Coca-Cola turns to AI to solve major issues with its operations: 'A competitive advantage'

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners is turning to artificial intelligence to support its sustainability goals. 

The European branch of the soda giant has partnered with Osapiens, a Germany-based company that uses AI to help businesses implement, monitor, and report on their sustainability initiatives. Through the Osapiens platform, companies like Coca-Cola can ensure compliance with regional and global sustainability standards while uncovering opportunities to improve business efficiency through sustainable practices. 

Osapiens combines ESG tracking, supplier management, and operational tools into a single platform. According to the company's website, Osapiens tools "unlock supply chain transparency, mitigate risks, and maximize efficiency."

"Many businesses see regulatory delays as a reason to slow down," Osapiens CEO Alberto Zamora recently told Sustainability Magazine. "Our customers take the opposite view; they prepare today to lead tomorrow. They don't see sustainability as a regulatory burden, but as a competitive advantage."

Osapiens analytics enable companies like Coca-Cola to monitor polluting emissions, track supplier sustainability compliance, and establish reduction strategies. The platform also streamlines sustainability reporting and disclosures, making it easier to demonstrate measurable progress and maintain regulatory alignment. 

By partnering with Osapiens, Coca-Cola is aiming to strengthen oversight of its global supply chains — a shift that could be felt throughout its entire business. 

But at the same time, Coca-Cola's reliance on artificial intelligence to achieve these goals ironically raises some environmental concerns. ​​AI data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity, which is often powered by dirty fuel. These data centers also require billions of gallons of freshwater for cooling equipment and depend on rare minerals often mined unethically and unsustainably, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.

"There is still much we don't know about the environmental impact of AI — but some of the data we do have is concerning," chief digital officer of the UNEP Golestan Radwan said on the UNEP website. "We need to make sure the net effect of AI on the planet is positive before we deploy the technology at scale." 

The company's urgent need for environmental action is clear. For six consecutive years, Coca-Cola has held the troubling title of the world's biggest polluter of plastic waste. According to Oceana, the company is on track to generate more than 9.1 billion pounds of plastic annually by 2030 — a staggering footprint that underscores the scale of its environmental impact.

Even with its recent Osapiens partnership, Coca-Cola has recently backtracked on some of its high-profile sustainability pledges. 

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Earlier this year, the company quietly abandoned its pledge to make 25% of its bottles returnable or refillable by 2030. It also revised its recycled-content target from 50% by 2030 to just 35-40% by 2035. These moves highlight a troubling pattern of retreating from ambitious goals at a time when urgent progress is needed.

Still, Coca-Cola has made some notable attempts to move in a more sustainable direction.

Beyond its partnership with Osapiens, the company recently rolled out innovative "reverse vending machines" on college campuses in Scotland to encourage recycling. It has also begun deploying electric vehicles for cleaner deliveries, reducing the carbon pollution of its distribution networks. In addition, Coca-Cola continues to launch programs aimed at addressing water waste and plastic pollution — two of its most criticized areas of environmental impact.

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