Following GRI reporting requirements, The Coca-Cola Company releases its eighth system-wide sustainability report, focusing on economic, environmental, and social performance.

The Coca-Cola Company has released its eighth system-wide sustainability report, titled Reasons to Believe. In the company’s effort to increase transparency across its sustainability platform, this year’s report was created using stakeholder feedback and, for the first time, follows the disclosure and reporting requirements of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) to achieve a self-declared grade level “B+.” With new digital tools available to more people, the report was also created in a format that offers easier access from smart phones, tablets, and other popular mobile devices. The entire content is also available online.

“Sustainability has been core to our business strategy for nearly 125 years,” says chief sustainability officer Beatriz Perez. “After receiving feedback from a variety of stakeholders, we decided to make some significant changes to our sustainability reporting efforts. In addition to increasing transparency within the content, we have taken a digital approach to make the report more user-friendly and accessible on a variety of mobile devices. As we continue to strengthen our sustainability efforts, we also will innovate the means by which we share our progress.”

The Coca-Cola Company reported against the GRI’s key performance indicators in the areas of economic, environmental, and social performance and self-declared a B grade against the new GRI G3.1 guidelines. This year’s report also received verification by a third-party agency, indicating the agency’s approval of tracking systems, resulting in an overall B+ grade.

The 2010/2011 sustainability report provides an in-depth review on the sustainability efforts of the company and its nearly 300 bottling partners. The four main areas of focus include water stewardship; energy efficiency and climate protection; sustainable packaging; and healthy communities.

Among the performance highlights from the 2010/2011 report are the following:

• The company’s PlantBottle™ technology is becoming more widely used around the world. In 2010, Coca-Cola distributed 2.5 billion PlantBottle packages in 10 major markets, saving more than 60,000 barrels of oil and sequestering the equivalent of nearly 30,000 metric tons of CO2 from its PET plastic bottles. By the end of 2011, PlantBottle packaging was available in 20 markets, and nearly 10 billion PlantBottle packages had been shipped.

• In 2010, the company improved its water use efficiency for the eighth consecutive year, reducing the average amount of water required to produce each beverage serving. As of the end of 2010, the company had achieved 93% alignment, and by the end of 2011, it estimated a 96% alignment with its stringent standards.

• Also in 2010, the Coca-Cola system increased production volume while reducing global carbon emissions by 2%, putting the compay a step closer to its goal of growing its business but not its carbon footprint. The company also exceeded its goal of installing 150,000 hydrofluorocarbon-free coolers in 2010, for a cumulative total of 277,000 such units by the end of that year. Additionally, it increased that total to 500,000 by the end of 2011.