same project elsewhere. These efforts greatly enhance environment. Packaging Coca-Cola beverage is taken by people allover the world over 1. 3 times in a day, in order for the company to satisfy this consumption rate, the company depends upon packaging its products in containers. These containers are offer protection and enable distribution of the products to the consumer. The management has been working throughout in enhancing environmental along side social value packaging, by improving designs of containers in order to meet the set standards. In the year 2005 the company made a lot of progress towards achieving sustainable packaging distinction (Coca-Cola – Our Brands 2007). The company has pursed environmental friendly way of packing by reducing amount of material used on its can, bottles and polyethylene terephthalate. In 2005 the new technology of the company reduced use of glass by 52, 000 tons annual ii all of its plants in the world. The managed has also managed to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide. In line with keeping the environment clean, the management has come up with recycling systems which are more efficient. An example of such recycling plants is CEMPRE in Brazil. These recycling plants have been used to produce recycled containers which the company reuses. This initiative have gone along way in improving the overall environment as broken bottles and cans used to pause a danger to the environment(Coca-Cola – Our Brands 2007). Solid waste and recycling The management of the company is committed in having an efficient lasting waste management that will reduce waste generated in the company’s plants and facilities. Majority of waste products around 98% is created in the bottling process, the waste products includes products like empty containers, plastics wraps secondary packaging and many more. (Pendergrast 2006). The management makes efforts to reuse or recycle such materials have continued to improve the efficient of managing the wastes. In the year 2005 the company achieved a 3% improvement of waste management from the previous year. The view to the environment this is a positive aspect from the company as waste management has always poised a serious challenge to many manufacturing plants. Energy and climate Global climatic changes and global warming have become an issue of create concern to the world. Companies are requested to reduce the amount of carbon emissions that they emit to the environment. Energy saving is another important issue that is being stressed. In terms of saving energy, the management of the company has developed a sustainable technology of refrigeration. The technology â€Å"eKOfreshment† has seen more than 4,000 CO2 refrigerated cooler on the market and a demand for more has already been created. These coolers are much environmental friendly and the company intend to produce more of them slowly by slowly to take over the old ones. In addition the management is introducing new energy management solutions by the year 2010. Today, the company cold drinks apparatus are over 40% more effective than ten years ago. This has reduced the amount of carbon dioxide in the environment by 700,000 tons per year which is same as removing 150,000 vehicles from the roads. In so doing the company has management to improve the environment management (Pendergrast 2000).