Coca Cola Water Sustainability

As we all know, we need water in order to live a happy, healthy life. Water is cycled throughout our planet and each of us are affected by what happens to it while it passes through the ecosystems in various countries. Even though this is a well-known fact, it seems that the human race has mistreated this precious resource to the point where drastic measures are needed. Individual countries have tried pointing fingers at each other and passing petty policy within their borders in hopes to mollify their own needs, but sooner rather than later that will not be enough. The truth is that problem extends past their own borders and most countries do not have the power or patience to tell their neighboring countries how to manage their water

Today Coca-Cola has an annual revenue of over 43 Billion and is operating in every country in the world but 2. Coca-Cola has also recently been allocating its resources to sustainability efforts within the company with an emphasis on water stewardship, energy and climate, packaging, and agriculture. When Greg Koch, Senior Director for Water Stewardship, was asked why Coca-Cola cares about water he said, “Well, water is truly at the heart of our business. It is an essential ingredient in all of our beverages and is used to grow the agricultural ingredients on which we rely. Water is also critical to the health and economic prosperity of the communities we serve and operate in. If communities are not sustainable, neither is our business.”

As in most corporations, Greg saw that helping the watershed will help the company by increasing water resource reliability, help avoid future costs, improve the relations with the community, and help compete in the market. I have chosen to focus on the water efforts because if we revive that resource, it will have a healing effect on most other concerns. With this in mind, Coca Cola set goals to be met by 2020 which include improving water efficiency by 25%, replenish 100% of the water we use, and ensure healthy, resilient ,freshwater systems through

Coca-Cola has started up numerous programs but none such as noteworthy as Safe Water for Africa. Other programs such as USAID(United States Agency of International Development), UNDP(United Nations Development Programme), and Water For People are up to par with Safe Water for Africa. Coca-Cola, with the help of Diageo Plc. and Water Health Inc. has established over 200 water health centers in Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone that are up to the WHO standards. These facilities decrease the water-borne diseases, increases education on the issue, and are scalable and easily deployable. Starting with a presentation, a free day of water, and ceremony, the station then charges a small usage fee to keep up maintenance between 10-15 pesewas and continues as a reliable source of clean drinking water for the