Questions & Answers

While we note many accomplishments as a Company and system, we do not claim perfection. We know our journey is just beginning and we are committed to our efforts and addressing your questions. Below are answers to some of the most frequently asked questions. We welcome your feedback at: sustainability@na.ko.com.

Respecting People

Our Company's executive compensation is competitive with peer companies and reflects individual performance as well as the business performance of the Company. Our compensation philosophy is to drive and support the Company's long-term goal of sustainable growth and total shareowner return by paying for performance.

The elements of our top leadership's 2007 compensation are disclosed on page 48 of our 2008 Proxy Statement.

Two different judicial inquiries in Colombia -- one in a Colombian court and one by the Colombian attorney general -- have found no evidence to support these allegations. The allegations were the bases of a lawsuit filed in 2001 in a U.S. District Court in Miami against the Company and Coca-Cola independent bottling partners in Colombia. The Company was dismissed as a defendant in 2004, and in 2006 the independent bottling partners in Colombia were also dismissed, with the judge noting the lack of evidence in his dismissal. The plaintiffs have filed an appeal, which is the standard course of U.S. litigation.

In a country where violence against union members has deterred all but 4 percent of workers from unionizing, 31 percent of Coca-Cola bottling partner associates belong to unions. The independent Coca-Cola bottling partners in Colombia have collective bargaining agreements in place with seven unions covering wages, benefits and working conditions. Only one union has made these allegations; none of the other six unions have done so, and neither have the three principal trade union federations in Colombia. The Coca-Cola independent bottling partners are committed to the health and well-being of their associates and have extensive security practices.

For as long as we have been in Colombia, the Company and the independent franchise bottling partners have made efforts to protect the Coca-Cola workforces. We also have supported community programs that aid children, promote education and bring relief to victims of the country's ongoing conflict.

The Coca-Cola Foundation is contributing $10 million to the Colombia Education and Opportunity Foundation, which has already improved the lives of more than 20,000 children and families who have been dislocated because of the civil war in Colombia.

The Coca-Cola Company does not support, encourage or endorse any form of child labor in our operations throughout the system or in our supplier network. We have made progress in understanding and addressing the root causes of the child labor issue. We have incorporated rules against child labor into our Supplier Guiding Principles (SGP) program for direct suppliers of the Company, authorized suppliers to the Company and direct bottling partner suppliers, and all commercial agreements with direct suppliers require compliance with child labor laws.

Our system is one of the largest purchasers of sugar in the world and we share a responsibility for ensuring that the sugar we purchase is processed free of child labor. Any child labor allegation is a very serious issue that we fully investigate. Our Company conducts continuous assessments of all our operations and authorized suppliers -- including the sugar mills that supply our bottling plants and other areas of our business that are at high risk for child labor -- to ensure that strong policies and practices are in place to help avoid child labor.

Specifically in El Salvador, we have supported a multi-stakeholder initiative that removed thousands of children from sugarcane fields and enrolled them in education programs. Globally, we also have started several initiatives in various supplier locations to prevent and remove child labor. Prevention against child labor is also a key measure when we evaluate new suppliers throughout our global supply chain. See pages 19-20 of our 2007/2008 Sustainability Review for more details.

Learn more about how we foster a positive work environment for our people and partners.

Protecting the Environment

Bottled water is a convenient, safe and refreshing beverage, and its portability makes it a popular choice. With our water brands, as with all our beverages, we are committed to using resources responsibly, reducing our environmental footprint and protecting natural resources.

We are making our packages lighter, using more recycled content and supporting comprehensive consumer recycling programs. Lighter packages require less fuel to transport and save energy during production. Increasing the use of recycled content in our water packaging reduces the need to generate new materials from non-recycled content.

All of our waters are packaged in either PET or refillable glass bottles -- materials that are 100 percent recyclable. Our bottles are clear, green and light blue because these colors have the highest recycling value. Even our caps and labels are designed to be recycled along with the bottle and are compatible with local recycling systems.

To further reduce waste, we have launched recycling initiatives throughout the world on our own and with third-party partners. We have also invested more than $80 million to build six plastic bottle-to-bottle recycling plants throughout the world, including the world's largest PET recycling plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Our operations and distribution are local, which means that for most of our water brands the water is collected, bottled and transported locally, with minimal transportation to consumer outlets.

Throughout all of our operations, we adhere to rigorous quality standards that cover both source water and finished products. Our manufacturing process allows us to produce beverages that consistently meet our international standards for safety and quality.

We share a commitment to water stewardship in all communities where we do business. We agree that it makes no sense to then drain the community of water -- the most important resource we need to produce our products -- and we do not run our business that way in any country, including India.

In India, we are partnering with local governments, NGOs, schools and communities to establish local rainwater harvesting facilities. Over the last two years, we have installed 320 rainwater harvesting structures across 17 states in India. A substantial amount of the groundwater that we use in our operations is renewed and returned to groundwater systems, and we are working to return all of the groundwater we use by 2009.

The University of Michigan recommended, and we agreed, to an independent assessment of our water management practices in India by The Energy Resources Institute (TERI), a New Delhi-based international research organization. Our participation in the TERI assessment was an important, additional step in ensuring that our water management practices are consistently improving and are among the best in the world. The TERI report confirms that we are in overall compliance with Indian regulations and, with a few minor exceptions, consistently meet our own Company standards (which are often more stringent). It also confirms that we are on the right track with many of the improvements we have made over the last few years.

The TERI report also identified some areas where we can do better. In response, we are strengthening our plant siting requirements, our monitoring capabilities for both rainwater harvesting and effluent treatment, and our guidelines for source protection and operating in areas of water scarcity. We also are expanding our efforts to work with local communities to ensure sustainability of the local water resource and recently launched The Coca-Cola India Foundation for Sustainable Development and Inclusive Growth.

Our experience in India has taught us to engage more proactively and regularly with local communities -- to listen, to learn, and to partner in finding effective solutions to water management and other issues of local interest. We will continue to work closely with local stakeholders to support community initiatives in India and other countries where we operate.

In 2008, Coca-Cola India received the prestigious Golden Peacock Global Award for Corporate Social Responsibility for water conservation, management and community development Initiatives.

Learn more about how we are committed to protecting the environment.

Supporting Communities

While poverty is certainly a global problem, Africa is one of the hardest hit continents. We believe we can help Africa get what it needs most -- sustainable wealth creation -- through our unique distribution model and expertise. We can achieve this goal by applying our core strengths in ways that are both good for our business and the local communities we serve.

In Africa, the Coca-Cola system will invest in scaling up our network of Manual Distribution Centers (see page 50 of our 2007/2008 Sustainability Review). Over the next three years, we plan to expand our distribution network across Africa, with the goal of establishing 1,300 to 2,000 new, independent distribution businesses; creating between 5,300 and 8,400 new jobs; and generating up to $520 million in new revenue for local economies.

We also have programs in other parts of the world to help support wealth and job creation, including pushcarts programs in Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Laos, Cambodia and Nepal, which have helped more than 4,000 small retailers establish their businesses; the Micro Enterprise Development Program in Indonesia, which has benefited 500 low-income families through mentoring of entrepreneurs by business leaders, access to low-interest loans and a repayment formula that builds sustainable lending for the community; and emerging programs in China and the Philippines.

HIV/AIDS prevention, education and treatment continue to be a top priority for our Company, particularly in China and African countries, where the disease is most prevalent. To learn more about our programs in Africa, see www.HIVAIDS.thecoca-colacompany.com.

In China, our Company's involvement in combating the spread of HIV/AIDS started in 2003, when we were the first multinational company to participate in the "121 Joint Action Plan," an anti-AIDS initiative started by 121 social organizations and governmental bodies. Since that time, we have partnered with the Chinese Foundation for Prevention of STD and AIDS in awareness and prevention programs, and we initiated an AIDS orphan care program in the Yunnan province of China, one of the regions most severely affected by HIV/AIDS.

The fight against AIDS transcends borders and continents. We have sponsored a delegation of China's HIV/AIDS prevention experts to South Africa to visit AIDS communities, hospitals, foundations, NGOs, schools and orphanages. We also have a partnership with the AIDS Foundation to launch annual national HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention campaigns, which include exhibitions and distribution of prevention materials in hundreds of cities across China.

Learn more about our community support.

Offering Safe, Quality Products

No. Neither high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in sparkling beverages nor any other single food or beverage is responsible for the problems of obesity or diabetes. A study conducted by the American Medical Association concluded that HFCS does not appear to contribute any more to obesity than other caloric sweeteners.

Our beverage portfolio includes many different types of sweeteners. Sweetener use depends on the product as well as consumer preferences. HFCS is used as a sweetener in foods and beverages in the United States because it tastes like sucrose, is easy to use in the food manufacturing process, and has historically cost substantially less than cane or beet sugar (more commonly used as sweeteners in other parts of the world). HFCS is used to sweeten most sparkling beverages in the United States. It provides numerous consumer benefits, such as sweetness, shelf stability and pourability.

All our products and ingredients are safe for human consumption and comply with the regulatory requirements of the country in which a product is sold. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved HFCS as a safe ingredient for use in food and beverages.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical used to make polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins, which are used as can liners for food and beverage containers. BPA is not contained in the PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles used by Coca-Cola.

BPA is used to make the linings of two- and three-piece cans to prevent spoilage and protect foods and beverages from direct contact with the can. However, both polycarbonate plastics and the epoxy resins used in food and beverage containers continue to be authorized by the FDA, the European Food Safety Authority, and the Japanese and German governments as safe for use in contact with foods or beverages.

While BPA is used in the production process for making the lining of some aluminum cans, finished sparkling beverage cans have not been found to contain any BPA when tested by the FDA. Additionally, independent studies in New Zealand and the United Kingdom have not detected BPA in sparkling beverages. The beverage packaging produced by Coca-Cola does not pose a public health risk -- including any alleged risks associated with BPA.

Obesity is one of the world's leading public health concerns, and we have an important role to play in addressing this complex issue. We care about people's health, both physical and emotional, and we seek to understand people's individual needs for enjoyment, refreshment, nutrition and hydration. We want to help empower people around the world to develop active, healthy lifestyles through our commitments, our actions and our dedication of resources to three guiding principles: Think, Drink and Move (see pages 24-26 of our 2007/2008 Sustainability Review).

Global estimates on the number of overweight and obese people continue to rise (currently reported as high as 1.7 billion, which is equal to one quarter of the world's population). Reports of adverse health consequences and negative societal and economic impacts continue to be discussed. Policy recommendations and regulatory requirements are being set in place to reverse the situation.

Coca-Cola and other food and beverage companies are viewed by some as major contributors to the problem, but real solutions are more complex than selecting targets for blame. As the world's largest beverage company, we need to become a recognized leader, working in collaboration with other stakeholders, to identify and implement workable solutions that help people achieve more active, healthy lifestyles.

Together with other stakeholders, we are committed to a number of initiatives that can help combat obesity, including:

• Providing variety in both our products and our package sizes.
• Promoting, providing and supporting opportunities for people to engage in active, healthy living, with a focus on young people through development of nutrition education and physical activity programs (see pages 24-26 and 55 of our 2007/2008 Sustainability Review for more information).
• Developing effective educational tools and programs that emphasize the importance of energy balance in attaining active, healthy lifestyles in collaboration with key stakeholders.
• Respecting the rights of parents, teachers and school officials to make choices for children.
• Working with representatives of government, NGOs and the public health community to ensure that the discussion about obesity remains grounded in fact and scientific evidence.

No. In fact, low-calorie sweeteners such as aspartame, saccharin and sucralose provide sweetness with almost no calories, which makes them a useful tool for weight management. More than 200 scientific studies confirm the safety of aspartame as a sweetener. In addition to U.S. FDA approval, regulatory agencies in more than 100 countries approve aspartame's safety. In an extensive 2006 review of its safety by the European Food Safety Authority, aspartame was again demonstrated and reaffirmed to be safe.

The U.S. FDA, as well as other government agencies, has determined saccharin to be a safe non-nutritive sweetener. In 1999, the U.S. FDA approved sucralose as a "general purpose" sweetener. Sucralose has also been approved for use in more than 40 countries, including Australia, Canada and Mexico.

Learn more about sweeteners.

The Coca-Cola Company does not conduct animal tests on its beverages and does not maintain an internal animal testing program.

Where governmental agencies require animal tests to demonstrate the safety of new food ingredients, companies using those ingredients may rely on third-party testing. We have funded research done by independent labs that examined the safety or efficacy of ingredients using animal tests.

We require our partners and research organizations who may conduct safety evaluations on such ingredients to use alternatives to animal testing, when such testing is both available and the results can be accepted as valid by governments. We encourage the use of alternative testing methods whenever and wherever possible and financially support research to develop these alternative methods.

When animal tests are required by regulators, we only use accredited outside laboratories to perform testing. These labs must adhere to Good Laboratory Practices (GLP), which are strictly audited by global regulatory officials as well as those set by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International (AALAC International).

Learn more about our high standards and processes that ensure consistent product safety and quality.