Social responsibility remains a social, ethical context that calls for every institution, such as an organization or enterprise, to position an individual responsible for acting for society’s benefit and positive impact. However, from a business perspective, social responsibility means that besides maximizing shareholder value, the business should, in turn, operate in a way that benefits society at large. Corporate social responsibility is the aspect of the industry to do good besides making a profit (Burchell, 2020). Companies need to treat their employees and stakeholders with fairness and respect. Corporate social responsibility is ethical to impact society positively and should not be done due to selfish financial interest. Incorporated CSR into business sometimes signifies a company’s intention to compete pretty within the business realm and should not expect further financial gain but to ensure it has an impact on society (Waheed & Zhang, 2022).
Coca-Cola is among the best companies engaging in social activities to impact local societies. CSR remains a crucial aspect of its business. It incorporates several projects that add value to the local society and uplift its employees’ way of life, creating a positive environmental change. Therefore, Coca-Cola institutes its CSR sustainability in a broad framework that entails health and cautious living, beverage benefits, energy and climate advocacy, and environmental stewardship. Consequently, the Coca-Cola company tries to integrate the social responsibility context from the production point to distribution at all its processing plants. The Coca-Cola Foundation commits to its CSR activities seriously within the 200 countries with its branches. Coca-Cola commits at least 1% of its operating income to CSR programs (Lacy-Nichols et al., 2020). Coca-Cola operates ethically under the CSR standards based on the company processing type of business that requires a lot of water, human resources, and waste disposal; therefore, as a company, there is a need to ensure that it promotes the sustainability of society therein to ensure they are not affected by the company operations but have a positive impact to the local people.
Coca-Cola’s CSR campaign in the Middle East operates under a tagline, the value of “Ripples of Happiness,” which offers students scholarships to universities to support their ambition of becoming entrepreneurs. It also, through Arwa, the “price of water,” has provided since 2014 fresh drinking water to the refugees in the country. With its expansion to Africa in 2010, the Coca-Cola Foundation has since provided more than 2.4 million safe drinking waters through WASH and borehole drilling to ensure water availability even in dry pastoralist areas. It also ensures a conducive environment for education and learning for over 500000 children through donations and school-going children’s water access. Since the establishment of Coca-Cola in Mexico in 1997, the foundation has taken part in rehabilitating shelters and schools and in environmental restoration by planting trees on more than 47 thousand acres of land. Coca-Cola also participates in youth empowerment in Australia by focusing on improving the quality of life of financially challenged families and ensuring they impact their lives to uplift society and families (Drew, 2021)
Conclusively, through its foundation, Coca-Cola operates ethically under the CSR standards that enable businesses to serve sustainably and responsibly worldwide for financial interest, impact society, and run a fair business. Coca-Cola, therefore, operates ethically under the CSR standards based on the company processing type of business that requires a lot of water, workforce, and waste disposal; as a company, there is a need to ensure that it promotes the sustainability of society therein to ensure they are not affected by the company operations but have a positive impact to the local people.
Reference
Burchell, J. (Ed.). (2020). The corporate social responsibility reader. Routledge.
Drew, G. (2021). Coca-Cola and the moral economy of rural development in India. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 44(3), 477–497.
Lacy-Nichols, J., Scrinis, G., & Carey, R. (2020). The evolution of Coca-Cola Australia’s soft drink reformulation strategy 2003–2017: A thematic analysis of corporate documents. Food Policy, p. 90, 101793.
Waheed, A., & Zhang, Q. (2022). Effect of CSR and ethical practices on sustainable competitive performance: A case of emerging markets from a stakeholder theory perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 175(4), 837–855.