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Coca-Cola
| Brand Ratings -> Beverages -> Coca-Cola |
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Category: Soda, Water, Juice, Energy, Tea, Sports Cost for 20 oz: $0.88 Greenopia Environment Achievement:
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Green Efforts: Coca-Cola has been making an effort to incorporate green principles into its products. Most notably, Coke has been reducing the energy and water inputs in its beverages each year. For example, Coke has implemented a way of sterilizing the bottles with ionized air rather than using water. Coke has also redesigned its packaging to contain less and/or recycled material and has recently introduced bioplastic bottles into several markets. Coke aims to continue adding new markets for the bioplastic bottle as time goes on. Coke incorporates elements of green building design into many of its facilities and offices. Coke’s sustainability report is also one of the most comprehensive we have read. Finally, Coke has purchased over 300 hybrid trucks for delivery of its products which leads to a significant savings in emissions and fuel consumption. Green Issues: Coke uses so much water that it has been charged numerous times with depleting the local water tables. There is also the issue of water pollution which Coke has been under fire from groups such as the Energy and Resources Institute. Coke also makes bottled water which is not only a waste of resources, but has no health benefits beyond tap or purified water. Ingredient Analysis: There shouldn’t be any surprises here. Coke products contain substances such as caffeine, yellow 5, corn syrup, and sodium benzoate (which in the presence of certain acids can release benzene). Most of these ingredients are fine in moderation, but there are some questions about their long term affects on the body. Greenopia Verdict: While not the healthiest or greenest soda company in existence, Coke is making a dedicated effort to be green and has taken some impressive steps (especially in regards to packaging). Environmental Violations: This company has been accused of environmental violations because of some of its production methods (typically water pollution and/or consumption). We did not capture these alleged violations in our scoring (because of the difficulty in comparing one violation to another), but encourage you to research the issues surrounding these accusations. We felt it was not fair to lower the score of companies who were making significant efforts because of events that may or may not have been beyond their immediate control. Having said that, we don't condone their actions, but this also should not completely erase the progress that they have made. Thus, we encourage you to find additional information to add to the quantifiable environmental data we have analyzed here. |
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