During 2022, we undertook a comprehensive review of the highest priority topics for our company, system and stakeholders. Identifying and prioritizing our material topics, in collaboration with a cross-functional internal team and key external stakeholders, is a foundational step in how we develop our corporate strategy, conduct and evolve our business, and report on progress.
Our last comprehensive review was conducted in 2019, with refreshes being undertaken in 2020 and 2021 to establish closer alignment between priority topics and business-relevant issues and practices.
Our 2022 review included a robust analysis and broader engagement guided by ERM, a leading sustainability consultancy. This was followed by interviews with more than 30 internal and external stakeholders and an online survey that had 90 responses from across the globe.
Stakeholders we talked to represent diversity of views and deep expertise across a range of issues and sectors. The stakeholders included investors and financial institutions, NGOs, bottling partners, trade and industry associations, business peers, customers and suppliers.
Definitions
The definitions of our priority sustainability issues in our reports are as follows:
| Topic name | Subtopic(s) | Definition |
| Advocacy & Regulatory Engagement | Advocacy & Political Engagement | How a company contributes to or engages with efforts in favor of or against policies and laws. This involves lobbying on issues such as taxes, trade policies, and regulation, including on sustainability issues. It also encompasses corporate stances and actions on social issues and world events. |
| Regulatory Engagement & Responsiveness | How a company monitors risks and opportunities derived from emerging policies and laws and interacts with governments and political bodies to shape or respond to them. | |
| Biodiversity & Deforestation | Biodiversity & Deforestation | How a company implements policies to sustainably manage, preserve, and restore the variety of living organisms on earth for the benefit of human beings, the planet, and climate. Involves the effects of the production of agricultural raw materials used in a company’s system and value chain on biodiversity. |
| Business Continuity & Resilience | Adapting and Thriving in a Digital Environment | How a company manages the digital landscape, evolving shopping preferences and patterns, incorporating technology into business processes, and the enhanced capacity to conduct operations online. Also involves measures to ensure the necessary skills transformation of their workers and those in their value chain. |
| Business Continuity & Resilience | How a company manages potential disruptions to business operations, including the workforce and supply chains, caused by geopolitical and geoeconomic tensions, social issues, including rising inequality or refugee migration, demographic changes, or economic crises. Also involves anticipating and adapting to changing environments to ensure the necessary skills transformation of their workers and those in their value chain. | |
| Cybersecurity & Data Privacy | How a company protects and remediates information systems and networks from accidental or illegal breaches. Also includes how information is collected, used and transferred and respecting a data subject's privacy rights. | |
| Innovation & Competitiveness | How a company is able to continually transform business operations and develop products in response to increasing competitive pressure in the marketplace. | |
| Climate Change | Climate Change Risk & Resilience | How a company manages the physical impacts and risks of climate change due to changes in weather patterns and increased frequency and severity of natural disasters, which could decrease agricultural productivity, exacerbate water scarcity, impair production capabilities, disrupt the supply chain, and impact demand for products. Also incorporates transition risks and the ability to manage and adapt to new policies and markets connected to the low-carbon economy transition. |
| GHG Emissions | How a company manages its direct and indirect emissions of greenhouse gases throughout the value chain, and mitigates contributions to climate change in line with net zero methodologies. Examples of this include transition to renewable energy, use of alternative fuels, and energy efficiency through new equipment and processes, such as HFC-free equipment, as well as through reducing the environmental footprint of buildings and facilities across their life-cycles. | |
| Corporate Governance | Business Ethics & Compliance | How a company implements policies and procedures surrounding compliant and lawful corporate conduct and competition in the marketplace. Includes the systems and channels in place to collect, process, and address complaints regarding suspected violations. |
| Corporate Governance | How a company implements policies and standards that determine how it operates, including its business strategy and goals, risk management, and sustainability integration. Includes the processes for ensuring the knowledge, skills, experience and diversity of board members. | |
| Transparency & Sustainability Data Validity | How a company discloses robust and credible sustainability data based on globally accepted metrics in the face of increasing calls for sustainability data and assurance. | |
| Health & Nutrition | Consumer Preference Alignment | How a company responds to and aligns with evolving consumer preferences and concerns, including health, wellness, and nutrition considerations, expectations of transparency, as well as increased demand for sustainable products. |
| Health & Nutrition | How a company manages the impact its products have on the health and nutrition of consumers, not only in relation to the product offering, but also in relation to education, information, and research. | |
| Labor & Human Rights | Human Rights | How a company respects the rights of employees, workers in the supply chain, consumers, and communities the company interacts with. Includes alignment with human rights due diligence principles in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. |
| Labor Rights & Relations | How a company upholds worker's rights, including stipulations of employment, working conditions, and freedom of association. | |
| Occupational Health & Safety | How a company implements policies, practices, and training in place to mitigate risks and uphold workplace health and safety. | |
| Packaging & Circularity | Packaging & Circularity | How a company supports a circular economy, such as reusable/recyclable materials, collection and recycling, partnerships and innovation. Involves integrating sustainability considerations in the production and consumption of products and services across a company, system and value chain. |
| Operational Waste | How a company manages the waste and effluents generated from operations that are not able to be reused or recycled, and the associated management practices. | |
| Product Quality & Safety | Product Quality & Safety | How a company meets industry and consumer standards for quality and safety. This includes both fulfilling consumers' needs and complying with food safety considering ingredients and their effects on health, and relevant certifications that verify environmental or social aspects of products. |
| Responsible Marketing | Responsible Marketing | How a company responsibly and accurately sells and markets products and communicates with consumers. Includes compliance with marketing regulations and restrictions (e.g., not marketing to children under 13). |
| Responsible Sourcing | Alcohol Responsibility | How a company markets alcohol products, engages in alcohol responsibility programs, and shares information with consumers about alcohol so that they can make informed decisions. Also includes responsible guidelines for associates and partners. |
| Responsible Sourcing & Supply Chain | How a company sets policies, controls and market incentives in place to procure goods and raw materials that have been produced respecting the environment, workers and communities. Includes efforts to have a positive impact and ensure alignment by suppliers and distributors with sustainability policies. | |
| Sustainable/ Regenerative Agriculture | How a company implements policies and procedures in their agricultural supply chain to have aa net-positive impact in an attempt to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Involves an approach to farming that aims to improve soil health and preserve biodiversity. | |
| Animal Welfare | How a company implements practices and policies surrounding the physical and emotional treatment of animals involved in business operations along the value chain. | |
| Stakeholder, System & Business Partner Engagement | Stakeholder Engagement | How a company identifies, involves, and communicates with certain groups of people who may impact or be impacted by business activities, and building trust-based relationships. |
| System Engagement | How a company manages business and sustainability partnerships with The Coca‑Cola Company’s bottling partners (e.g., independent entities responsible for manufacturing and/or distributing Coca‑Cola packaged beverage products). | |
| Third-Party Service Provider & Business Engagement | How a company manages business and sustainability partnerships, opportunities and challenges. This includes ensuring compliance with anti-corruption provisions, and relevant business & sustainability policies and regulations. | |
| Sustainable Communities | Community Impact & Sustainable Communities | How a company positively or negatively impacts communities with which it interacts through its operations and business transactions, including in the value chain, as well as voluntary community initiatives. |
| Water Stewardship | Water Stewardship | How a company manages water resources in order to meet business and community needs. Includes a company's processes for water withdrawal, water use rights, mitigating water risk, and replenishing water used in a system and value chain. |
| Talent Attraction, Retention & DEI | Diversity, Equity & Inclusion | How a company ensures ensure there is diversity, equity and inclusion in the workforce and throughout the value chain. It also includes how business operations approach diversity, equity and inclusion through marketing, sales and corporate citizenship. |
| Talent Attraction & Retention | How a company recruits, engages, and maintains employees in the face of increasing competition for talent and the evolving expectations from workers on the future of work and generational mindsets. It also includes the strategies in place to maintain a diverse workforce. |
Stakeholders Consulted
The key external stakeholders consulted for the priority issues matrix in our 2022 Business & Sustainability Report represented deep expertise across a range of issues and sectors, and none were compensated in any way. They included: