The Coca-Cola company and eight of its bottlers across the world closed on a $137.7 million venture capital fund focused on sustainability investments.
The fund, which venture capital firm Greycroft will manage, initially will focus on five areas: packaging, supply chain, heating and cooling, facility decarbonization and distribution. It will target investments in businesses at the point of commercialization and aims to help them scale quickly. The company declined to disclose any further details.
“We expect to benefit from getting access to emerging technology and science for sustainability and carbon reduction,” John Murphy, president and CFO at The Coca-Cola Company, said in a news release.
Most of the fund’s capital comes from $15 million commitments from Coca-Cola and each of the eight bottling partners — including Arca Continental, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners and Swire Coca-Cola. Collectively, the partners comprise nearly half of the company’s global volume.
Coca-Cola’s updated packaging goals in its 2022 sustainability report include:
- Making 100% of its packaging recyclable globally by 2025. It is currently at 90%.
- Using at least 50% recycled content in packaging by 2030. Today, 25% of overall packaging and 15% of PET products include recycled content.
- Selling at least 25% of beverages worldwide, by volume, in refillable or returnable glass or plastic bottles or in fountain dispensers with reusable packaging. Last year it reached about 14%.
Earlier this year, environmental groups Oceana and Greenpeace both criticized Coca-Cola for falling behind on its packaging pledges. In the news release about this venture fund, Coca-Cola pointed to some of its other sustainability investments, including in PET recycling and recycled PET processing plants in Latin America, Asia and Europe.
