Can Coca-Cola Be Green?

With its focus squarely on market growth, Coke's Live Positively campaign is little more than green-washing.

To some, the Coca-Cola Company’s efforts to portray itself as an environmentally sustainable corporation through initiatives such as the Live Positively campaign show that the company is acting in good faith and is on the brink of becoming a truly eco-friendly company. To others, this process that began halfway through the last decade is simply a rebranding exercise to repaint the company as a good corporate citizen. People can’t be blamed for believing Coke’s claims of sustainability given the huge marketing budget and the intense level of advertising and propaganda the company dishes out each year about its “green” programs. It is through these communications campaigns, strategic partnerships, and self-aggrandizing efforts that the company is able to convince the public that it is doing good deeds, providing people with good products, and not harming society or the environment along the way.

Coke’s sustainable marketing started to emerge in 2005/2006 when the company was reeling from negative press from its multimillion dollar racial-discrimination lawsuit, its track record in Colombia and India, and the disastrous launch of Dasani in the U.K., where the company was vilified in the press for bottling and selling tap water. It found itself in a situation where its brand was becoming associated with murder, environmental destruction, and false advertising. In part to deal with these, and other, problems – the company was in disarray after years of management turmoil and an overreliance on its traditional markets – Coke’s CEO at the time, Neville Isdell, earmarked millions of dollars for new marketing that would help the company counter its critics and manage its reputation. As a result, sustainability became – and remains – a central plank in the company’s advertising and growth strategy.

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Coke’s trademarked Live Positively campaign has become the focal point of its green marketing, and provides effective ammunition to respond to critics of its environmental and human-rights track records. Coke presents its Live Positively message through a glossy website, partnerships with organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund, and impressive pledges to reduce its consumption of water and plastic. This method of communicating company progress on these issues, especially when it is directly tied to products, is very effective at making consumers feel as if they are really helping the environment when they reach for a Coca-Cola product.

Schemes such as Live Positively will always be focused on constructing positive consumer impressions of the Coke brand in order to increase sales, rather than working towards concrete environmental and social change. Given that the Coca-Cola Company is a capitalist enterprise, it only exists to expand production and ensure ever-increasing profits for its shareholders. This will always be a barrier for any multinational corporation seeking to achieve eco-friendliness while pursuing greater profitability through growth and expansion.

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For example, since 2004, when Coke came under fire for depleting water tables in a small rural community in India, it has made numerous pledges to reduce the amount of water it uses for producing its products. Coke points to the reduction in water use ratios as positive achievements. Meanwhile, given Coke’s goal to double its global business by 2020, its total water takings (and use of plastic) will only increase in the aggregate.

In addition to this fundamental flaw in its claim to eco-friendliness, it is not possible to actually verify the company’s claims to responsibility that make up the foundation of the Live Positively campaign. Again, take the company’s stated reduction in water use ratios as an example. This data was compiled by the company itself and presented in its 2009-2010 sustainability review, along with other facts and figures on water usage across the company’s operation. Given that Coke produces its own data without any third-party verification, the public is completely relying on what the company says it is doing to reduce its own environmental footprint. Yes, Coke is a member of global sustainability initiatives such as the voluntary United Nations Global Compact. However, to remain a member of the Global Compact in good standing, all Coke has to do is submit its own sustainability review as proof that it is following guidelines.

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For these two reasons alone, consumers should seriously question claims that an organization like the Coca-Cola Company – which survives by perpetuating resource-heavy products, encourages over-consumption, and seeks to broadly expand global operations – can ever be truly eco-friendly.

Photo courtesy of Reuters.