Top view of 4 plastic Coca-Cola bottles with the words “Please recycle this bottle” on each cap
In an interview conducted by The Drum, Rapha Abreu, Coca-Cola’s Vice President of Design examines the balance between sustainable design and brand.
As one of the world’s biggest plastic polluters for the fifth consecutive year in 2022 (according to Break Free From Plastic’s annual audit) Coca-Cola has committed to some ambitious goals of incorporating sustainability into its mission and brand.
Infographic from 2020 pairing companies with the number of countries plastic waste was found from each company as well as the number of pieces of waste recorded.
<aside> 🥤 “On the packaging front, we have five main goals and two key milestones in 2025 and 2030. By 2025, all of our packaging will be recyclable - that includes all the components in everything we sell…By 2030, 50% of the materials used in our packaging will be recycled” - Rapha Abreu
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<aside> 🥤 “Also by 2030, Coca-Cola will collect and recycle a bottle or can for each one it sells. This will be done primarily by improving waste collection by incentivizing consumers through deposit return schemes and packaging recovery partnerships across different countries”
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But how does the soft drink giant plan on hitting these milestones? While the company aims to achieve its goals through “more sustainable design, effective waste collection and environmental partnerships”, Abreu highlights key challenges to a more sustainable approach to the company’s plastic problem.
<aside> 🥤 “There are countries in which we operate where we are the only ones supplying clean water for people to drink. Using plastic for transportation in those instances is much more efficient than glass bottles, which are smaller, heavier, and prone to breaking” - Rapha Abreu
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Alternative, more sustainable materials often come with their own challenges, and there is rarely a one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to sustainable design. It’s vital to consider the various stakeholders involved and the effects of design decisions before committing to a change.
Beyond needing to consider the contexts in which Coca-Cola is producing plastic products, there are also challenges to preserving the company’s iconic brand.
<aside> 🥤 “Sustainability is always the right thing for a company, so when you rely on it in marketing it reads overly promotional. But there is a delicate balance between over-communicating and making sustainability part of your visual identity” - Rapha Abreu
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The challenge of both promoting sustainability and preserving the company’s visual identity becomes exacerbated when you consider the other brands within Coca-Cola’s extensive portfolio (Sprite, Fanta, Smartwater, Powerade). Coca-Cola can’t make changes that can’t be applied to all of its brands.
Though conscious of this balance, Coca-Cola has found, so far, that consumers are not as opposed to changes in the company’s visual identity as initially thought.
<aside> 🥤 “[Consumers] are OK with having a different experience because they see its value and are willing to compromise. This might have been a concern in the past, but not any more” - Rapha Abreu
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Coca-Cola is one of the leading producers of plastic waste in the world with goals of becoming more sustainable. However, as highlighted in the article, the company faces challenges to becoming more green.
One thing to keep in mind is that the article is an interview with Coca-Cola’s vice-president of design, making it biased. As consumers, how do we know Coca-Cola is doing enough to incorporate more sustainable design into its practices, and how can we be sure that the above challenges are not convenient ways to alleviate pressure on the company to make more drastic and timely changes?