Corporate Blog

Every year, the week at the end of September which coincides with the United Nations General Assembly is Global Goals Week, which raises awareness and calls for action toward the promotion and achievement of the Sustainable Development goals (SDGs). This year's Global Goals Week is from September 16 to 25. In this article, we will introduce our sustainability activities for the achievement of SDGs.

*Source:United Nations Development Programme website (Japanese)

■Sustainability Framework

We are committed to creating a shared future and a sustainable business that can make a difference when addressing important challenges facing Japan, including the environment, people's lives, and our communities.

In 2019, The Coca-Cola system in Japan jointly conducted a large-scale study to identify sustainability issues and set priorities based on materiality for The Coca-Cola system in Japan. The intent was to formulate a strategy reflecting issues unique to Japan, in addition to global sustainability targets being pursued worldwide, and to include these in a common action plan for the combined Coca-Cola system in Japan. See here for details.

The result was an agreement on the three platforms of Inclusion, Communities, and Resources, and nine priority issues to be addressed most recently. We have examined the impact of the three platforms against the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and are progressing towards them.

1. Inclusion

To address the different needs of our stakeholders and ensure sustainable growth, we are focused on developing diversified human resources. In addition, we are continuing to create a working environment in which each and every employee can fully demonstrate their strengths, regardless of their background or values.

● Initiatives to promote women's advancement
We offer training to develop female candidates for managers and director positions. We also have an annual company-wide people development review meeting to conduct fair evaluations and clarify talent development issues, and have discussions focused on female employees. In order to ensure ongoing efforts to promote women's advancement, we confirm female management candidate appointment, their development status, and discuss actions to take.

● Initiative to instill accurate knowledge of LGBTQ issues internally
In July 2022, Coca-Cola system developed and introduced throughout the Coca-Cola system a "LGBTQ + ALLY HANDBOOK" that provides basic description about LGBTQ and ALLY, including a glossary, the history and current conditions that are all explained in an easy-to-understand format. This handbook has been made available to all employees and can be used free of charge by any company or organization considering promoting the understanding about LGBTQ.

＞See here for more details on Inclusion.

2. Communities

We have developed sustainable communities and work toward solutions for social issues while maintaining communication with communities.

● Local seminars on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
We have developed a series of lectures and presentations at schools in order to introduce our CSV activities. We will continue to focus on communication with local communities as we devise new approaches to our goals.

Online seminar about recycling PET bottles

Exploratory lesson "What We Can Do to Achieve SDGs: Learning from the Example of Coca-Cola."

● Addressing local issues in cooperation with industry, academia, government, and the private sector
We collaborate with local governments, educational institutions, private organizations, and industries to support youth-led workshops and activities, as well as awards systems and other programs for addressing local issues and achieving SDGs.

The Sendai Youth Award (Miyagi Prefecture)

MIYAZAKI SDGs ACTION (Miyazaki Prefecture)

＞See here for more details on Communities.

3. Resources

In order to make effective use of valuable resources in a sustainable manner, we will make continuous devise and improve ways to contribute to environmental protection.

● Initiatives for greenhouse gas emissions
In October 2021, the Coca-Cola System in Japan established a target to reduce its Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 50% and Scope 3 emissions by 30% (both compared to 2015) by 2030 across its entire value chain in Japan. We will actively contribute to the achievement of the Japanese government’s GHG reduction target (46% reduction in emissions compared to fiscal 2013 by fiscal 2030).

● Initiatives to achieve the "2030 Packaging Vision"
The Coca-Cola system in Japan is making efforts to achieve the 2030 Packaging Vision, which aims to use 100% sustainable materials for PET bottles by 2030, by promoting initiatives such as "bottle-to-bottle".
We will contribute to achieving our 2030 Packaging Vision and to promoting horizontal recycling in Japan through efforts to collect and recycle used PET bottles, etc.

In April this year, we kicked off a cooperative bottle-to-bottle project with the town of Yoshimi, Saitama Prefecture. The project uses recycled raw materials from PET bottles collected in a Yoshimi processing facility to make containers for Coca-Cola products.

From October, we will begin a bottle-to-bottle business with Kuki City, Saitama Prefecture, and expand the area for our bottle-to-bottle business with Welcia Pharmacy in November, as we work with government and corporate partners to develop a collection/recycling scheme.

＞See here for more details on Resources.