Health and Well-Being

According to the World Health Organization, 500 million adults over age 20 are obese—and so are about 43 million children under the age of five. Obesity is a serious, complex problem, the solution to which will require effort from every segment of society, including our Company. That is why we are working in a variety of ways to help people around the world “think, drink and move” their way to more active, healthy lifestyles.

Obesity as a business risk

Addressing obesity is an imperative for anyone who cares, as we do, about building strong, healthy, sustainable communities. For us, obesity also affects our business. As the world becomes more concerned about the public health consequences of obesity, some researchers and health advocates are encouraging reduced consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages like those we make. Such public sentiment, as well as potential government regulation or other measures intended to discourage the consumption of some of our beverages, could reduce consumer demand and our profitability. It is in our shareowners’ best interest for us to be part of workable solutions to this complex problem.

Our position on obesity

All over the globe, our consumers are telling us they care about their well-being. We care, too. That is why we have carefully considered our position on obesity and are working to address obesity in communities around the world.

There is widespread consensus that weight gain is primarily the result of energy imbalance—too many calories consumed and too few expended. People consume many different foods and beverages, so no single food or beverage alone is responsible for people being overweight or obese. But all calories count, regardless of the source, including those in our caloric beverages. We offer beverages with and without calories, and we are helping develop workable solutions to address obesity—by partnering with government, academia, health societies and other responsible members of civil society.

We believe all foods and beverages can have a place in a sensible, balanced diet combined with regular physical activity. We believe a healthful diet is not about avoiding any one food, beverage or ingredient. Rather, it is about making sensible choices that include consuming a variety of foods and beverages in moderation and ensuring individual nutrition needs are met and energy balance is achieved at a level consistent with a healthy weight.

Consumers who want to reduce the calories they consume from beverages can choose from our continuously expanding portfolio of no- and low-calorie beverages as well as our regular beverages in smaller portion sizes. We provide more than 800 no- and low-calorie beverages, nearly 25 percent of our global portfolio. Nineteen of our top 20 brands have a low- or no-calorie alternative or are low- or no-calorie.

How we are helping to address obesity

In addition to offering consumers more than 800 low- and no-calorie beverages, we are joining with others to help address obesity and physical inactivity. Guiding our work are six commitments:

• We use evidence-based science. We are committed to using evidence-based science to guide the choices we offer and the way we educate about those choices.
• We innovate. We are committed to investing in the development of products, sweeteners, packaging, equipment and marketing that fosters active, healthy living.
• We provide choices and educate consumers about them. We are committed to bringing real choice to consumers everywhere and to educating them on the role our variety of beverages can play in sensible, balanced diets and active, healthy lifestyles.
• We inform with transparency. We are committed to transparency about the nutritional content of our products.
• We market responsibly. We are committed to responsible marketing of our products, honoring the rights of parents and caregivers, and informing and educating consumers about the beverages we provide. (Read more about our marketing policy below and on our Company website.)
• We promote active, healthy living. We are committed to being part of workable solutions to the problems facing society related to obesity. We seek to do this by assisting our associates and their families, as well as the communities that we serve, in promoting active, healthy living.

We support independent, peer-reviewed research to help increase the body of knowledge available to help government, business and civil society find solutions to obesity. We also use evidence-based science to help us develop new products to meet consumer demand and to ensure our efforts educate consumers about our products.

In 2010 and 2011, we supported Take to the Streets, a research partnership among our Company, Loughborough University’s Institute of Youth Sport, the English city of Manchester’s City Council and Nova International, a leading mass-participation event company. The study investigated whether mass-participation events in dance, swimming and running generated the same positive changes in behavior and attitude among children aged 11 to 13 as had been observed in younger children during previous similar studies.

One thousand children from four Manchester secondary schools took part in the study. They prepared for events during and after school, mentored by local elite athletes. All events were linked to the city’s sports development and education teams to provide additional connections to the community.

In the first phase of the study, students choreographed their own “Great Sports Dance” and performed their routines in front of an audience and celebrity judging panel. In the second phase, students chose from three activities. They could continue with dancing, train for and participate in a sprint competition held on Manchester’s busiest shopping street, or train for and participate in a swimming competition.

Loughborough University researchers are analyzing the data gathered during the study and are scheduled to issue a report in 2011. Meanwhile, response to the events from the Manchester City Council has been encouraging. The city is looking into making the Great Sports Dance an annual event, citing its popularity among students and its lack of barriers related to gender, ethnicity and disability.

Great-tasting low- and no-calorie sweeteners play a critical role in our ability to offer consumers greater variety and choice. For nearly 50 years, we have been an innovator in sweeteners. Recently, we have increased our investment in sweetener research. In December 2010, we announced a partnership with Chromocell Corporation to develop sweetness enhancers, natural sweeteners and other ingredients that will help us to offer great-tasting beverages with fewer calories.

We also continue to innovate with sweeteners made from stevia, which come from natural origins and have zero calories. Today, we sweeten more than 25 products in eight countries with our stevia sweetener and other natural sweeteners.

We know from experience that developing sweeteners takes time, capital and creative thinking. We are investing in all three, and we are optimistic that we will continue to discover new safe and delicious options for consumers.

As people’s tastes and needs change, our product offerings change with them. That is why we are committed to providing both a variety of products for every lifestyle and occasion, as well as a variety of options available for purchase in each outlet. For example, in many developed countries, consumers can find Diet Coke^®/Coca-Cola light^® or Coca-Cola Zero^® in more than 90 percent of locations where Coca-Cola^® is sold. In some countries—Belgium, New Zealand, the UK and the U.S., to name a few—consumers can find Diet Coke/Coca-Cola light and Coca-Cola Zero in nearly every store where Coca-Cola is sold.

With more than 3,500 beverages in our product line, we are the largest provider of sparkling beverages, juices and juice drinks, and ready-to-drink coffees. We offer more than 800 low- and no-calorie beverages—nearly 25 percent of our global portfolio. We developed more than 150 of our low- and no-calorie beverages in the last year alone, and nearly one quarter of our global unit case volume is attributable to our low- and no-calorie beverage products. Since 2000, our average calories per serving have decreased by 9 percent globally.

2010 Product Portfolio ¹

¹The figures in this chart reflect the percentage of the total number of beverage products by beverage category, not the percentage of unit case volume by beverage category. Unit case volume percentages by beverage category differ from the figures in this chart.

We are also offering more variety in our serving sizes to help consumers manage their calorie intake and energy balance. One example: Our 7.5-ounce, 90-calorie mini-can servings of Coca-Cola are now available throughout the United States. Mini-cans are also available in Australia, Canada, Korea and Thailand.

We are working to provide factual, meaningful and understandable nutrition information about all our products. We believe in the importance and power of informed choice and continue to support fact-based nutrition labeling and education and initiatives that encourage people to live active, healthy lifestyles.

We have long been a leader in the area of responsible marketing, particularly with regard to marketing in media that may be seen or heard by children under age 12. Our policy has evolved as media, society and our product offerings have evolved, but the core of our policy has not: We believe parents and caregivers are in the best position to make decisions about what children eat and drink.

We do not directly target children younger than 12 in our marketing messages or our advertising,² and we do not show children drinking any of our products outside the presence of a parent or caregiver. Additionally, we do not directly market in primary schools. In 2010, we evolved our global Responsible Marketing Policy and redefined the appropriate audience threshold for what constitutes children’s programming. We shifted the threshold for children’s programming from audiences that are more than 50 percent children younger than 12 years of age to audiences that are more than 35 percent children younger than 12. This means we will not buy advertising directly targeted at audiences that are more than 35 percent children younger than 12. Our policy applies to all of our beverages and the media outlets we use, including television, radio, print and, where data are available, Internet and mobile phones.

In 2010, we announced and began implementing our Global School Beverage Guidelines. As a global business, we recognize and respect the unique learning environment of schools and believe in commercial-free classrooms for children. So through our guidelines, we have committed not to commercially advertise or offer our beverages in primary schools, unless we are requested to do so by a school authority to meet hydration needs.

To ensure that we are meeting our standards for marketing to children, we conduct an audit of our advertising and other marketing materials annually.

Since our last report, the 2009/2010 Sustainability Review, we received an encouraging indication that industry self-regulation is working when it comes to marketing to children. A 2010 analysis by Accenture, commissioned by the International Food & Beverage Alliance, showed that, with some exceptions, the industry is complying with its own policies. The study, which looked at the practices of eight companies (including The Coca-Cola Company) in markets around the world, showed that industry compliance in print and online advertising was 100 percent, while industry compliance in television advertising was 96 percent. A similar study for the International Council of Beverages Associations, which focused on The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo Inc., showed 95.7 percent compliance in television advertising and 100 percent compliance in print and online advertising. Although we must improve compliance in television advertising, these studies affirm that our Company and our industry are moving in the right direction.

The Consumer Goods Forum resolutions on health and wellness

In June 2011, we joined other members of The Consumer Goods Forum in adopting three resolutions intended to provide consumers with choices and information that empower them to make decisions to support a healthy life. Members resolved to:

• Provide consumers with choices and information that empower them to make decisions for a healthy life
• Encourage a culture of prevention by promoting active, healthy living for all and by engaging with other stakeholders to accelerate and increase the impact of such efforts
• Monitor and learn from efforts and report on progress

These resolutions will build upon existing industry initiatives. They encourage retailers and manufacturers to further implement self-regulatory tools to support healthier diets and lifestyles. The next step for The Consumer Goods Forum will be to define implementation plans and metrics for assessing progress.

In addition to working with our peers in The Consumer Goods Forum, we are a founding member of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, a multiyear effort by the U.S. food industry to reduce obesity by 2015.

²This means we will not buy advertising directly targeted at audiences that are more than 35 percent children younger than 12.

One new program we are sponsoring is an international walk-to-school competition, currently being tested in schools in London, site of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Our plan is to include former Olympic cities in this international event, with focus on Atlanta (site of the 1996 Olympics) as the next pilot. Based on the belief that walking to school provides an excellent opportunity for increasing physical activity as part of active, healthy lifestyles, connecting with the community and building social skills, the competition will encourage hundreds of schoolchildren to forego cars and buses and instead walk along safe, prescribed routes to school. Along their way to school, participants will swipe magnetically striped cards at checkpoints that tell them how far they have walked. Students who walk the entire route will receive small, activity-related prizes, with a grand prize being awarded to the winning city’s students.

One of our largest, longest-running and most successful programs is Copa Coca-Cola^TM. Started in Mexico in 1998 and soon expanded to countries worldwide, Copa Coca-Cola is a program of youth football tournaments in which teams of boys and girls aged 13 to 15 compete at the local, state and national levels to determine the top youth football (soccer) team in a given nation. The national tournaments culminate in a World Cup–style international tournament each summer. To date, more than 600,000 young people have participated in Copa Coca-Cola.

We have also helped the Boys & Girls Clubs of America develop Triple Play to nurture the well-being in mind, body and soul of club members. The after-school program uses education, projects and activities to encourage participants to eat a balanced diet, become more physically active and engage in healthy relationships. A two-year study of more than 2,000 children ages 9 to 14 showed that Triple Play succeeded in getting them to exercise more, eat in a more balanced way and feel better about themselves. The study found that Triple Play kids increased to 90 percent of the federally recommended amount of daily exercise, which is 60 minutes a day for children, while their peers outside the program decreased to 78 percent. To date, Triple Play has helped more than 1 million children learn the importance of physical activity and proper nutrition.

Because science increasingly shows that physical activity is fundamental to good health, we are a founding corporate partner of Exercise is Medicine^TM, a global partnership focused on encouraging health care providers to include exercise when designing treatment plans for patients. Exercise is Medicine now has a presence in 25 countries.

As part of our commitment to promote active, healthy living, we are helping our associates to become more active. That is why we have joined the World Economic Forum’s Workplace Wellness Alliance as part of our goal to help our associates achieve active, healthy lifestyles. Workplace 2020, our ambitious endeavor to re-imagine, renew and renovate our headquarters campus, is being completed with associate well-being and sustainability as key objectives.

At The Coca-Cola Company, we strive to deliver safe products of the highest quality. We ensure consistent safety and quality through strong governance and compliance to applicable regulations and standards. We manufacture our products following strict policies, requirements and specifications provided through an integrated quality management program which measures all of our operations, systemwide, against the same standards for production and distribution of our beverages. The program promotes the highest standards in product safety and quality, occupational safety, and health and environmental standards across the entire Coca-Cola system.

Our products are tested in modern laboratories utilizing stringent methods and appropriate technologies. We measure key product and package quality attributes by focusing on ingredients and materials, as well as samples collected from the trade. We monitor compliance to our standards in manufacturing and distribution of The Coca-Cola Company products to ensure those products meet Company requirements and consumer expectations in the marketplace.

To create and maintain value, we stay current with new regulations, industry best practices and marketplace conditions, and engage with standard setting and industry organizations. We consistently reassess the relevance of and continually improve and refine our requirements and standards throughout the entire supply chain.

We approach quality and safety of our products as a primary strategic objective with endorsement from Coca-Cola system leadership. Our management program uses consistent metrics to monitor performance, employs activities to identify and mitigate risks, and uses tools to drive improvement.

Ensuring the safety and quality of our products has always been at the core of our business and is directly linked to the success of The Coca-Cola Company.

Our top priority is to ensure the safety and quality of our products and packaging through rigorous standards that meet or exceed government requirements. If we had any concerns about the safety of our packaging, we would not use it.

In recent years, some consumers have expressed concern about bisphenol A, or BPA, which is used in making the lining of our aluminum cans. BPA is a chemical used worldwide in making the packages of thousands of products, including the coating inside virtually all metal food and beverage cans. This coating guards against contamination and extends the shelf life of foods and beverages. It also is used to manufacture shatter-resistant bottles, medical devices, sports safety equipment and compact disc covers. BPA has been used for more than 50 years.

While we are very aware of the highly publicized concerns and viewpoints that have been expressed about BPA, our point of view is that the scientific consensus on this issue is most accurately reflected in the opinions expressed by those regulatory agencies whose missions and responsibilities are to protect the public’s health.

The consensus repeatedly stated among regulatory agencies in Australia, Canada, Europe, Germany, Japan, New Zealand and the United States is that current levels of exposure to BPA through food and beverage packaging do not pose a health risk to the general population.

We will continue to take our guidance on this issue from national and international regulatory authorities, and we will take whatever steps are necessary, based on sound scientific principles, to ensure that any package technology is safe for our consumers.

In many ways, we are still learning where our Company can make the most meaningful difference in the global fight against obesity. We are discovering where our products, system and expertise can best add value and are developing meaningful measurements to guide our work. We expect to take additional steps in the coming 12 to 24 months to further our six commitments to help address obesity.