ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the ways in which Coke has assessed the packaging of its products over time, and the decisions it has made as a result of these assessments. It describes the concept of life cycle assessment (LCA), detailing its development and, more recently, evaluations more explicitly aimed at assessing the environmental impact of a product, process, or service. The chapter describes the development of this type of assessment at Coke, evaluate the tensions that have been illuminated between environmental and economic concerns as a result of these assessments, and explore some of the issues LCA highlights for Coke's partially plant-based polyethylene terephthalate bottle, PlantBottle. The state of this economic and environmental conundrum is explored in the following section. The chapter also discusses the key tenets for future life cycle initiatives for Coke, with a focus on materials, and further explore the PlantBottle as a case study that demonstrates Coke's entry into the new context of a circular economy.
