Listening, Learning and Looking Ahead

Why Coca‑Cola Will Be in Davos

This week, I have the privilege of joining President and CEO James Quincey and other Coca‑Cola leaders in representing our company at the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s 48th Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

We are using this year’s gathering – which will convene 3,000 of the most influential leaders from government, business, civil society, academia, the arts and media around the theme of “Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World” – as a high-profile venue to showcase our just-announced “World Without Waste” packaging vision, and other key steps we are taking to grow our business responsibly, with an engaged and interconnected group of stakeholders.

Our “World Without Waste” vision includes a bold goal: to help collect and recycle a bottle or can for each one we sell by 2030. Regardless of where it comes from, we want every package to have more than one life.

Working to create a litter-free world involves many moving parts. Companies like ours must do their part to make sure their packaging is recyclable.

The opportunity also exists to engage more people and partners to join this journey on recycling.

I know we all share the desire for a better world for future generations. I am excited by the passion I see on this topic, and if we all take actions – no matter how big or small – to make sure packaging doesn’t end up where it doesn’t belong, the vision can be achieved.

In the coming days, months and years, we’ll be asking ourselves some tough and incredibly important questions:

How can we design and innovate to make our packaging even more responsibly?

What more can we do to educate and inform people on the ways we can all work together to create a World Without Waste through recycling?

How do we work with local communities to make recycling more accessible to collect the waste and turn it into value?

Which partners are ready to engage how we work with our peers and competitors to address this growing problem? 

Through a series of private meetings, media interviews and speaking engagements over three days, we will lay the groundwork for the road ahead by socializing our vision, our goals and our plans.

It’s critical to note that we’re in Davos to listen and learn, too. We are with a group of diverse experts with many points of views. The more curious and inclusive we are on this issue, the greater chance of success.

We welcome feedback on our “World Without Waste” plans. We’ll gather insights and invite outside perspectives. We’ll explore ways our business must continue to evolve to meet the changing consumer landscape. We’ll engage our current partners – all of whom are key players in the sustainable packaging ecosystem and will be integral to our ambitious path ahead. These include the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the World Bank and UN Environment. And we’ll hopefully plant the seeds for new collaborations and innovations, as we’ve done in previous years.

We simply ask for patience and partnership as we begin our v1.0 journey to create a “World Without Waste.”

We believe we can help bring people together to help make the world’s packaging problem a thing of the past and promote a circular economy. And there’s no better place than Davos to kickstart this mission.

Bea Perez is the global Chief Public Affairs, Communications, and Sustainability Officer of The Coca‑Cola Company

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