Coca Cola's Water Conservation Project

If you had an opportunity to solve world hunger you would do it, right? Well a company named Monsanto has set a goal to achieve the mighty task. They look to achieve this goal by creating special seeds that are resistant to pesticides, also which use less water and energy to produce. There are also said to be some big disadvantages to using Monsanto’s methods to producing their seeds that have not yet been researched deeply enough. This raises many questions to people around the world. Many countries who will not even accept seeds from the company over fear of the crops they produce will cause health and environmental detriments. So my question is, can Monsanto solve some of the world’s problems or should we be looking at other better

Water is one of the sought after natural resources in the world or even in the galaxy. So you would imagine that it is cherished and not wasted for self-gain. Coca-Cola has been at the top of the list when it comes to complaints for mistreatment of water all over the world. In recent year that company has been sited right here in the United States. In a town in the western district of New York called Tonawanda Coca-Cola had a major issue regarding regulations. On May 11, 2015 it was reported Coke, “will pay $2.75 million in civil penalties, spend approximately $7.9 million to reduce air pollution and enhance air and water quality and spend an additional $1.3 million for environmental projects in the area of Tonawanda, New York.”(Tonawanda,1).

In contemporary society, bottled water consumption has become more attractive and popular. While in 2009 161,589 million liters of bottled water were sold, in 2011 approximately 181.61 million liters were sold all over the world (Statistics & facts, 2014). In this context, attributing that significant growth of bottled water to commercialization and successful marketing should not be considered a disposable

“Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism” by Bartow J. Elmore tells a story of how Coca- Cola have changed its industry as well as the globe by utilizing natural resources. To start on his journey about Coca-Cola, Elmore questions the success of the company behind selling Coke, a low-priced mixture of “sugar, water, and caffeine, packed in glass, plastic, or aluminum” (Elmore 8). Elmore discovers that even though advertising plays an essential key in selling products, Coca-Cola is mostly profitable from outsourcing the supply (Elmore 9). Besides explaining his research on the Coca-Cola capitalism, Elmore also emphasizes on the ecological evidences that support it, which make this book an environmental history of Coca-Cola capitalism (Elmore 14).

Much of this is “hidden” water. For example, it takes 24 gallons of water to make one pound of plastic. Some are more careful with water use and impacts than others. As more companies begin to look for ways to reduce their water use, new science and methods are needed to drive policy changes that will do the most good for water sources.

Groundwater is the main source of drinkable water in the world. Groundwater represents about 90% of the world’s readily available freshwater resource, and some 1.5 billion people depend upon groundwater for their drinking water (Vital Water Graphics 1). Although we are surrounded by vast bodies of water, only 2.5% of the commodity is fresh water. The environmental disruption of water privatization has caused a scarcity of water around the world, especially in third world countries. Agricultural water use accounts for about 75% of total global consumption - mainly through crop irrigation - while industrial use accounts for about 20%, and the remaining 5% is used for domestic purposes (Vital water Graphics 3). Many countries depend on groundwater for drinking and agricultural growth, but with the increase of water extraction from large companies, such as coca cola, these communities will become hindered in the grand scheme of life. Water in some unfortunate countries has always been scarce, yet big companies continue to thrive on the fact that they can use deception in order to maintain that countries natural resource. By definition, a commodity is sold to the highest bidder, not the customer with the most compelling moral claim (The New Oil 3). In our society today, companies are so consumed with greed that they show no moral regard for others. Companies completely disregard people in order to get a hold of water to create their precious

When researching companies that manufactured water filtration systems, the companies were based out of the United States. Developing countries so not have access to resources such as though with a better economic background. Many institutions have researched the water condition in other countries, and Coca-Cola is one of the major bottling companies who has the same goal of creating clean water for developing countries. To create a successful filtration system, it will take sustainable measures to advocate for the goal of the water filtration system

In this Green Biz article the author Mark Tercek discusses how the world is running out of water and that the problem of running out of water can be prevented or reduced by establishing water markets, balancing those markets, and fixing them to scale this while establish a view of water as tradable assets that will promote the attitude of saving water and allocating it elsewhere for profit.

Bottled water is a massive asset for corporate profits and less support for our public water. Transnational corporations like Nestlé Waters, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola sell single-use plastic bottles which eventually become waste that ends up in landfills and ultimately, litters our oceans thus costing us thousands of times what it costs to get that water from the tap. While these corporations market bottled water as a beverage of convenience, it comes at the expense of our public water infrastructure. This water infrastructure has provided affordable and convenient access to water for many years in the

Taking action is the next step in the issue management life cycle process. Barriers to effective issues management are the lack of clear objectives, and unwillingness or inability to act Issues management is a process with achieved results. The scanning, monitoring, prioritization and strategic decision-making steps have no value unless action is taken toward achieving specific and measurable objectives. Finally, is the evaluation process of the management life cycle. Clear and measureable objectives need to be set and defined. The TCCC management needs to find the tools that best fit the set objectives. Tools such as surveys and interviews, as well as behavioral measures such as purchasing decisions, may all be necessary to evaluate the objectives laid out for the plan to succeed. I can definitely identify that TCCC has identified the issue of poor water conservation. It also appears to me that TCCC has begun to analyze and generate options with regard to their water issues. Finally TCCC has begun to take action to reduce their wasted water numbers and reverse the cycle of waste. The only step in the process not clearly cover I feel would be the evaluation process of how well the program faired.

With the estimate of 1.2 billion people, by 2015 (2004, Goldman) it’s not unfair to assume that the number of people receiving water from European and American firms has risen above that estimate. With the authors statement that water will become as war proving as oil, how long will it be until we see private firms going to war in third world countries for the ability to sell the poorest of the world clean drinkable water? While instances such as this may seem farfetched, we have already seen what the deep pockets of private corporations can do with nations in sates of

PepsiCo’s biggest area of struggle is within the environmental realm. Although the company has stated to be water conscience, not all water usage is being

2. What is the risk to Coca-Cola’s reputation in using too much water and producing waste water?

Water is turning into a scarce resource around the world; this has raised both cost and criticism; due to the large amount of water required for its production. However, the main threat is that water scarcity is on the rise and with the climate changing; sooner or later someone might start blaming beverage companies for it. Thus, Water sourcing is a sword hanging on the head of Coca cola. If water is limited or rationed, it may lead to a major downfall in their revenue and capacity of distribution.

Issues management is a proactive, planned management process in an organization that assists the organization to handle the new trends and changes in the business environments. This also includes the responding these trends appropriately and in timely manner. Sometimes these new changes become “issues” which need attention and should be solved immediately and appropriately and sometimes these become the main attention in the organization for stakeholders. This can be basically an interaction between the stakeholders and stakeseekers (Heath,