Water is Coke’s precious ingredient

Water “is essential to the future viability of The Coca-Cola Co. and our system of bottling partners around the world,” Kent said in a speech last year in Istanbul.

But critics say Coke needs to stop causing water problems before it starts offering solutions. Earlier this decade, a bitter dispute erupted in India over Coke’s use of water, in part because of the sheer volume of water the company requires to make its products. In a country where water already is in short supply, the years-old controversy has not entirely gone away, as vociferous critics say Coke’s water campaigns are a thinly veiled attempt to distract the public from ongoing problems.

From southern Europe to parts of India and China, Mexico and the U.S., many of Coca-Cola’s territories are facing or could face water stress. According to the United Nations, almost 900 million people worldwide do not have access to clean water. In a decade, two-thirds of the projected population of 8 billion could live in water-stressed areas.

“Let’s put Coca-Cola to one side,” Kent said in an interview with the AJC. “Water faces serious challenges around the world.”

In one $20 million project, Coke is working with the World Wildlife Fund to conserve seven of the world’s biggest freshwater river basins, including the Yangtze in China, the Mekong in southeast Asia, the Rio Grande and Rio Bravo, and the Danube in Europe.

“I see our role not only as what we do for Coca-Cola, but leading the way to raise awareness in the world,” Kent said. “We’re not doing this to impact consumer behavior. We’re doing this to make sure we can be a meaningful part of this debate.”

Coca-Cola uses 309 billion liters of water annually to produce its beverages. That’s about what Atlanta uses in five months, according to the city’s Department of Watershed Management.

In 2008, the company said, Coca-Cola used 2.43 liters of water to produce an average one-liter beverage. One liter goes into the beverage itself, and 1.43 liters are used for manufacturing processes such as rinsing, cleaning and cooling. The company says its global system of about 1,000 bottling plants is on track to improve water efficiency by 20 percent between 2004 and 2012.

According to a goal announced by former CEO Neville Isdell in June 2007, Coca-Cola by 2020 will offset the water it uses in production by using water more efficiently, returning clean water to the environment, protecting watersheds, harvesting rain water and helping farmers use water more efficiently.

“Overnight, that announcement jolted a lot companies that had not been thinking about it yet,” said Linda Hwang, manager of research and innovation at corporate responsibility group BSR.

Kent said Coca-Cola’s role as the world’s best-recognized brand should be to spur businesses, governments and non-governmental organizations to come together and collaborate on difficult water issues.

“We are a communicating organization,” he said.

But the controversy over water refuses to go away in India, one of Coke’s most important developing markets.

A panel convened this year by the government of the state of Kerala recommended that Coca-Cola be held liable for at least $47 million in damages for alleged pollution from a local bottling plant. Coca-Cola stopped production at the plant in 2004 as protests and boycotts raged over pollution and groundwater depletion.

Coca-Cola says the committee appears to have been set up with a pre-determined conclusion. It argues that scientific studies have shown that Coca-Cola’s bottler did not cause local watershed problems.

“This is indicative of the arrogance of the company as it operates in India with impunity,” said Amit Srivastava of the India Resource Center. “If Coca-Cola does not agree with the rules and decisions of such a body [the committee], it is time for the company to get out of India. It cannot operate on its own rules and regulations, and dismiss the rules and regulations of the state.”

Meanwhile, critics accuse Coca-Cola of exacerbating water stress in the village of Kaladera. The area is water-scarce and drought-prone, according to a January 2008 report by the Energy and Resources Institute. Kaladera’s groundwater levels fell 17.3 meters in the decade leading up to 2009, according to the state government of Rajasthan. The pre-monsoon water levels were more than 30 meters below ground level in 2009.

Coca-Cola says it has reduced its water usage ratio in Kaladera by more than 55 percent between 2004 and 2009, cutting its water use from 4.7 liters to 2.11 liters of water for each liter of finished beverage.

The company has launched initiatives to replenish groundwater by capturing rainfall, and says groundwater depletion would have been even worse otherwise. Coke says it uses less than 1 percent of the area’s available water.

Still, “Coca-Cola has no business operating a bottling plant in such dire conditions and we are not sure why they opened the factory in the first place,” said Srivastava.

Although it disputes many of the accusations, Coca-Cola says it has set ambitious goals to improve water usage around the world. Here are some of the key changes.

Agriculture

Agriculture accounts for about 65 percent of freshwater usage around the world, according to UNESCO. “When we talk about challenges related to water availability, if we don’t deal with agriculture, we’re missing a huge segment,” said Denise Knight, water and sustainable agriculture director at Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola buys vast quantities of sugar cane, a notoriously thirsty crop that serves as the raw ingredient for sweetener in many of its drinks. Sugar cane production occurs in tropical nations including Brazil, India, Thailand and El Salvador, where water stress can be serious.

The company says it plans to help cane farmers use water more efficiently. The acreage in a pilot project aimed at cutting nitrogen runoff from Australian farms will grow by 150 percent.

Water recycling

By the end of this year, Coca-Cola wanted to return all water it uses for manufacturing processes to the environment at a level that supports aquatic life and agriculture.

The company will fall a bit short, with 96 or 97 percent of its plants abiding by the standards by year-end. Coca-Cola expects its lagging plants in rough places like Albania and the Congo to come into compliance next year. Coca-Cola says its plants abide by local regulations, and that the 3 or 4 percent non-compliance rate refers to the internal standards, which are tougher than government regulations in some areas.

“All of our plants have started projects,” said Greg Koch, Coca-Cola’s director of global water stewardship. “They are all under way, and it’s a matter of delays and timing.”

Coca-Cola also is trying to reduce water use. Its bottling plants have instituted relatively simple fixes like plugging leaks and turning off the water to bottle rinsers when the bottling line is shut down. Some Coke plants also use waste water, once it’s been filtered and cleaned, to rinse bottles, irrigate vegetation, wash trucks and floors, and cool refrigeration systems.

In many cases, Coca-Cola’s bottlers are coming up with improvements, rather than just implementing directives from North Avenue. “That is something I’m both personally and professionally proud of — the level of collaboration with the bottlers,” said Koch. “We have done things almost exclusively without edict.”

Water replenishment

In addition to its work around freshwater basins, the company has committed to spending $30 million by 2015 to provide access to safe drinking water in Africa. The Replenish Africa Initiative aims to provide at least two million Africans with clean water and sanitation.

According to the World Health Organization, more than 300 million Africans lack access to safe drinking water, and millions die each year from waterborne illnesses. Coca-Cola’s cash will go toward technology such as rainwater harvesting, hand pumps, pipe systems and chlorine treatment systems.

Kent said bringing clean water to African towns is a crucial step in spurring economic development and relates to Coca-Cola’s goal of doubling the number of women in its global supply chain by 2020. Since rural African women often have to carry water for miles, the introduction of water capture-technologies will free them to work on small businesses such as micro-distribution of Coke products, he said.

“It’s all connected back to the water,” Kent said. “You bring the water, you emancipate the women.”