Coca-Cola Global Footprint

The Coca-Cola Company is the only major food company that I can find that publishes the carbon footprint of their main products. And it's not that Coke has an easy road ahead of them. Much of their revenues come from "sparkling" beverages (a.k.a. contain carbon dioxide). Sugar is sure to be a contentious issue going forward as food use competes with use as a transportation fuel. And of course, as a planet, we are quickly running short of fresh water. Not to mention manufacturing and recycling of aluminum cans, plastic bottles, plastic and wax paper cups.

To put things in perspective, "people enjoy" 1.6 billion servings of Coke's beverages every day. Using data from Coke's website, the average 8 oz. serving contributes 90 grams (or 0.2 lbs) of green-house-gases (GHG). Multiple these together and you have a rough estimate of the complete worldwide footprint of Coca-Cola products – 52 million metric tons CO2e annually. That is the equivalent of the GHG emissions from 14 million cars in the U.S. for a year.

The question is: what is Coke doing about it? That is where it becomes unclear from the outside and perhaps discouraging in the context of the enormity of the footprint. I can't find a public statement from Coke committing (or planning) to make a dent in their global footprint. Not that there isn't activity. It appears that Coke is working on reducing the amount of packaging material they use and making what they use more recyclable. They are also working to improve the fuel efficiency of their transportation fleet and owned refrigerated vending machines. Unfortunately what I read sounds like good public relations – lots of sound bites. When I read in the 2008 Annual Report, Letter to Shareholders from the CEO, that the company saved 31,177 lbs of GHG emissions by printing the annual report differently, I get concerned. That is not the leadership that is going to address the GHG problem.