2021 Business & ESG Report
Refresh the World.
Make a Difference.
CEO Message
We make brands and products that people love, while building a more sustainable future for our business and for the planet. We do all of this while staying true to our purpose: to refresh the world and make a difference.
Contents
Chairman & CEO Message 3
Board of Directors 5
Executive Summary 6
Our Company
At a Glance 10
How We Operate 11
Financial Highlights 12
Building a Total Beverage Company 13
Accelerating Innovation Across Our Portfolio 14
Encouraging Collective Action 15
Governance & Management 16 Our Priority Environmental, Social
& Governance (ESG) Issues 18 Stakeholder Engagement
& Partnerships 19
Spotlight Story: Driving Change
Through Public Policy 20
Water Leadership Spotlight Story: Protecting Water
21
and Building Climate Resilience in Guatemala 27
Our Total Beverage Portfolio 28
Packaging:
World Without Waste 32
Climate 38
Sustainable Agriculture 42
People & Communities 46
Respecting Human Rights 47 Spotlight Story: Using Technology to
Better Manage Risks and Empower Workers 49
Economic Empowerment 50
Employee Safety & Health 51
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion 52
Giving Back to Communities 56 Spotlight Story: Getting COVID-19 Vaccines
to Go the "Last Mile" in Africa and Beyond 57
Operations Highlights 58
Asia Pacific 59
Europe, Middle East & Africa 60
Latin America 61
North America 62
Global Ventures/Bottling Investments Group 63
About This Report 64
Data Appendix 65
Financial & Portfolio Data 66
Packaging 72
Water 73
Greenhouse Gas Emissions & Waste 74
Workplace, Safety & Giving Back 76
Human Rights & Agriculture 79
Assurance Statement 80
Reporting Frameworks & Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) 81
Chairman & CEO Message
Our people worked with great dedication in 2021 to help our company emerge stronger from the pandemic and position ourselves for continued growth in 2022 and beyond. We made important decisions about streamlining our brand portfolio; changing the way we work as an organization; and tailoring our investments to target the most promising products and priorities. Through all of the challenges, initiatives and successes of 2021, our environmental, social and governance priorities continued to be embedded in our business and the way we work.
An Integrated Business
Our environmental, social and governance (ESG) priorities are integrated into our strategy. We're focused on areas where we can have a measurable, positive impact on the communities we serve around the world.
Our ESG initiatives are interconnected, and so are the solutions we support. We seek an exponentially greater impact by fostering collective action: partnering across industry, government and society to address shared challenges.
We also continue to make meaningful progress on our World Without Waste packaging initiative. We're continuing to invest in partnerships with innovators and NGOs like our PlantBottle™ partners, World Wildlife Fund and The Ocean Cleanup. We've also set new targets, including a virgin plastic reduction goal and an industry-leading goal to significantly boost our use of reusable packaging.
By 2030, the company aims to have at least 25% of volume globally across our portfolio of brands sold in refillable/returnable glass or plastic bottles, or in refillable containers through traditional fountain or Coca-Cola Freestyle dispensers. We believe that increasing the Coca-Cola system's usage of refillable/returnable containers creates value for customers and consumers, drives increased package collection and simultaneously reduces our carbon footprint.
Water risks and packaging waste are closely linked to climate change. We're reducing our carbon footprint through an intertwined and holistic approach across our ESG priorities. Our vision is for packaging to be reused and recycled as part of a circular economy- which means a world with dramatically lower carbon emissions and climate impacts.
Throughout our company's rich, 136-year history, we've seen many changes and overcome times of uncertainty. Our system's strength and resilience have helped us adapt while remaining true to our purpose: to refresh the world and make a difference.
Water is a top business priority. It is the principal ingredient in the products we make and is critical for the agricultural products we use. Through the 2030 Water Security Strategy we announced in 2021, we're focused on achieving water security where the company operates and sources ingredients, concentrating on water-stressed areas-while maintaining 100% replenishment globally.
In 2021, we returned 167% of the water used in our finished beverages to nature and communities. Since 2010, our water, sanitation and hygiene programs have reached more than 18.5 million people globally.
Combating the climate crisis requires a global effort, which is why we worked with experts to set science-based targets. In 2021, we announced that we made solid progress to decarbonize our system by achieving our "drink in your hand" goal. We've increased our ambitions through our 2030 greenhouse gas emissions target to reduce absolute emissions by 25%, and our long-term ambition is to be net zero carbon by 2050.
In 2021, we took action to create a better shared future through investments in economic empowerment; diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI); and giving through The Coca-Cola Foundation. We've refreshed the company's global DEI strategy to reflect the need for greater global reach, broader impact and a focus on equity and economic empowerment.
"Together, we're using our global presence to build a more sustainable future for our business and the planet while staying laser-focused on growth. In 2021, our networked way of working drove strong results, and I'm proud of what we've achieved."
We aspire for our workforce to mirror the markets we serve. In 2021, we set a 2030 aspiration to mirror U.S. census data for race and ethnicity at all job levels of our company in the United States. We also recommitted to our aspiration to be 50% led by women globally, with a target of 2030.
In 2021, The Coca-Cola Foundation continued to support communities'
response to the pandemic with the creation of a $20 million fund to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Alongside our Project Last Mile partners, we have used our supply chain, distribution and marketing expertise to support vaccine rollout in a number of African markets, as well as leveraging our network of cold-chain partners.
We measure success by the value we create for shareowners while also creating a better shared future for people, communities and the planet. We're using data to measure and drive this success. Going forward, our ESG goals are a factor in our compensation program for top executives. You can read more details in our Governance & Management section.
Building Brands and Creating Value
We are a total beverage company, and our focus is on creating a portfolio of great-tasting drinks and loved brands with the greatest potential to attract more consumers. During the pandemic, we evaluated our entire portfolio and tailored our investments. Today, we are focusing on approximately 200 master brands.
We've increased our innovation efforts, including sparkling and plant-based beverages as well as new entries in flavored alcohol beverages. Our efforts are designed for long-term success-we're balancing big bets with intelligent experimentation, learning from failures and scaling successes.
Our 2021 successes include:
• We expanded some of our strongest brands to more markets, such as Coke® with Coffee, fairlife®, AHA® and Topo Chico® Hard Seltzer.
fairlife® is now a $1 billion brand with seven consecutive years of double-digit volume growth.
• We rolled out a new and improved formulation of Coca-Cola® Zero
Sugar, which helped the brand grow volume by double digits in 2021. The new formula has driven accelerated growth in 80% of the markets where it was launched.
• We acquired the remaining 85% ownership interest in BODYARMOR, giving us a line of sports performance and hydration beverages with significant potential for long-term growth.
Our backbone is a global system of strong partnerships with approximately 225 bottlers supported by leading edge technology. In 2021, we worked together to build a networked global organization, combining the power of scale with the deep knowledgeand cross-functional collaboration required to win locally. Together, we're focusing on what we do best-building brands and products that people love and enjoy, and growing markets for those brands.
A Better Shared Future
Our purpose is to refresh the world and make a difference.
Our company and system employees make this possible every day. Together, we're using our global presence to build a more sustainable future for our business and the planet while staying laser-focused on growth. In 2021, our networked way of working drove strong results, and I'm proud of what we've achieved. I'm confident we will accomplish even more in 2022.
James Quincey
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
April 26, 2022
CEO Message
Board of Directors
"The Coca-Cola Company is staying focused on what matters most: its people and purpose. Although 2021 brought continued change across the world, our Board of Directors is proud of how the company remained centered on its key priorities and navigated many challenges to emerge stronger. This strong performance heading into 2022 is indicative of the company's resilience, laying the groundwork for continued success and growth."
Maria Elena Lagomasino
Lead Independent Director
Audit Committee
Talent and Compensation Committee
Committee on Directors and Corporate GovernanceFinance Committee
ESG & Public Policy CommitteeExecutive Committee
Chair
Member
Herb Allen President,
Allen & Company LLC
Alexis M. Herman
Chair and Chief Executive Officer,
New Ventures LLC
Marc Bolland Chairman, Blackstone Europe
Maria Elena Lagomasino Lead Independent Director
Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner,
WE Family Offices
Ana Botín Executive Chair, Banco Santander, S.A.
James Quincey Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer, The Coca-Cola CompanyNote: Board composition and committee positions reflected as of the completion of the 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareowners.
Christopher C. Davis Chairman,
Davis Selected Advisers-NY, Inc.
Caroline J. Tsay
Chief Executive Officer and Director,
Compute Software, Inc.
Barry Diller Chairman of the Board and Senior Executive, IAC/InterActiveCorp and Expedia Group, Inc.
David B. Weinberg Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer,
Judd Enterprises, Inc.
Helene D. Gayle
Chief Executive Officer,
The Chicago Community Trust
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Disclaimer
The Coca-Cola Company published this content on 25 April 2022 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 27 April 2022 15:44:06 UTC.