Coca Cola HBC:  Integrating SBTN into GRI reporting

Context

Coca-Cola HBC is a growth-focused consumer packaged goods business and strategic bottling partner of The Coca-Cola Company. Its sustainability strategy focuses on climate, packaging, water, ingredients, nutrition, people and communities, and biodiversity. It is underpinned by a set of external commitments known as Mission 2025, further amplified by commitments to achieve a Net Zero carbon footprint by 2040 and net positive biodiversity by 2040. 

Coca-Cola HBC started its journey with the GRI Standards around 2003/2004. Since then, the company has gradually updated its disclosures and implemented the new GRI Standards as they have been released, contributing to building its sustainability knowledge and capabilities. Adopting the GRI Standards enabled Coca-Cola HBC to better understand its environmental and societal impacts, as well as the interdependencies between the different ESG pillars. These insights led the company to implement a more comprehensive approach to managing its impact. Additionally, the use of the GRI Standards helped enhance Coca-Cola HBC's stakeholder engagement process, broadening its scope to encompass a more diverse range of stakeholder groups. 

Coca-Cola HBC began reporting on biodiversity in 2013, but at the time, it lacked the depth of understanding and capability needed to make it a central focus. The company started with collecting information from direct operations and identifying manufacturing sites adjacent to areas that are legally protected or critical for biodiversity.  

Biodiversity reporting with SBTN and GRI

In response to increasing external stakeholders’ focus on biodiversity, the company issued a commitment in 2022 to achieve net positive impact on biodiversity in its value chain by 2040. Building on its experience with GRI reporting, the company joined the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) engagement program and expanded its biodiversity data collection efforts. 

Coca-Cola HBC currently reports on seven manufacturing sites in their direct operations that are adjacent to legally protected or critical to biodiversity areas. Those sites have started implementing biodiversity projects. In 2023, they undertook the mapping and materiality assessment on biodiversity across their value chain to set targets in areas that matter the most and to measure progress. Following the SBTN guidelines, they separately treated the five drivers on biodiversity loss:   

• Land and sea use change;
• Exploitation of natural resources ;
• Climate change ;
• Pollution ;
• Introduction of invasive alien species.

The materiality assessment showed that the company’s most significant impacts on biodiversity come from land conversion and water withdrawal in upstream activities, mainly from agricultural suppliers. Similar to its GHG emissions, the main impacts occur outside its direct operational control. This means that accurate assessment and credible target-setting become a challenge, as they require collecting data from upstream suppliers beyond the first tier, with whom the company does not directly engage with. This situation creates a methodological paradox: can the company have confidence and validate the accuracy of upstream data and assumptions? 

Another challenge is the lack of precision of the tools used for calculating impacts and the state of nature, as they often rely on generic data, especially in emerging regions. For example, an external tool identified freshwater withdrawal ‘hot’ areas that were different from those mapped by the company when developing its water strategy. The company's water strategy is grounded in data and insights from external credible experts who conduct precise, local watershed-level studies, rather than using broad regional or global assessments. That's why the company applied this approach to its biodiversity assessment.

The underlying principle is clear: prioritize locally-specific data from credible sources and collaborate with internal cross-functional experts to achieve sensible outcomes. 

Lessons learned

Starting from reporting with GRI 304: Biodiversity 2016, Coca-Cola HBC is now moving to using the SBTN guidelines and then GRI 101: Biodiversity 2024. The journey allowed the company to understand what the key aspects are to consider when implementing a biodiversity reporting strategy, including: 

• The importance of involving the key players early; in their case, this was the Procurement team, Environmental team and other departments who had or could help the company collect and interpret relevant data.  

• Use credible external tools – many of which are free of charge –  and local scientific research and studies. If data or assumptions appear counterintuitive, critically evaluate them through the lens of business logic and organizational expertise.

• Start mapping the value chain early, even if the available information is not complete. 

• Ensure company targets are clear and actionable to secure meaningful organizational alignment and support.