Padmashree Dr. D.Y. Patil University Department of Business Management.

SUBJECT: ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT AND ETHICS BUSINESS

PROJECT TITLE: UNETHICAL PRACTICE ADOPTED BY COCA COLA COMPANY

SUBMITTED BY: FARAZ KHAN (MBA MARKETING) ROLL NO: 011168

Coca-cola
The world is changing all around us. To continue to thrive as a business over the next ten years and beyond, we must look ahead, understand the trends and forces that will shape our business in the future and move swiftly to prepare for what's to come. We must get ready for tomorrow today. That's what our 2020 Vision is all about. It creates a long-term destination for our business and provides us with a "Roadmap" for winning together with our bottling partners.

Our Mission
Our Roadmap starts with our mission, which is enduring. It declares our purpose as a company and serves as the standard against which we weigh our actions and decisions.

To refresh the world... To inspire moments of optimism and happiness... To create value and make a difference.

Our Vision
Our vision serves as the framework for our Roadmap and guides every aspect of our business by describing what we need to accomplish in order to continue achieving sustainable, quality growth.

People: Be a great place to work where people are inspired to be the best they can be. Portfolio: Bring to the world a portfolio of quality beverage brands that anticipate and satisfy people's desires and needs. Partners: Nurture a winning network of customers and suppliers, together we create mutual, enduring value.

Planet: Be a responsible citizen that makes a difference by helping build and support sustainable communities. Profit: Maximize long-term return to shareowners while being mindful of our overall responsibilities. Productivity: Be a highly effective, lean and fast-moving organization.

Market

Focus on needs of our consumers, customers and franchise partners Get out into the market and listen, observe and learn Possess a world view Focus on execution in the marketplace every day Be insatiably curious

Coca-Cola Continues Unethical and Dishonest Practices in India

The Indian government forced Coca-Cola out of the country in 1977. The company returned in 1993 Each bottling plants extracts up to 1.5m litres of water everyday from the ground. It takes nine liters of clean water to manufacture a litre of Coke. In 2000 Coca-Cola opened a plant at Plachimada, a village in Kerala to produce 1.2m litres of coke every day. The conditional licence granted by the local panchayat authorised the use of motorized pumps But the company drilled more than six wells & illegally installed highpowered electric pumps to extract millions of litres of pure water. The level of the water table fell from 45 to 150 metres below the surface. The conditional licence granted by the local panchayat authorised the use of motorized pumps.

 Kala Dera is a large village outside the city of Jaipur. Agriculture is the primary source of livelihood. Coca-Cola started its bottling operations in Kala Dera in 2004, and within a year, the community started to notice a rapid decline in groundwater levels Kala Dera is a large village outside the city of Jaipur. Agriculture is the primary source of livelihood. Coca-Cola started its bottling operations in Kala Dera in 2004, and within a year, the community started to notice a rapid decline in groundwater levels. Kala Dera lies in an overexploited groundwater area and access to water has been difficult. Summers are particularly intense in the area, when water shortages are most acute.

Community response

through extraction and pollution they demanded the closure of the Coca-Cola bottling plant.

UNETHICAL PRACTICES BY COCA COLA

Coca cola has been noticed to be involved in various unethical practices like:

CHILD LABOR:
Sugar is the basic ingredient for making soft drinks. Coca cola is blamed of buying sugar from sugar farms in Latin America who use child labors for producing sugar. So indirectly coca cola is encouraging the child labor. They illegally hire the children to manufacture the sugar. Children are mainly used for planting sugarcanes in very miserable conditions in Latin America. And before cutting the sugarcane the leaves are burnt which cause tremendous smoke, which affect the children health. (Human Rights Watch, 2004). If we apply this act using ethical theory this act is against act utilitarianism theory as a large number of children get effected by by child labor and harms are more than the benefits. So it can be proved that the act of buying sugar from Latin American fields is unethical.

WATER WASTAGE:
Coca cola is one of the worlds largest beverage manufacturers. Besides their success in United States they have always been involved in growing their business around the world. For this they have entered in many global markets around the world. India is one of those countries, where every multinational company sees a huge prospect due to their population and growing economy. Coca cola entered in India market in early 1990s. India is coca colas top international investor. Coca cola has invested around one billion dollars in India in previous years. Residents of Kerala (south India) have been facing a tremendous shortage of drinking water since 1998. When the matter got the attention of higher

authorities, an investigation was conducted and it was found out that the reason behind the shortage of water was coca cola plant in Kerala. Coca cola was accused of using around one million liters of water daily to operate. Local people

complained that plant since the plant arrived there was a shortage of water and people stopped working in farms due to shortage of water. But on the other hand coca cola explained their case by saying that they didnt cause shortage of water in the state, but the shortage is due to shortage of rain. And to compensate the local people coca cola started providing drinking water in those areas which were facing the shortage. (Biz/Ed, 2010).

Unethical labor practices: Coca cola is accused of being involved in awful labor practices in Colombia. They are accused of being involved in violent activates against the labors. Coca cola took the advantage of poverty in Colombia, as they knew that Colombia is a poor country with most of its people living in miserable conditions without any means of income, so they built their plant in Colombia for accessing cheap labor. ( killercoke.org,2004) International labor rights and united steel workers filed a case against coca cola in a court in Miami asking for 500 million dollars as compensation. They accused coca cola for killing some major union leaders for their benefits. But this allegation could not be proved in the court and the case was discharged. (Martinez, 2006).

Harmful ingredients:

Coca cola is a kind of brand, which always tries to focus on its quality and customer care in their marketing crusades, but the reality is that coca cola has been accused for using highly toxic and harmful chemicals in their beverages in recent years, with caring about the health and safety of their potential customers. Centre of science and environment believes that coca cola uses such kind of ventilated water in their manufacturing process that contains very harmful pollutants and chemicals that can be the main reasons for cancer and break down of the immune system. Furthermore CSE reveals that coca cola products uses more amount of chemicals then the suitable level, which are highly harmful and are against the regulation of European Union.(Tejomoortula, 2006). While on the other hand coca cola refused to accept any of the allegations and said that they filter the water and they make sure that they use appropriate amount of chemical in their beverages which is not harmful for human health and safety. And coca cola announced that the lab test conducted by CSE is not dependable to monitor the level of chemical in beverages.(Tejomoortula, 2006). As competition is increasing day by day, everybody looks like that he is competing in a race; they are ready to go to any extreme to win that race. They wont care about other people and the Ethical norms set by the society. Same is the case with Coca Cola.

Conclusion and recommendations:

Coca cola has been involved in many unethical activities like drawing the community water, without the permission of local population, therefore causing many difficulties for the local population.

Coca cola is also blamed for using child labor for their operation. They use the child labor for getting sugar in very miserable conditions which is against the theories of ethics. Coca cola also tries to benefit from the poverty of people and their employees in Colombia work in very miserable condition and they are also accused of killing some union leaders. This is against moral rights and is considered unethical. Coca cola is also blamed or using unhygienic and harmful chemicals in their drinks which is very harmful for the health of the people and is very unethical. We can recommend coca cola to consider their policies and practices and have some mercy for the people they are affecting by their unethical practices. They should not draw water illegally and above all they should not waste it , as it belongs to the local population and is affecting their lives. Coca Cola should also make sure that they dont buy sugar from those farms which use child labor in their farms as coca cola is indirectly promoting child labor which is unethical. They should also consider their ingredients. They should not play with the lives and the health of their customers by including harmful chemical. They should also consider their labor policies in countries Colombia. They should not take advantage of their poverty and they should give those labors their proper rights.