BUS7B26 Emphasising The Environment Assignment Sample
The case of Coca-Cola
Introduction
Sustainability enhances overall standard of living while also safeguarding the natural ecosystem and natural wealth for succeeding generations. In the corporate environment, sustainable development is linked to a company’s holistic perspective, which considers everything including operations to shipping to dealing with customers. Reducing emissions and improving sustainability is not only great for business; it moreover promotes the long-term advantages of an environmental commitment. In this context, the entire report will be based on Coca-Cola Inc and their sustainability strategy. Furthermore, the report will provide a plan for the organisation that will possibly reflect benefits for them for future prospects.
Finding and Analysis
Organisational sustainability strategy and challenges faced by them
Strategy
Sustainability has become one of the most essential parts of an organisation which reflects the responsibility for the company against the society and the environment. In this context, Coca-Cola in 2018 has announced an industry-first goal that by 2030, it will gather and recycle every containers, cans and bottles that the company will sell across the world (Coca-Cola Company, 2018). The enormous objective, which is part of a comprehensive initiative called “World Without Waste” will be tackled by the corporation and its worldwide reach of joint venture partners by refocusing on the overall packaging ecosystem, from how recyclables will be created and constructed to how they can build a successful recycled and reinvented products. The corporation’s “World Without Waste” mission should be the next step in a larger strategy to increase responsibility while doing business in an ethical manner (Coca-Cola Company, 2018). However, in contrast to their initiatives, the organisation has accounted to be producing the largest plastic footprint in the year 2020 which is reflected below through the figure.
Figure 1: Largest plastic footprint by organisations
Apart from that, the organisation has been trying to improve their strategy regarding sustainability for many years. Coca-Cola became the first leading multinational corporation to donate about 115% of the water needed to create its beverage to ecosystems and humanity in 2016 (Coca-Cola Company, 2018). The goal was met 5 months ahead of schedule by the corporation and its associated company’s partners. Coca-Cola also created biodegradable Plant Bottle containers in 2009, which comprises up to 30% of plant-based components. Coke will use its marketing strategy strength to proactively raise public awareness about what, how, or where to recycle in order to enhance resource efficiency (Coca-Cola Company, 2018).
The organisation is trying to align all their issues with their commitments for building a sustainable approach. The organisation is trying to operate their business with sustainable sourcing and providing training to the people to improve their skills by supporting over 250,000 people per year (Longman, 2020). By enhancing local recycling facilities and pushing change in the law that promotes a genuine supply chain, the corporation will strive to operate with indigenous governments, NGOs, business associates, and customers to make recycling cheaper and more convenient for almost everyone. In this regard, Triple bottom line theory can be interlinked.
Figure 2: Triple bottom line theory
The theory is the broad concept, which needs to be understood by the organisation in order to build an effective sustainability strategy. For an organisation, becoming socially responsible is as important as maintaining human resources in the workplace (Macke and Genari, 2019). The more the organisation will be responsible about their operation it will directly influence their revenue and sales. The theory suggests that in order to be sustainable, the organisation needs to be focused towards people, planet and profit. Undertaking this theory Coca-Cola will be able to put emphasis upon their strategy that can possibly help to commit towards the social and environmental impact along with improving the performance (Hammer and Pivo, 2017).
Challenges
The organisation has faced several challenges to remain sustainable. As per the organisation, the issues that possibly impact sustainability of the environment, if it does not get mitigated are resource scarcity (Longman, 2020). However, too much utilisation of plastic is one of the challenges as the suppliers are not that sustainable, which is needed to be required (Dauvergne, 2018) Adding to this, it has been identified that the organisation is designing 470 billion plastic bottles, which can be utilised only once. The organisation is found to be not functioning appropriately as per their pledge which is being undertaken by them for sustainable approaches (Rizvi, 2021). It has been reported that after the “World Without Waste” initiative the organisation is acknowledged to be recovering the issues however, it has not been completely resolved which is contributing to the global carbon emission.
Plan for sustainability strategy
With regards to the attributes of the organisational sustainability strategy along with the relational challenging circumstances experienced by them regarding increasing usage of plastics, a sustainability plan is likely to be outlined as an integral part of solving this problem. From the perspective of Coca-Cola, the consequences of plastic pollution have been highlighted. Due to this reason, adequate strategic intervention for the sustainability of Coca-Cola should be entitled upon the attributes of plastic reduction. In relation to this attribute, the plan for Coca-Cola sustainability strategy has been outlined below in a tabular format.
| Strategy | Action plan | Responsible person | Implications for Coca-Cola | Time required |
| Conceptualisation of recyclable packaging | Recyclable packaging should be entitled within Coca-Cola with the consequences of a more robust elimination of single use plastics. In this regard, Coca-Cola should be attentive to conceptualise strict guidelines in the production and manufacturing department to ensure recyclable packaging (Wang et al. 2021). | The organisational management, operation manager, production manager, manufacturing department head and others | This strategy could be highly beneficial for Coca-Cola in terms of eliminating the application of single usage plastics and their by putting a profound step forward towards sustainability through recyclable packaging of their products (Georgakoudis et al. 2018). | 6 months |
| Consideration of 3R framework of sustainability highlighting reduce, reuse and recycle | Prolific focus of The Coca-Cola management will be required in this case regarding the implementation of 3R framework (Das et al. 2019). Moreover, this framework is likely to be supported with the consideration of avoiding the usage of virgin plastics. Along with signifying recyclable packaging, Coca-Cola will have to look for considering the refill initiative for coping up with increasing plastic pollution in the organisational operations. | Coca-Cola leadership and management, operation and production manager, finance manager and others | This action plan can provide a distinct positive impact upon the sustainability development of Coca-Cola by reducing the organisational plastic pollution to a large extent. With regards to emphasize on the positive implications of the refill initiative in Glasgow, Coca-Cola might also be able to cut down plastic pollution at source by making it simple for reusing and refilling a bottle after usage (Glasgow, 2022). However, it might also add a fair value to the organisational brand reputation. | 1 year |
| Resource scarcity | Coca-Cola management should consider the empowerment of the organisational tangible assets including financial support arranged through potential organisation and investors, crowd funding, bank loan and others. Moreover, the organisational leaders must be attentive to outline a plan regarding required resources to support their sustainability concerns on a long-term basis. The organisational vision in this case is likely to be reflected upon the availability of adequate resources as a subsequent pathway of improving operational sustainability | The organisational authority and leaders, finance manager and sponsors, investors and creditors, operation manager and others | The impact of this strategy can be highly beneficial for Coca-Cola to ensure prolific support towards the integration of the 3R framework of sustainability and recyclable packaging attributes. As a result of this, potential plastic pollution and sustainability issues could be efficiently mitigated by Coca-Cola. | 5 months |
| Reduction of carbon dioxide generation | Coca-Cola is suggested to consider recycled plastic in case of manufacturing beverage bottles to be sold in the market. In this case, the company should eliminate the usage of virgin plastic that can impact with high carbon emissions (Rizvi, 2021). Required resources in this case highlight extended research and development from the organisational perspective and financial support to conceptualise this action. | Organisational leadership, research and development team, operation manager, marketing and sales manager and others | The recycled plastic bottles are not used to produce 80% less carbon dioxide as compared with the virgin bottles. This strategy can deliver significant benefits to Coca-Cola by cutting down carbon dioxide generation to a large extent. | 8 months |
Table 1: Sustainability plan of Coca-Cola
Implementation of the strategy and outlining potential benefits
Strategic implementation
The aforementioned strategic implementation is likely to be processed under the shape of the PDCA cycle. This cycle refers to the concept of plan, do, check and act. It defines a cyclical process in terms of efficiently exploring potential plus points and way of proceeding regarding strategic implementation within an organisation (Jagusiak-Kocik, 2017). With regards to this concern, the management of Coca-Cola is likely to outline an efficient action plan for implementing the mentioned strategic attributes as mentioned before.
Followed by this, Coca-Cola management will have to look for ensuring the availability of resources that are explicitly required for effectively implementing the mentioned strategies. These resources might include financial support and adequate human resource, knowledge, skills and others that can be supportive to the elimination of increasing plastic pollution and carbon dioxide emission from the perspective of Coca-Cola. The consideration of recyclable packaging and 3R framework of sustainability is likely to be arranged by the organisation with profound financial support.
The next part of strategic implementation highlights to check the effectiveness of considered strategies. In this regard, Coca-Cola should pay attention to conceptualise a demonstration of their undertaken strategies on a short-term basis. The outcomes are likely to be cross checked by the organisation in this case (Realyvásquez-Vargas et al. 2018). Based on this understanding and probable area of improvements pointed out during the checking process, Coca-Cola might be able to efficiently act for implementing the mentioned strategies.
Potential benefits
Increased agricultural and industrialisation have stemmed from growing populations, resulting in emissions to the atmosphere, inappropriate energy consumption, and degradation (Opoku and Aluko, 2021). In context to this, there are several potential benefits for the organisation that will eventually allow the organisation to be productive in the marketplace. Planning to work under the premise that the term “sustainability” refers to a purpose of selecting alternatives of plastic products, improving service quality, and using this approximated point of reference to guide company growth (Roy et al. 2020).
Through the help of good green building approaches should be taken into account while not jeopardising the flexibility to satisfy development demands. Alongside corporate social responsibility to which a corporation participates, strategies should be based on how the environment changes an organisation as well as how the corporation impacts the society (Lim and Greenwood, 2017). Long-term financial health, compliance with legislation, readiness for any future developments, preserved integrity, adaptability to social, economic, and changes in the environment, improved use of natural assets, and improved service to society is all benefits of sustainable development methods (Oláh et al. 2019). A vision must be comprehensive and explain the entire story of all of the organisation’s activities, both now and in the foreseeable future. Furthermore, it also improves customer loyalty and brand image along with reducing the operational costs. Therefore, sustainability is the most important aspect that needs to be supported by the organisation for promoting improved living standards and a better economy where the business can easily thrive (Januškaitė and Užienė, 2018).
Conclusion
The overall report has presented a clear understanding bi signifying the sustainability strategy and attributes on behalf of Coca-Cola. The company is noticed to undertake adequate concerns regarding their sustainability strategy including community welfare and education, usage of biodegradable plastic bottle containers and others. Several challenges and eventually associated with their sustainability strategy including increasing plastic usage, resource scarcity, toxic impact on the environment with carbon dioxide emission and others. The sustainability plan of Coca-Cola has efficiently paid attention to signify recyclable packaging, implementation of the 3R framework of sustainability, reduction of carbon emission and others. The PDCA cycle will have to be considered by the organisation and management for the ancient strategic implementation which might provide improved sustainability along with long term future development opportunities for Coca-Cola.
References
Coca-Cola Company, 2018. Coca-Cola announces an ambitious sustainable packaging goal. [Online] Available at: <https://www.coca-colacompany.com/news/coke-announces-ambitious-sustainability-goal#:~:text=Coca%2DCola%20today%20announced%20an,it%20sells%20globally%20by%202030.&text=%E2%80%9CThrough%20our%20’World%20Without%20Waste,a%20thing%20of%20the%20past.%E2%80%9D> [Accessed on 1 January 2022]
Das, S., Lee, S.H., Kumar, P., Kim, K.H., Lee, S.S. and Bhattacharya, S.S., 2019. Solid waste management: Scope and the challenge of sustainability. Journal of cleaner production, 228, pp.658-678.
Georgakoudis, E.D., Tipi, N.S. and Bamford, C.G., 2018. Packaging redesign–benefits for the environment and the community. International Journal of Sustainable Engineering, 11(5), pp.307-320.
Glasgow, 2022. PLASTIC REDUCTION STRATEGY AND ACTION PLAN [Online]. Available at: <https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/councillorsandcommittees/viewSelectedDocument.asp?c=P62AFQDN0G81NTZ3NT#:~:text=This%20strategy%20promotes%20the%20reuse,robust%20’producer%20pays’%20framework.> [Accessed 1st January 2022]
Hammer, J. and Pivo, G., 2017. The triple bottom line and sustainable economic development theory and practice. Economic Development Quarterly, 31(1), pp.25-36.
Jagusiak-Kocik, M., 2017. PDCA cycle as a part of continuous improvement in the production company-a case study. Production engineering archives, 14.
Januškaitė, V. and Užienė, L., 2018. Intellectual capital as a factor of sustainable regional competitiveness. Sustainability, 10(12), p.4848.
Lim, J.S. and Greenwood, C.A., 2017. Communicating corporate social responsibility (CSR): Stakeholder responsiveness and engagement strategy to achieve CSR goals. Public relations review, 43(4), pp.768-776.
Longman, N., 2020. Coca-Cola: sourcing the biggest sustainability challenge faced by suppliers. [Online] Available at: <https://supplychaindigital.com/supply-chain-2/coca-cola-sourcing-biggest-sustainability-challenge-faced-suppliers> [Accessed on 1 January 2022]
Macke, J. and Genari, D., 2019. Systematic literature review on sustainable human resource management. Journal of cleaner production, 208, pp.806-815.
Oláh, J., Kitukutha, N., Haddad, H., Pakurár, M., Máté, D. and Popp, J., 2019. Achieving sustainable e-commerce in environmental, social and economic dimensions by taking possible trade-offs. Sustainability, 11(1), p.89.
Opoku, E.E.O. and Aluko, O.A., 2021. Heterogeneous effects of industrialization on the environment: Evidence from panel quantile regression. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 59, pp.174-184.
Realyvásquez-Vargas, A., Arredondo-Soto, K.C., Carrillo-Gutiérrez, T. and Ravelo, G., 2018. Applying the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle to reduce the defects in the manufacturing industry. A case study. Applied Sciences, 8(11), p.2181.
Richter, F. 2020. The Companies With the Largest Plastic Footprint. [Online] Available at: <https://www.statista.com/chart/23744/branded-plastic-waste-found-in-global-cleanups/> [Accessed on 1 January 2022]
Rizvi, A., 2021. Here Is How Coca-Cola Is Contributing To The Plastic Problem Around The World. [Online] Available at: <https://thelogicalindian.com/environment/coca-cola-100-billion-plastic-bottle-problem-31502> [Accessed on 1 January 2022]
Roy, J., Pamučar, D. and Kar, S., 2020. Evaluation and selection of third party logistics provider under sustainability perspectives: an interval valued fuzzy-rough approach. Annals of Operations Research, 293(2), pp.669-714.
Wang, Q., Zhang, W., Tseng, C.P.M.L., Sun, Y. and Zhang, Y., 2021. Intention in use recyclable express packaging in consumers’ behavior: An empirical study. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 164, p.105115.
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