Coke, Conservation & Timing

by bgetch.

Who knew it takes more than 2 litres of water to produce every litre of Coke? That’s more than 75 billion gallons of water per year used by the Coca-Cola company, according to the Wall Street Journal.

That much water consumption raises sensitive environmental and water conservation issues in the developed and developing world. It certainly gets the attention of environmental groups who estimate 1.1 billion people in poorer nations have difficulty accessing safe drinking water.
Look closely at Coke’s timing and supporting points in its announcement of a Coca-Cola corporate pledge on reducing water used, recycling water in production processes and replenishing water in communities. What many companies and their communicators do is make a hollow-sounding statement about corporate responsibility without any data to support it. Or they communicate reactively and allow others to define acceptable behavior.
Coke did three things very well:

1. Strong Stakeholder: They partnered with the WWF (formerly the World Wildlife Fund) to lend 3rd party credibility to their effort
2. Real Data: Coke rolled out its inverted hockey stick to demonstrate its moving in the right direction already (no hollow claim)
3. Momentum: The data, Coke’s partnership with a credible stakeholder, and its pledge to continue to do better, all add up to positive, reputation-enhancing momentum. Coke has insulated itself on the water issue and shown innovation and leadership.

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