The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of Coca Cola Company PDF

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For this task, The Coca-Cola Company was selected to identify their activities in relating to and unrelating to SDGs. The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and formed under Delaware's General Corporation Law a statute governing cor...

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FACULTY OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (HONS.) FINANCE (BA242) FIN657 ISSUES AND ETHICS IN FINANCE JBA2425A INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT:

THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDG) OF THE COCA-COLA COMPANY

TABLE OF CONTENT

CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................. 1 2.0 ACTIVITIES OF THE COCA-COLA COMPANY RELATED TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL (SDGs) .......................................................................................... 2 2.1 ACTIVITIES RELATED TO SGD 6: CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION .......... Error! Bookmark not defined. I) Treated wastewater and high-quality water for beverage (related to SDG 6) ....... 2 II) Replenish Africa Initiative (RAIN) (related to SDG 6 & 11) ................................... 3 III) Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) To Front Lines (related to SDG 3)........... 3 IV) Supporting Micro-Businesses in The Philippines (related to SDG 5) ................. 4 3.0 UNETHICAL ACTIVITIES AGAINST SDGs ................................................................... 5 I) Most Contributed to The Plastic Polluter in The World (unrelated to SDG 14 & 15) ...................................................................................................................................... 5 II) Using False Advertising to Sell Unhealthy Drinks (unrelated to SDG 3).............. 6 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................... 6 REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................... 7

1.0 INTRODUCTION The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which consist of 17 interlinked global goals established for realization of better and more sustainable future for all. This SDGs was started in September 2015 and was established by 193 Member States of the United Nations that call for global action among governments, business and civil society to end poverty extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice, protect the planet, while ensuring no one is left behind by 2030. While the SDGs are primarily aimed at governments, they are intended to bring together a diverse range of organizations. More than 1,500 companies contributed advice and direction through the UN Global Compact alone and the objectives can be used in both developing and developed countries. For this assignment, The Coca-Cola Company was selected to identify their activities in relating to and unrelating to SDGs. The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and formed under Delaware's General Corporation Law a statute governing corporate law in the U.S. state of Delaware. The company is wholly owned subsidiary and have 71 subsidiaries in more than 200 countries including Malaysia which is Coca-Cola Bottlers (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. The Coca-Cola Company is one of the world's largest corporations, employing over 90000 people worldwide and a part of Dow Jones index and the S&P 500 and S&P 100 indexes. Before the company established in 1892, the founder named Asa Griggs Candler bought a Coca-Cola recipe amounted US$1,750 from chemist John Smith Pemberton in Atlanta in 1888. It is most known for its sparkling sodas, such as Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Fanta, and Sprite, but it also produces waters, juices, ready-to-drink teas, coffees, sports drinks, dairy products, and energy drinks.

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2.0 ACTIVITIES OF THE COCA-COLA COMPANY RELATED TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL (SDGs) The Coca-Cola Company views the sustainability of society and the global environment as a prerequisite for business growth and long-term growth strategy. This is because it believes the growth of the company also supported by all the individual consumers who take up the products and communities. The Coca-Cola Company has joined efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by providing support through various programs assisting in goal achievement. On 25 September 2019, The Coca-Cola Company had joined the “Business Avenger” campaign launched by World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), The B Team and World Benchmarking Alliance which meant to focus on driving the 17 participated companies in support of SDGs. Each of the participated companies ought to realize one of the 17 SDGs between 2020 and 2030.

I) Treated wastewater and high-quality water for beverage (related to SDG 6)

Water is the main ingredients for every its beverage product-line and the company required clean water for its manufacturing process. For its beverages, the company only source from good quality water which are established municipal systems or from other sources like rivers, reservoirs, wells, aquifers in order to maintain the quality of its beverage product line. While, the water that does not use into the beverages but instead used in the manufacturing process will be treated align with comprehensive global quality standards to returned to nature and municipalities in safe condition. Thus, The Coca-cola Company had set a wastewater treatment standard through a multi-stage and stakeholder engagement process. In the standards, the company evaluated untreated water samples from various manufacturing units. Then, working with outside expert to examine aquatic toxicology science to see how different concentrations of certain water quality measures such as acidity and alkalinity affect aquatic life.

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II) Replenish Africa Initiative (RAIN) foundation (related to SDG 6 & 11)

RAIN is The Coca-Cola Foundation program backed up by a $65 million pledge to help African access clean water and sanitation. There are millions of people in Africa do not enjoy safe and clean drinking, cooking, and sanitation water. The foundation was taken impact from 2009 and still going until this year. In 2021, The Coca-Cola Company successfully reach its objective which impacted to 6 million people in 41 African. Furthermore, more than 4,000 communities have benefited from the 120 Projects, which have impacted homes, schools, and healthcare clinics. For example, at Kenya there are constraints to get clean water. This problem arises because of the sediment pollution which carries sediment through runoff downstream. With the support from RAIN Foundation, the Kenya Upper Tana River Basin Water Fund was successfully established. Thus, activities such as terracing of hill slopes and reforestation for degraded lands can be carried out in order to give water supply security. To date, more than 25,000 farmers have benefited from the funds, which has reduced soil runoff and water contamination.

III) Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) To Frontlines (related to SDG 3)

In respond towards critical shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) in North America, Coca-Cola North America had

partnered with

a non-profit organization named

MakersRespond an NGO formed under RESOLVE which support the COVID-19 response. Thus, Coca-Cola North America able to source and donate 100,000 pounds of plastic sheeting to make PPE. This critical shortage happens because the average face shield production per week is only 1 million but the U.S healthcare system currently needs up to 10 million per week because of rising case of Covid-19.

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IV) Supporting Micro-Businesses in The Philippines (related to SDG 5 & 8)

Sari-Sari store is a convenience store which operated inside the store owner's house and usually located at rural areas in Philippines. Sari-Sari is Tagalog word which means “variety”. About 80% of the Sari-Sari owner are women. Through the 5by20 programme, Coca-Cola has aided these female entrepreneurs in developing their business skills and financial knowledge. According to the Philippine Association of Stores and Carinderia Owners, 42% of sari-sari stores were forced to close in the early months of 2020 because of the pandemic Covid-19. In aligning to SDG 5 which is the Gender Equality, Coca-Cola Philippines had partnered with Government agencies to create the Rebuilding Sari-Sari Stores Through Access to Resources and Trade (ReSTART) programme. Approximately $3.2 million in loan packages were distributed to 15,000 micro-retailers, allowing them to re-operation. One of the Sari-Sari owner named Corazan said the ReSTART programme has been help her to get back to her usual business profit after facing large loss during pandemic.

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3.0 UNETHICAL ACTIVITIES AGAINST SDGs Even though Coca-Cola has stated many its Sustainable Development Goals activities it on its sustainable report but there are still unethical activities arise that against the SDGs. CocaCola as one of the world's largest beverage businesses, cannot run from unethical issues.

I) Most Contributed to The Plastic Polluter in The World (unrelated to SDG 14 & 15)

As we know, the core product of the Coca-Cola Company is soft drink. To distribute and send to its customer, the soft drinks must be stored with plastic bottle. The best material to store the carbonated drink is plastic bottle because that kind of container has not reaction to carbonated drink and can be stored for a long time. The company also store mineral water with plastic bottle. It is the main problem of Coca-Cola in achieving the SDGs. According to the Brand Audit Report made by Break Free From Plastic organization, The Coca-Cola company was the same company that contribute to the most of the plastic polluter in the world for the third year. On August and September, the organization’s volunteer amounted 14,734 in 55 countries had collecting 346,494 pieces of plastic waste to make the brand audit. The audit found that a total of 13,834 plastics are belongs to Coca-Cola brand from 51 countries. This reflecting that the contribution in Plastic Polluter from The Coca-Cola company steadily increase from 2018. This issue seems cannot be handled as the effort made by the top seven polluter including The Coca-Cola Company in joining The New Plastics Economy Global Commitment did not give a significant change as from 2018 to 2019, they only cut their consumption of virgin plastic by 0.1 percent according to Ellen MacArthur report.

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II) Using False Advertising to Sell Unhealthy Drinks (unrelated to SDG 3)

A lawsuit was filed by attorneys for the Centre for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and the Public Health Advocacy Institute charges that The Coca-Cola Company and American Beverage Association (ABA) have mislead the public about the bad of consumption of sugarsweetened beverage. Coca-Cola is accused of misleading consumers by paying researchers, medical experts, and others to dispute independent scientific findings about the harmful effects of sugar-sweetened beverages. Marion Nestle, a New York University professor said The Coca-Cola Company claimed that physical activity is more important than diet in maintaining a healthy body weight. The company also claim that sodas are necessary for hydration and did not target for children in their advertising which those claims are totally opposite. The plaintiffs ultimately want Coca-Cola and the ABA to stop adopting techniques that are illegal under California's Unfair Competition and False Advertising laws.

CONCLUSION It is a very good thing when a big company such as The Coca-Cola Company take the call from United Nation to implement the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) to its business activities because it will give a big impact to global and also become as a role model to other company in engaging with activity related to SDGs. With the huge profits they make every year and having subsidiaries at more 200 countries, it makes the company become more encourage and easier to conduct campaigns and initiatives in helping society, community and economic development around the world. Even though, the company is doing activities related to SDGs, but it also stuck in the unethical activities against SGDs at the same time. It is shocked to know that The Coca-Cola Company is considered as a top global polluter for 2018 until 2020. As a top soft drink beverage manufacturer and distributor, there is no ideal solution if plastic is an effective and low-cost source material, but the political and environmental pressure will be the key motivators for the company to change.

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REFERENCES Face Shields to the Front Lines: Coca-Cola North America. (2020). Retrieved from The CocaCola Company: https://www.coca-colacompany.com/news/face-shields-to-the-frontlines-coca-cola-north-america-makersrespond-address-critical-shortage-of-personalprotective-equipment Krans, B. (2017). Lawsuit: Coca-Cola Uses False Advertising to Sell Unhealthy Drinks. Retrieved from Healtline: https://www.healthline.com/health-news/coca-cola-falseadvertising-unhealthy-drinks Nace, T. (2019). Coca-Cola Named The World’s Most Polluting Brand in Plastic Waste Audit. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2019/10/29/cocacola-named-the-worlds-most-polluting-brand-in-plastic-wasteaudit/?sh=2ec06c9c74e0 Seema. (2020). The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo and Nestl named top plastic polluters for the third year in a row. Retrieved from trashhero.org: https://trashhero.org/brand-auditreport-2020/ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). (2020). Retrieved from Sustainable Development Goals

(SDGs).un.org:

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/topics/sustainabledevelopmentgoals The

Coca-Cola

Company.

(n.d.).

Retrieved

from

Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coca-Cola_Company The Coca-Cola Company. (2020). 2020 Business & Environmental, Social and Governance Retrieved

Report.

from

https://www.coca-

colacompany.com/content/dam/journey/us/en/reports/coca-cola-businessenvironmental-social-governance-report-2020.pdf The Coca-Cola Company. (2021). The Replenish Africa Initiative Impacts 6 Million Lives. Retrieved

from

The

Coca-Cola

Company:

https://www.coca-

colacompany.com/news/rain-marks-6-million-milestone Wastewater: Safely Returning the Water We Use to Make Our Beverages. (n.d.). Retrieved from The Coca-Cola Company: https://www.coca-colacompany.com/sustainablebusiness/water-stewardship/treating-and-recycling-wastewater

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