In a sign that water is becoming the “new carbon,” Coca-Cola has agreed to change their bottling practices to conserve water while also contributing to efforts to clean up the Yangtze:
Coca-Cola (KO) will revamp bottling practices globally to save water and pay for conservation along the Yangtze River and other major waterways, highlighting a growing emphasis on social and environmental spending by multinational companies in China.
As China becomes an ever more important market and manufacturing base, many multinationals are under growing pressure in the Chinese media to show they’re doing in China than taking profits…
Projects paid for by multinationals in China run the gamut from “planting a few trees by the Great Wall” to significantly reducing carbon emissions, said Elizabeth Knup, who heads the corporate social responsibility committee for the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing.
She said the spending in China on corporate social responsibility is difficult to calculate. Some companies consider compliance with environment or labor standards a measure of their social responsibility while others tout charity, sponsorship programs or industrial training courses. [Full text]
Read also the text of a Marketplace report on this topic.
