The real thing

As one of the world's largest beverage companies, Coca-Cola has become nearly synonymous with soft drinks for hundreds of millions of consumers from all walks of life in the world.

In return, the beverage giant has seen a stellar growth in its balance sheet, and is saying "thanks" in local communities where the company has a solid foothold.

"Sustainability is not about standing out from the crowd. To us, it's about moving the crowd forward, one step at a time, so that we are progressing together with partners, employees, industry peers, civil society, government and other interested stakeholders," says Doug Jackson, president of Coca-Cola China.

Earlier this month in Shanghai, Coca-Cola (China) presented the 2008 Gary Player Invitational, a charity golf tournament, to raise funds for AIDS-impacted orphans living in Yunnan province.

The company began helping these children in 2006 and so far more than 800 children have benefited.

"These children are the most neglected and vulnerable people, living at the bottom of the society. We need to pick up those kids who are in desperate need. And we believe that the program could have a huge impact on the children's life, providing them a significant amount of help," Jackson says.

In the same program last year, 1.8 million yuan was raised for 608 AIDS orphans in Yunnan, providing support that includes their living expenses, education funds, medicines, psychological assistance and social activities to improve their quality of life.

This year, the charity golf tournament raised more than 4 million yuan, 1 million more than expected, in order to sponsor more than 1,300 children for the next three years.

"Coca-Cola strives to be responsible in its business operations, while also responding to community needs. Partnering with Gary Player to develop this unique charity event allows us to make a real difference in the lives of hundreds of kids in China," Jackson points out.

Coca-Cola China's involvement with HIV-AIDS programs can be traced back to 2003, when the company supported an international seminar on HIV/AIDS and SARS at Tsinghua University. In 2005, the beverage maker, in line with the Chinese Foundation for the Prevention of STD & AIDS, launched a nationwide HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention campaign targeting women and young adults in more than 100 cities across the country.

Under the current global financial meltdown, Coke won't be changing any of its investments and will continue to invest at the levels we've been investing, Jackson says. "Actually, at a time when everything becomes a bit more difficult, the one budget that needs to be increased should be corporate social responsibility (CSR). This is the time that we should lend our hands to help out those in trouble. And therefore the last thing we should be doing as a company now is to cutback on CSR."

As the fourth largest market for Coca-Cola, China is one of the major countries where the company is committed to conducting CSR activities.

According to Jackson, there are three key CSR pillars that Coke focuses on.

The first is the environment.

Coca-Cola, together with World Wildlife Fund (WWF), has launched a project called the Yangtze River Basin Conservation. Given the importance of the river, which serves as the major water source for more than 400 million people, the two parties have taken several steps to maintain the environmental health of the region in order to help keep the river unpolluted.

Activities include establishing benchmarks and assessing the environmental needs of its tributaries; developing and training local residents on a Yangtze River Basin Scorecard; supporting the Yangtze Conservation and Development Report 2009 with the Chinese Academy of Sciences to provide information and recommendations pertinent to the health of the river; and sponsoring the Corporate Sub-Forum of the Second Yangtze Forum to discuss the Yangtze River Basin-related issues.

The second focus is on education. Coca-Cola China has teamed up with Project Hope to enhance educational opportunities for underprivileged children in rural areas since 1993. There have been 58 Project Hope primary schools and 100 libraries with the same name built since then, reaching over 60,000 students and 1,200 teachers in 27 provinces.

On an ongoing basis, the company with its bottling partners will keep contributing to the infrastructure of these schools and support students through a variety of programs.

The third one is healthcare and the HIV, and AIDS Foundation is one of its major projects.

In addition, the company continues to scale up its Happy Playtime active lifestyle program started in 2006 in partnership with the Chinese Care About the Next Generation Committee. The program promotes fun and creative forms of physical exercise in schools. In 2007, there were 550,000 primary school students that joined the program, and the number is expected to reach 1.7 million students in 22 cities in 2008.

"We do well in China and it is wonderful that we have our brands here. Therefore, we need to give back at the same time. It would be important to increase our investment in CSRs as we go forward in China. Hopefully, we can make a positive difference in those people's lives wherever they are around the country, Jackson says.

The company posted a 17 percent year-on-year growth in terms of unit case volume in China in the third quarter, much higher than its global growth of 5 percent on average.

"We have a presence in the country for 81 years, and have never seen the market as a short-term horizon. We're upbeat on our China business in the future, despite the fact that there may be one year in which our performance may not be as good as the next," Jackson says.

(China Daily 12/01/2008 page8)