Coca-Cola releases 2014-2015 sustainability report

Reports highlights 2020 goals

The Coca-Cola Co., Atlanta, released its 12^th annual Sustainability Report highlighting progress made in 2014 against the Coca-Cola system's 2020 sustainability goals.

“At Coca-Cola, we're committed to integrating sustainability into the very heart of the enterprise, where our efforts create value for our shareowners and the communities we proudly serve,” said Bea Perez, chief sustainability officer at The Coca-Cola Co., in a statement.

“We believe the majority of innovation over the next decade will happen at the intersection of sustainability and the supply chain. Working together with our bottling partners to empower women, better manage water resources and promote well-being gives us new opportunities to build business resiliency and add value across our system,” Perez said.

The report follows the company's sustainability framework — "Me, We, World" — and is rooted in three leadership priorities:

Women: 5by20, one of the company’s value chain innovations continues progress in its commitment to enable the economic empowerment of 5 million women entrepreneurs by 2020. As of Dec. 31, 2014, its 5by20 programs had helped nearly 865,000 women in 52 countries since the program launched in 2010.
Water: The company also is building business resiliency through its water stewardship efforts. In 2014, it replenished an estimated 94 percent (a calculated estimate of 153.6 billion liters) of the equivalent amount of water used in our finished beverages worldwide (based on 2014 sales volume) through 209 community water partnership projects in 61 countries. The foregoing is a global, aggregate number. The replenishment figure for individual countries might vary and/or be more or less.
Well-being: The Coca-Cola system continues its work to meet global business commitments to promote well-being and to help address the public health challenge of obesity. In 2014, The Coca-Cola Co. introduced more than 400 new beverage options, more than 100 of which are reduced-, low- or no-calorie and it supported more than 330 active, healthy living programs in 112 markets.

The report also updates other areas of progress, including efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of the "drink in your hand" by 25 percent and to sustainably source key agricultural ingredients globally by 2020. In addition, through the end of 2014, The Coca-Cola Co. had distributed more than 30 billion fully recyclable PlantBottlepackages across nearly 40 countries since the program launched in 2009.

The 2014/2015 Sustainability Reporthighlights The Coca-Cola Co.'s commitment to continuous improvement, increased disclosure, risk assessment and expanded stakeholder engagement, it says. This year, the company developed the report at the Core In Accordance level of the GRI G4 guidelines. Ernst & Young LLP, a registered public accounting firm, provided independent external assurance on sustainability indicators related to low- or no-calorie beverages, active and healthy living programs, water use ratio, PlantBottlepackaging, lost-time incident rate, front-of-pack labeling compliance and greenhouse gas emissions related to our manufacturing activities.

To view The Coca-Cola Co.'s 2014/2015 Sustainability Report, visit www.coca-colacompany.com/sustainability.

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