Do we like Coca-Cola?
World's biggest soft-drink maker (Coke, Sprite, Fanta, Minute Maid, fairlife); based in Atlanta, USA
Our score: 4 out of 10. A well-run giant with real water work, but it is the top plastic polluter in the audits and is fighting a multibillion-dollar US tax bill. We'd hold back.
Coca-Cola is an Atlanta-based drinks giant that sells in more than 200 countries and territories. On March 31, 2026, 30-year company veteran Henrique Braun took over as CEO from James Quincey. Quincey stays on as Executive Chairman. Braun is the first Latin American to lead the company.
Plastic is the big stain. Break Free From Plastic, an anti-plastic campaign group, named Coke the top global plastic polluter in its 2023 brand audit. That was the sixth year in a row, and it was based on volunteers counting branded waste. The group says the audits are not a full picture of any company's footprint.
On water, Coke says it returned 160% of the water used in its finished drinks to nature and communities in 2025. Its own report says that figure is externally assured. In December 2024 it reset its voluntary goals out to 2035. It dropped its target to source all priority farm ingredients under its sustainable agriculture principles, and environmental groups criticised that.
Tax is the live fight. The US Tax Court sided with the IRS over how Coke priced deals with its foreign affiliates. That left a roughly $2.7bn liability, which comes to about $6bn with interest. Coke paid up and appealed. The Eleventh Circuit heard arguments in June 2026, and we found no ruling yet. Coke says the IRS changed the rules on it.
The legal history has some old blemishes. In 2000 Coke agreed to a record $192m settlement of a racial discrimination class action. It denied the claims but changed its HR policies. It also settled a Vitaminwater false-advertising case in 2016. Our score: 4. Good water work, but plastic and the tax fight hold it back.