American student Andrew Kim by his school project come up with interesting, practical and visually aesthetic design concept for the popular beverage "Coca Cola". Green bottle is easy to use, more portable and, importantly - more environmentally friendly.
It would be a great chance for Coke or Pepsi, or whatever else, to use Andrew's idea. But there is one but - I dont think that any of big companies will change bottle design just for one eco idea. Especially if they have invested large amounts of money.
And what does Andrew says about it is: ''Most of you guys are suggesting CocaCola/Pepsi to purchase this design, but i feel that is highly unlikely due to marketing and the history of the brand. There are some things that will probably never change. Though it would be absolutely epic if anything like this ever happened.''
Some facts:
Currently 3,000,000 bottles of coke are sold per day
With the new design 857, 142 of bottles can be shipperd daily with a 0 carbon footprint
And 321,586,830 bottles are shipped anually with a 0 carbon footprint
I will try to contact with Andrew and write down some nice interview, so - stay tuned.
Needless to say that education is our future.
You can find Andrew's blog here and read about his Eco Coke design here.
Great idea, but would Coca Cola take any notice? I’d hazard a guess and say that they have probably been approached numerous times with ideas of ways to become more green and ignore it. This would cost more so would they make the change?
Hi, Lara.
I think that invest money for new project is more expensive that invest nothing or some little every year for limited edition bottles, which, unfortunately, isn’t that eco friendly.
And the other thing is - can you imagine Coke in different bottle? It’s hard.
But sooner or later they will definitely have to think about eco bottles.
It’s a nice idea, but I don’t think Coca Cola would dare to change the look of their iconic product, for pure profit reasons. Sad.
On the other hand, they might do it - to get publicity, seen to be doing something good and also to set a trend perhaps?
You are very optimistic about this corporation, Lara!
I hope you are right though, and someone has to set a trend, just like happened with the I’m not a plastic bag bags.
Well maybe! It has to be said though that I am not a fan of theirs and never drink the stuff, but I’m not writing them off just yet, who knows, they might surprise us but I don’t know that I’d put money on that happening!
Giedre, you are right! I think that if people would ask for eco bottle then Coke certainly will have to think about it. The key is to start talking and Andrew proposed grat design and the solution is excellent
Andrew is Korean Canadian, not American.
You can check it on his blog.
This is interesting Edgars but I agree….I don’t think a giant company such as Coke would change bottles just like that…looking forward to the interview.
Great design! Fantastic idea! I love it.
I went to Coca Cola home page where they claim Growth, Leadership and Sustainability.
The company mission is “At The Coca Cola company we strive to refresh the world, inspire moments of optimism and happiness, create value and make a difference.”
If they sell in 200 countries and their new drink is inspired by the principles of Chinese wisdom (bottles are really different), we can (at least) hope that their mission is just not marketing = empty words, but that they can turn their statements into action and make a difference.
It will be interesting to follow up this story.
@ Radka
Thanks for comment! I hope that Andrew will answer and we will know his thoughts about eco bottles and companies
One word for you Edgars: Nurdles.
Have you heard of nurdles?
Here we go: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qMCd_WZVOAc/SlrM19u1LRI/AAAAAAAAADk/mRgd6bqMfv0/s1600-h/plastic.jpg
@Radka, so you went to Coke’s homepage and got impressed. Coca-Cola is one of the biggest environmental criminals when it comes to water.
Coca-Cola says they want to become water-neutral and then commit every known water crime known, unknown and even unbelievable.
I cite the water example because human activities have caused North India’s water tables to shrink at an abysmal low (a NASA study). Coca-Cola has been one of the major culprits in using up the groundwater in India. And now, in trying to greenwash, it says the water tables are rising (because of its water harvesting efforts) in Kala Dera in North India, where it has a bottling plant. Perhaps Coca-Cola needs to send some of their ‘scientists’ to NASA to refute the data.
Also, their claims are baseless, as they admit they have no way to measure what they are claiming.
Here is my post from think 2 with links where you can check just why Coca-Cola and green don’t go together:
http://climatechange.thinkaboutit.eu/think2/post/anyone_for_a_revolution
@ Hemant, thanks for post.
I have read this letter. But there is one thing - it’s utopia. It’s utopia to think that in one day, week, year, ten years humandkind will stop using plastic.
I’m not saying that Coca-Cola is something good, that their environmental policy is great. Andrew’s solution is at least something.
I think it will develop in future. But Europe is faster to adopt eco-solutions and offers. Because eco questions are raised more in Europe. Look at McDonalds, who is moving into Veggie Burgers, McCafe and other developments.
In the case of Coca Cola, Andrew’s solution is still nothing. The company who steals water from you, adds sugar and sells it back to you at ten times the price is inexcusable. Here are more reasons why that bottle solution is just plain Greenwashing:
http://development.thinkaboutit.eu/think3/post/google_search_of_the_day_coca_cola_greenwashing/
@Ajia Now we will believe McDonalds? I have just one request, please do follow the journalists like Fred Pearce who expose greenwashing. Here:
http://www.triplepundit.com/2008/08/mcdonalds-and-greenwashing/
If we at think 3 start putting examples like coke and mcdonalds then we are not doing our homework.
The great Paul Hawken sums it up for McDonalds: The McDonald’s Social Responsibility Report presupposes that we can
continue to have a global chain of restaurants that serves fried, sugary
junk food produced by an agricultural system of monocultures,
monopolies, standardization and destruction, and at the same time find a
path to sustainability. Having worked in the field of sustainability and
business for three decades, I can reasonably say that nothing could be
further from the idea of sustainability than the McDonald’s Corp.
Here is the full article: http://www.organicconsumers.org/toxic/mcdonalds060502.cfm
When are they releasing this new design? I hope soon. We are huge consumers of coke products and we would like to contribute to zero carbon footprint. We can also help protect and preserve our environment in different ways such as cutting back on plastic use, lessening use of small laundry cycles, use cold water when washing clothes, turn off the television when not in use. These are all helpful.