Case Study: Coca Cola, India

Case Study: Coca Cola, India

Where?

• In India there are 27 company owned bottling operations and another 17 franchise-owned ones
• In the year 2000 a subsidiary of the Atlanta based Coca-cola company established a plant in Plachimada, in the Palakkad district of Kerala, southern India.
• 17% of the worlds population is in India, but less than 4% of the worlds freshwater is in India

Environmental impacts

• Coca-cola drew around 510,000 litres of water each day from boreholes and open wells.
• In the time that Coke has been operating in Kerala, India, water tables have decreased form 12 m to 35 m below ground level (takes 3.8 L of water to make 1 L of coca-Cola
• Coke has been excluded of draining local water aquifer, leaving subsistence farmers with no water sources
• Harvest dropped by 40% because the fields are not irrigated properly
• Wells are almost empty - local villages now have to walk nearly 5 km twice a day to fetch water 
• Villages reported that the little water left was undrinkable and when used for bathing it burned their eyes and lead to skin problems

Economic Impacts

• The investment of Coke in India has been blamed for the decline of traditional fruit juices vendors

Strategies to reduce industrial impacts

• Coca-cola have improved their water use efficiency by 14% since 2004 and state they are continuing to invest in new innovations and plant processes to help make even more improvements
• Coca-Cola say they have replenished approximately 93% of the groundwater they use through the creation of rainwater harvesting structures, restoration of ponds and traditional water bodies and interventions focused on improving water use efficiency in agriculture
• Coca-Cola has invested in water harvesting schemes in India; they state actual recharge have been 5 times what they extract from the ground
• For Example, Coca-cola have installed more than 500 rainwater harvesting structures in 22 states, and this year they donated over $1,000,000 (US) to support the revival of Nemam Lake a 1000 acre lake in Tamil Nadu.