Coca-Colas Actions on Water Stewardship - Case Study Example

HYPERLINK "http://allwriting.net/index.php?op=cp_updateorder&id=417985" \t "_blank"Соса-Соlа’s actions on Water Stewardship Name Institute Date Tutor Coca-Cola Company and Water resources Water is one of the most important natural resources in the world being in use in homesteads, industries, and agriculture. With the current trends in global climate change all over headlines and organisational Agendas, it is inevitable for everyone to associate themselves with water issues. This is why Coca-Cola, one of the world’s biggest beverage manufacturer has programs and initiatives to conserve this precious resource. Coca-Cola is also the most popular beverage brand1. Water is central to Coca Cola’s manufacturing process. Coca-Cola creates the link between the company and its Consumer base through protecting water that sustains people. These communities later form the consumer base for Coca-Cola beverages. The company is working on reducing the amount of water for manufacturing its products. There are also projects on water re-use and recycling through wastewater treatment. Coca-Cola is making such a huge amount of its investments on water to preserve the local water sources (GRI Report 2012, 68). However, there are instances where there exists complains of the company misusing water and environmental pollution. Certain people and organisations have accused the company of depleting water sources or rendering these sources unusable. The company is countering this claim by developing sustainable water use programs to improve accessibility to clean water resources. Coca-Cola’s Water Stewardship Strategy Due to the relevance of the water resource management Coca-Cola is working tirelessly to conserve water sources and increase availability of the resource. The Company is extensively concerned with water situation round the world. Different approaches are in use for sustainable water use by the company. The Company’s water stewardship strategy has four broad categories plant level performance, watershed protection, community engagement, and increasing global awareness for water resource sustainability (Koch 2010). Under plant level performance the company is advocating treatment and utilization of waste water. It is also attempting to cut down the amount of water used per cubic decimetre of the final product. Through the water stewardship programs, the company boosts of a 20 percent reduction in water use by the end of 2011 compared to 2004 (GRI report 2012, 69). The strategy reduces its water but at the same time keen to stay top in business. Coca-Cola is also conserving aquatic systems by treating its wastewater. Discharging pre-treated wastewater into the environment is not hazardous to the people using that water source. The company aims at discharging wastewater that meet environmentally set standards. This is through setting up facilities that treat wastewater efficiently. These treatment facilities undergo frequent maintenance and upgrading to ensure maximum performance. The corporation is striving to refill an amount of water equal to what it utilized in the finished product by 2020. To achieve this, the corporation is engaged in 382 community water projects internationally and they are operating globally and regionally to reform water policy and boost improvement of water resources management (GRI report 2012, 72). By engaging the communities in these water projects, Coca-Cola is both offering sustainable water sources and staying in business. Through working with the community, Coca-Cola is as well building its customer base. Various companies, organisations and governments use community-based projects to offer alternative options for sustainable water source options. Successful water supply initiatives employ the use of the communities as part of the project stakeholders. The potential for change at the local level is very important. This will involve the participation of the community. This is through water conservation projects, rainwater harvesting, and efficient agricultural use2. Efficient water use projects are successful with the help of community-based initiatives. Community based programs should aim at improving and conserving the available water sources. The amount of water communities can save through such projects and the amount from mega projects can offer enough water to sustain people (Elaine 2008, 13). Promoting community participation is important in the success of any project. This is the basis for community participation in the water stewardship strategy at Coca-Cola. Community involvement can also be beneficial in business terms. The people involved in such initiatives will also be the same people buying Coca-Cola beverages. Therefore, through community participation the company will increase its customer base. Negative effects of Coca-Cola on water Coca-cola business has been impersonating contradictory influences to Indian economy. On February 2010, there was an accusation company in the New York Supreme Court against them. While that case advanced, the company’s contentious practices in India went ahead that engaged the over-exploitation of limited water resources and the contamination of groundwater supplies. A good example of such claims was in India. Coca-Cola has various plants in India of which the primary source of water is groundwater. The problem is that the country is already facing a water crisis with most of its parts having water shortages. The irony is that Coca-Cola has most of its plants in drought prone areas in India. This escalates the water shortage issue thereby leading the company to more problems. The assumption is that the bottling plants lead to more water shortages in these areas given the amounts of water the company uses for manufacturing its products. There was groundwater depletion in these areas because of overexploitation. This has a lot of effect to the local residents especially the farmers who rely on ground water for Agriculture. The quality of water in such areas is also going down with records of high levels of turbidity, smell and watercolour. The effects of Coca-Cola as a company on the environment are the main reasons for people in these areas to demonstrate against the company. Studies confirm that areas close to the factories record high levels of heavy metal contamination. (P. S. Report 2006). Independent studies confirm these results3. The company then uses agriculture and lack of rain as the excuse for the low water levels and pollution. Residents of a little deprived community in southern India started a pitched campaign to evict Coca-Cola from their land, which led to fierce assaults by local authorities. Since the Coca-Cola Company had established that has resulted to polluted all the water and a chronic drought. The persistent water issues within the region before long became a crisis immediately the company’s arrival. The corporate extracted groundwater nearly freed from the charge (except for a small fee for discharging wastewater) and that they were ready to reap monumental profits as a result. In the late Nineteen Nineties the common price of business water within the U.S. was concerning five dollars per 10,000 litres, whereas in India the value was a mere three cents. Coca Cola’s support of the global Water Forum is viewed disbelievingly by communities in India (Srivastava 2006). Companies tend to have adverse effects on the environment. This is in terms of the amounts of water they use and the waste products they discharge to the environment. Water pollution and contamination has in most cases be due to industrial discharges (Kiritbhai 2009). The polluted water is not good for human consumption and is harmful to aquatic organisms. To solve this problem this paper encourages companies to develop wastewater treatment facilities to detoxify their waste products. A strategy as that of Coca-Cola is also good for water resource sustainability (Walsh 2012, 108). Conclusion The water is turning into a scarce resource round the world. With the global trend in climate change and increase in human population, the scarcity of water is to continue. Every organisation has to be keen on conserving water resource around the world. Therefore, sustainable water resource management is at the core for a sustainable future. Overcoming today’s water challenges requires extraordinary action. Such reasons makes Coca-Cola Company assume a full of life role in advancing innovation that conserves and sustainably manages water resources to benefit nature, business and the community. This was the backbone of Water Stewardship strategy for Coca-Cola. Through the water stewardship program the company can maximise on the participation of the communities in building it business market. Such projects can help reduce the notion that the company pollutes and negatively affects the environment. Coca-Cola uses water stewardship initiative to communicate to people the issue of water resource use and the sustainability of the company in conserving the environment. References Elaine, D., Donnelly, K.,Roland, M.,Ponte, G., & Uetake, T. Sustainable WaterStrategies for Jordan. Public Policy, Michigan: University of Michigan, 2008. Elliot, Stuart. "List of Global Brands Keeps Coke on Top, and Apple Jumps Up." The New York Times , October 1, 2012. HYPERLINK "http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/02/business/media/best-global-brands-report-has-coca-cola-on-top-and-apple-climbing.html?_r=0" http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/02/business/media/best-global-brands-report-has-coca-cola-on-top-and-apple-climbing.html?_r=0 Kiritbhai, Shri. "The Enviromental impact of industrial pollution." 2009. Koch, Greg. "Water Stewardship at Coca-Cola." the Guardian, December 6, 2010. HYPERLINK "http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/water-stewardship-coca-cola-company" http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/water-stewardship-coca-cola-company Report, GRI. Water Stewardship. Coca-Cola Company, 2012. Report, People's Science. Environmental quality monitoring in areas of Hindustan CocaCola bottling plant. New Delhi: Peoples Science Institute, 2006. Srivastava, Amit. "Coca-Cola and Water: An Unsustainable Relationship." 2006. Available at HYPERLINK "http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0307-30.htm" http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0307-30.htm 9/4/2013 Walsh, H., & Dowding, T.J. "Sustainability and The Coca-Cola Company: The Global Water Crisis and Coca-Cola Business Case for Water Stewardship." UBIT, Vol. 4, Sp Issue 3, 2012. Read More