Climate.
Coca-Cola’s impact on our climate comes in large part from its equipment, mainly its nine million coolers and vending machines, explains Manley. The company has partnered with Greenpeace and the United Nations Environmental Program to invest in technology to make coolers up to 50 percent more energy efficient, she says. Coca-Cola also has invested $30 million to test gases other than the potent greenhouse gasses for refrigeration. “We’ve identified carbon dioxide as a technology that can work for the kind of equipment we use, so we are testing that technology and will roll it out in different areas around the world,” says Manley.
Coca-Cola also reduces its “climate footprint” through its vehicles. In 2006, the company completed a two-year test run of its bottling partner Coca-Cola Enterprises’ new diesel-electric hybrid truck, which improved fuel economy 32 percent, according to the company’s 2005 Environmental Report.
Problem Areas.
That report did not mention any of the company’s environmental woes, though. In June, an independent team led by the India Resource Center, a San Francisco-based non-profit, found several violations at a bottling plant in Sinhachawar in the state of Uttar Pradesh, including:
- dumping of hazardous waste;
- discharging wastewater; and
- non-disclosure of the amount of hazardous waste being generated, a requirement of the Supreme Court of India.
The company has been reported for environmental concerns in India before: in 2003, the Central Pollution Control Board of India found excessive sludge at eight Coca-Cola bottling plants to contain excessive levels of dangerous substances such as lead. Also that year, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) tested another Indian plant and found toxic levels of chemicals, some of which had seeped into groundwater, according to the India Resource Center website.
As a result of its Indian environmental issues—as well as allegations of impropriety with its unions in Columbia—the University of Michigan in January 2006 suspended thirteen contracts with Coca-Cola worth $1.4 million annually.
How does Coca-Cola respond to these charges? “A lot of the allegations have since been refuted by government panels and other organizations,” Manley says, adding that due to the press coverage and findings, the company has become more transparent about its practices in India.
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