The Coca-Cola Company is a leading member of AIM-PROGRESS, a forum of 21 Fast Moving Consumer Goods Companies working to promote responsible sourcing through brand collaboration.
AIM-PROGRESS is a global initiative supported and sponsored by AIM in Europe and the GMA in North America. Participating companies include Unilever, Nestlé, Danone, Diageo, PepsiCo, Cadbury, Kraft Foods, Mars, General Mills, Kellogg's, Bacardi and Procter & Gamble and others.
The key objectives of the AIM-PROGRESS are:
- To work jointly on the evaluation of responsible sourcing programs, in order to achieve greater effectiveness in improving working conditions, business, and the environmental management practices within their supply chains;
- To increase efficiency by recommending common assessments standards and methodologies for responsible sourcing, so as to reduce the need for suppliers to respond to differing requirements;
- To seek convergence with similar efforts and platforms around the world.
The goal of the initiative is to accelerate supply chain compliance while increasing the efficacy of the audit process. Through this industry collaboration, member companies will recognize supplier audits completed on behalf of another company, thereby reducing audit fatigue and driving cost savings throughout the industry.
Coca-Cola believes that through the AIM-PROGRESS initiative, our suppliers will understand the importance our industry places on responsible sourcing and that we are willing to collaborate to enable suppliers to fulfill their obligations in this critical area.
In November 2009, The Coca-Cola Company and six other multinational corporations organized the first joint supplier training on responsible sourcing in Istanbul, Turkey. The other companies included Unilever, PepsiCo, Mars, Cadbury, Nestle, and Kraft Foods. More than 130 people from 55 suppliers participated in the one-day training, which addressed four major pillars of responsible sourcing: labor standards, health and safety, environmental compliance and business integrity. Key business leaders from the participating companies provided perspectives on why responsible sourcing is important to our customers, our stakeholders and to the sustainability of our businesses.
To learn more about AIM-PROGRESS, please visit the AIM website section on Responsible Sourcing.
Learn more about how several brand manufacturers agreed to mutual recognition of social compliance assessments to reduce audit fatigue and aligning on key issues of responsible sourcing: Download PDF