Creating Shared Value Through Corporate Social Investment: Managing Water-Related Risk and Opportunity Through Coca-Cola's Replenish Africa Initiative

Abstract

Nearly 300 million people throughout the African continent lack access to clean drinking water, and far more are without improved sanitation facilities. Companies such as The Coca-Cola Company, which rely on access to freshwater resources and surrounding communities for their core business operations and supply chains, face growing material risks as well as opportunities from the global water crisis (which includes sanitation challenges as well). Investments in water stewardship are becoming an increasingly common strategy for corporate or other private investors to both manage downside risk and build upside potential, particularly in emerging economies throughout the African region. Indeed, organizations that are able to forge relationships with markets and societies in Africa today are likely to be well positioned to enjoy the high rates of growth projected for the region. This report highlights 5 thematic area where business benefits from water stewardship investments can be realized, including: corporate competitiveness, operational efficiency, human capital, social capital, and risk exposure. Through the development of original spatial analyses, the report underscores selected trends and presents a series of recommendations for what type of water stewardship activities should be targeted to specific countries. Through a systemsbased mapping of over 50 distinct dimensions of both societal and business value creation and their interconnections, the report also discusses several high-level leverage points for value creation. These leverage points are capable of effecting deep systems-level change, and are presented as recommended programmatic themes. Finally, The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation’s Replenish Africa Initiative (RAIN) is presented and discussed as an example of a water stewardship investment that provides numerous benefits to societies, to larger economies, and to natural ecosystems.