Hello, and welcome to our 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareowners. I'm James Quincey, Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company. Before we get started, I want to let you know that today's session is being recorded. I'd also like to remind those listening in today that the event may contain forward-looking statements. Thanks for joining us today and for your continued commitment and investment in The Coca-Cola Company.
Throughout our 136-year history, we've seen many changes and overcome many challenges. Despite some of the difficulties and volatility we see in the world today, our system's strength and resilience continues to enable us to adapt while remaining true to our purpose, to refresh the world and make a difference. Our company and system employees make this possible every day.
Together, we're using our global presence to build a more sustainable future for our business and the planet while staying focused on growth and long-term opportunities. Reflecting on the past year, the operating environment remained dynamic as the pandemic continued to evolve and factors like inflation and supply chain disruptions brought additional challenges.
Throughout the year, our organization and system continued to manage through these circumstances with focus and flexibility. Gaining share was a key objective in our emerging stronger agenda. And last year, we gained value share in both at home and away from home channels. Our non-alcoholic ready to drink market share was above 2019 levels globally and in both at home and away from home channels. We are pleased with our financial results in 2021, which were above 2019 key metrics.
Today, we remain focused on building a stronger total beverage company, and we continue to work with great dedication to position ourselves for growth in 2022 and beyond. Last year, we also stood up an entirely new networked global organization, combining the power of scale with the deep knowledge and cross-functional collaboration required to win locally.
We advanced our total beverage company agenda by streamlining our portfolio, focusing on the core, and investing behind a portfolio of brands that allows us to meet the evolving needs of consumers. This optimized portfolio will help to ensure we follow the consumer and win across all our beverage categories. This is complemented by the recent acquisition of BODYARMOR, which is just one example of our ongoing work to build our portfolio. Our innovation efforts are designed for long-term success.
This means we're balancing big bets with intelligent experimentation, allowing us to test and learn. We also built more discipline into our innovation process in 2021, with a key focus on scalable bets that can build momentum year- over- year. We took local winners and extended them to more markets.
Brands like Coke with Coffee, fairlife, AHA, Costa Ready-to-Drink, and Lemon-Dou expanded to new geographies. In sustainability, refillable packaging and the use of label-less bottles continue to gain momentum as consumers' desires for affordability and sustainability grow.
For 2022, our innovation process will be increasingly supported by data. Our pipeline is robust, and we are focusing on what we do best, building brands and creating products that people love.
Through all the challenges and successes of 2021, our environmental, social, and governance priorities continue to be embedded in our business and the way we work. Our priorities are areas where we can have a measurable positive impact.
For today, let me focus on progress against three critical areas, water, packaging, and climate. Last year, we announced our 2030 water security strategy, which is a new goal to achieve water security where the company operates and sources ingredients while also maintaining 100% water replenishment globally, an achievement we've maintained since 2015.
Just as water is essential to our business, so is packaging. Since launching our World Without Waste strategy, we've continued to set industry leading goals. These investments help us to make progress on efforts to help fight the global climate crisis.
Our long-term ambition is to be net zero carbon by the year 2050. In 2021, we announced solid progress to decarbonize our system. We followed this by setting our ambitions higher with a 2030 greenhouse gas emissions target to reduce absolute emissions by 25%. We fundamentally believe our ESG goals and ambitions enable growth for our business and build resilience into our business and communities to withstand future disruptions.
In fact, we have integrated ESG goals as a factor in compensation programs for top executives. I encourage those who have an interest in learning more to visit our website later this morning as we will be publishing our 2021 business and ESG report. Now looking ahead, we are confident we are positioned to win.
As we enter the third year of a global pandemic and face new and changing challenges worldwide, the operating environment remains dynamic. Amidst this backdrop, we've built and continue to build agility across the enterprise to ensure the system remains flexible to adjust to near-term uncertainties while continuing to push forward on initiatives that accelerate growth. I am confident that in 2022 we will accomplish even more. Now let's move to the business portion of today's annual meeting.
Right. As I say, let's open the business portion of the meeting. Today we will address six business items, all of which have been detailed in your proxy statement. Then following that, I'll conduct a question and answer session in which we will address questions about any of the items in the proxy statement or any other business issue you may wish to raise.
For our shareowners logged into the live webcast today, you don't have to wait until the Q&A session to submit a question. Please feel free to submit questions by clicking on the Q&A icon at the top of the screen. Then just type in your question, click on the send button and it will be submitted. Now, let me welcome the members of the management team joining me this morning for the meeting.
We have John Murphy, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Monica Howard Douglas, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, and Jennifer Manning, Associate General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Also, I'd like to extend a special welcome to our board of directors who have joined us this morning. Bios for all director nominees are included in your proxy statement beginning on page 18.
We are very fortunate to have a very capable group of directors. Today, we're also joined by representatives from our independent auditing firm, Ernst & Young LLP. Lastly, finally, many of our shareowners, as well as employees and alumni, have joined the meeting today. I extend a warm welcome to all of you. Now on to today's voting matters.
The agenda for the meeting and our proxy statement are all available on the virtual meeting platform. These will serve as your roadmap to the business items we will be discussing today. And of course, I encourage you to follow along. Our rules of procedure can also be found on the meeting platform. Ensuring that this meeting is productive is a top priority for us, so I ask you to please follow these rules. Here's how the meeting will flow.
Our corporate secretary, Jennifer Manning, will present each of the three management proposals. Then there are also three shareowner proposals which will then be presented by their respective proponent or their representative. The presentation of each shareowner proposal will be limited to three minutes. Then right after each proposal is presented, I will come back and talk through the board's point of view and voting recommendations.
Just like in our past meetings, after all six business items have been presented, I will then conduct a question and answer session where I'll take questions on any of these six business items that we are voting on today or on any other appropriate business topic you would like to raise. With that, let me hand over to Jennifer. Jennifer, would you please bring us the secretary's report?
Notice for this annual meeting was furnished to shareowners on March 11, 2022. The proxy statement for this meeting was mailed beginning on March 11, 2022 to all shareowners of record as of February 25, 2022. Our Inspectors of Election from Computershare Trust Company, N.A. advise we have a quorum represented by 84% of the total shares eligible to vote. The polls are now open.
There are six matters being voted on. Page one of the proxy statement lists the voting matters. If you sent in your proxy or have already voted by telephone or internet, you do not need to take any further action unless you wish to change your vote. Any shareowners who have not yet voted or who wish to change their vote may do so by clicking on the voting button on the web portal and following the instructions.
At the end of the Q&A session, the ballots will be tabulated by our Inspectors of Election. That concludes the secretary's report, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Jennifer. Would you then please present the first matter to be acted on?
The first matter is the election of directors. The company's bylaws require that every director stand for election each year. Therefore, all of the director nominees listed in your proxy statement are nominated for election for a one-year term expiring in 2023.
Thank you, Jennifer. We have a very knowledgeable and engaged board, and our director nominees are highly qualified to represent the interests of you, our shareowners. Beginning on page 13 of your proxy statement are details about our directors, including, of course, each director nominee's qualifications. There is a recommendation to vote for each nominee.
As I explained, I will take questions on this matter and any other matters during the question and answer session. Now, Jennifer, if you would go to the second item.
On page 46 of your proxy statement is the advisory vote to approve executive compensation. As required, the company seeks a non-binding advisory vote from shareowners to approve the compensation of the company's named executive officer as described in the compensation discussion and analysis in compensation tables of the proxy statement.
The compensation discussion and analysis section in your proxy statement explains how the Talent and Compensation Committee views company performance and how executive pay is tied to performance. We of course take this say on pay vote very seriously, and we'll consider the outcome of the advisory vote when making compensation decisions. The board of directors recommends a vote for the advisory vote on executive compensation. Jennifer, would you please present the third item?
Our Audit Committee has appointed the firm of Ernst & Young LLP to serve as the company's independent auditors for the 2022 fiscal year, and this item seeks ratification of this appointment. The Audit Matters section of our proxy statement, which includes this proposal, begins on page 84.
Thanks, Jennifer. The Audit Committee and the Board believe that our auditors, Ernst & Young, serve the company and shareowners very well, and therefore recommend a vote for the ratification of their appointment. Jennifer, would you please present the fourth item?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The next three business items are shareowner proposals. Each shareowner proposal will be presented by the proponent or their representative. The presentation of the shareowner proposal will be limited to three minutes. Right after each proposal is presented, the chairman will present our board's point of view and voting recommendations. These are important issues that shareowners have been asked to consider and cast their vote on.
Therefore, we ask the proponents to remember that this is not the appropriate part of the meeting to raise issues that are not related to the actual voting matter contained in their shareowner proposal. Unrelated issues raised during the presentation of a shareowner proposal will not be addressed by the chair during this part of the meeting. We have a Q&A session coming up soon, and that is the right place to raise these other issues.
Our fourth business item is a shareowner proposal requesting a report on the external health, public health costs created by the company's food and beverage businesses. This proposal and the board's response begin on page 90 of your proxy statement. Mr. Herbert of Newground Social Investment will present the proposal.
He has chosen to submit a recording of his presentation in advance. I now ask the operator to begin Mr. Herbert's proposal, and we will pause for a few seconds while we connect to the recording.
Good morning. My name is Bruce Herbert of Newground Social Investment, and I stand to move proposal number four, an investor right to know measure that would properly inform shareholders on the depth of harm our products may be causing. It's because I feel great love for Coca-Cola that I bring this issue forward.
It's a company whose business model revolutionized the concept of distributed local entrepreneurship, creating great wealth for communities across the world. My grandfather was treasurer of the Western Coca-Cola Bottling Company, and my great uncle was one of the three co-founders of the Coca-Cola bottling industry back when Coke was only available at soda fountains. Bottling, of course, is what propelled Coca-Cola to global prominence.
I fondly recall the Coke truck driving up to our family's Virginia farm to deliver a few wooden cases each week of those classic 6.5 oz refillable glass bottles. It is from this vantage point, steeped in personal experience and company history, that I raise for consideration this public health impact disclosure request.
Here is the crux. Our products are delicious, but as tasty as they are, in excess, many of our company's products are detrimental, such that they help spawn serious and sweeping public health effects so widespread that workers and their children across the economic spectrum are harmed.
Unhealthy workers lower efficiency, raise healthcare costs, and curb the driving force of productivity in our economy. Thus, even if sales may benefit Coke's own short-term financial interest, too much of a good thing is actually detrimental for long-term Coke shareholders.
People like you and me, who don't just own Coke in our portfolios, but an array of other companies whose bottom lines are affected by the ill health of their employees. It's a dilemma, to be sure, but the solution to it starts with transparent information, which is what this proposal seeks.
It appears before you today because the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission formally considered and rejected Coke's arguments to exclude it. The SEC agreed with Newground that this issue is present, is pertinent, and is germane to you as Coca-Cola shareholders, though it is not being adequately addressed either internally or externally as the company suggests. Information is key.
This proposal is the first step toward gathering that information and setting the benchmarks for solutions that will benefit each of us as shareholders as we balance the desire to enjoy our company's products with the need to lessen societal harm these products can cause. Therefore, please join me in voting for proposal number four. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Herbert. Before I address the proposal, I would like to acknowledge your comments on your grandfather and great uncle being a part of the Coke system, the very early Coke system. Thank you for sharing those stories about your Virginia farm. With that said, let me go back to Mr. Herbert's proposal and let me explain the board's position on the shareowner proposal.
The reason we're not supportive of this proposal is twofold. First, we believe the company's already working to address the overarching issues raised in this proposal. We are taking actions that are meaningful and a part of the solution to the potential societal impacts of our business, like those referenced in this proposal.
The second reason is that our work in addressing these challenges, particularly the health and nutrition challenges, are already disclosed by the company. Essentially, we are asking shareowners to consider whether additional reporting as requested in the proposal would actually provide value added beyond what is already available.
We respectfully suggest that the requested externalities report seems like an exercise that will produce likely unreliable data by somehow trying to separate out one company's externalities in healthcare costs from all the other many factors that contribute to obesity and undernutrition, and then to try and isolate them and examine them on their own.
Because ultimately, obesity and undernutrition are very complex issues. Public health officials agree that obesity is impacted by numerous health, socioeconomic, and lifestyle factors.
I would just note that in countries with high prevalence of overweight and obesity, such as the U.S. and the U.K., government data on the added sugar consumption shows that it has declined for several decades while obesity continues to rise. In fact, in the 2020 Public Health England report, it found that Coca-Cola Great Britain had achieved a 24% reduction for sparkling beverages, as well as reductions in juice and milk-based categories.
That report compares the success of the beverage industry in reducing sugar compared to food companies, which has only cut their sugar use by 3% despite a voluntary target with the government of a 20% reduction by the year 2020. Our company fully understands that people around the world have an increased interest in managing the food and beverages they consume, and we listen closely to consumers.
We know that their concerns about obesity and health mean that they want additional drinks with more nutrition and more benefits and often less sugar. I encourage you to read on page 92 of your proxy statement, where we've outlined many of the actions we've taken. Things like reformulating over 1,000 beverages for reduced added sugar, reducing portion sizes, and offering smaller packages, and of course, also investing in the marketing of our low and zero-calorie beverages, and more.
Last year, average sugar per 100 ml declined 2% while global volume grew 8%. I'd also note that our lower-calorie beverages are growing fast. Coca-Cola Zero Sugar grew volume double digits in 2021, and the new formula has driven accelerated growth in 80% of the markets where it was launched.
Coca-Cola Zero Sugar is available in more than 180 markets around the world. I will also point out that we are one of the few companies to publicly support the recommendation by several leading health authorities that people should limit their intake of added sugar to no more than 10% of their total daily calorie consumption.
Let me end by assuring shareowners that our company is a responsible player in the health and nutrition space, and we have responded by taking actions to embrace evolving preferences and give our consumers more of the drinks they want. Jennifer, would you now move on to the fifth item?
Our fifth business item is a shareowner proposal requesting an annual transparency report disclosing company expenditures and activities outside of the United States directed to candidates, elections, lobbying, and charities. This proposal and the board's response begin on page 94 of your proxy statement. Mr. Alejandro Calvillo will present the proposal on behalf of the proponent.
The presentation of the proposal is limited to three minutes. The phone line for the presentation will be open only for these three minutes. For the convenience of the presenter, I will signal when he has 20 seconds remaining. I now ask the operator to open the line, and Mr. Calvillo, you may begin.
The line is open.
Good morning. Thank you for this opportunity to introduce item five on behalf of Harrington Investments regarding the importance of Coca-Cola global political transparency. I am Alejandro Calvillo, Executive Director of the Mexican NGO, El Poder del Consumidor. I speak to you today from my home country of Mexico, where per capita consumption of Coca-Cola is among the highest in the world. Evidence shows that high sugary drinks consumption is a primary contributor to the country's chronic disease burden.
Mexico has one of the highest childhood obesity rates and death tolls from diabetes in the world. The tragic impacts of COVID have been severely worsened by diet-related disease. I have observed firsthand how the food and beverage industry, and specifically Coca-Cola and its trade associations, have used influence and financing to try to block nationally and internationally recommended good health policy, more recently our new front-of-pack food label.
For decades, this political interference in major markets like Mexico, Brazil, India and other countries has been a major liability to people's health and the planet, which has been largely undisclosed. Revelation of how Coca-Cola has growth science and charity to influence policymaking in different countries is becoming an increasing liability to Coca-Cola brand reputation.
The time has come for the Coca-Cola Company to step up and effectively practice its stated corporate values of integrity and accountability through an active commitment to global political transparency. Coca-Cola already recognized transparency as fundamental to its compact with share owners and the public.
The company needs to fulfill its 2015 pledge to do better on transparency, not only in strong democracies where formal mechanisms exist by law, but in all the countries where the company does its business. There is no justification for double standard on ethics across geographical lines.
Transparency helps monitor political activity that may be damaging to public health, human rights and environment, and that could fundamentally affect shareholder value. Your yes votes today on needing five to ensure a corporate global transparency report on political activities and spending, and also needing four to study and disclose external public health impact
Twenty seconds remaining.
Will contribute to a different type of legacy for Coca-Cola globally, one in which Coca-Cola exercises its professed core values of accountability and of leadership to you as share owners and to the world. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Calvillo. We appreciate you taking the time to join the meeting for the purpose of presenting the shareowner proposal on disclosure around political contributions. I think you also touched on a few issues that perhaps are not directly related to the political contributions.
Obviously, as you're out of Mexico, I would just make a few comments on Mexico. For example, we have led the industry in adopting clear front of pack calorie labeling for all our beverages in nearly every market around the world. I did discuss somewhat in the previous answer things we're doing on sugar reduction.
Specifically in Mexico, we are actually building on a decade of work to reduce added sugar in our beverages, including reducing calories by over 20% in Coca-Cola Mexico's portfolio. The Mexican Beverage Industry Association has committed to further reducing the calorie content of the company's portfolio by 20% by 2024.
Now, specifically, the shareowner proposal which we are voting on in this part of the meeting requests a report disclosing company political expenditures outside the United States. The board is recommending shareowners vote against it.
Our company, as pointed out by Mr. Calvillo, our company understands and fully respects the importance of transparency, particularly related to the political process. Let me tell you why our board has recommended a vote against this proposal. The kinds of disclosures being requested is by and large, already available publicly.
We're confident additional disclosures beyond the company's existing disclosures would be an unnecessary use of time and resources. The proposal claims the company does not comprehensively disclose our involvement in politics and advocacy on public policies outside of the United States. The facts simply do not support this claim.
First, the fact is we simply don't make political contributions outside of the United States beyond the type of limited examples that we have shared in our proxy statement. Importantly, of course, the company follows all national laws regarding political engagement and discloses contributions according to each country's legal framework and through the relevant national regulatory authorities.
I will also note that the proposal itself references a report from the organization called Feed the Truth, which recognizes the company's disclosures as the best globally among the food and agricultural industry in terms of policy and political disclosures.
I refer you to the proxy statement on page 96 for more detail about why we believe we already adhere to both the spirit and the intent of this request.
Our sixth business item is a shareowner proposal requesting that the board of directors adopt a policy and amend the bylaws to require the chair of the board of directors be an independent director. This proposal and the board's response begin on page 97 of your proxy statement. Paul Chesser will present the proposal on behalf of the proponents.
The presentation of the proposal is limited to three minutes. The phone line for the presenter will be open only for these three minutes. For the convenience of the presenter, I will signal when he has 20 seconds remaining. I now ask the operator to open the line.
The line is open.
I am Paul Chesser, Director of the Corporate Integrity Project for the National Legal and Policy Center. Because the company is allowing only three minutes for the presentation of proposals, my extended remarks can be found on our website, nlpc.org. That's nlpc.org.
On March 31st, 2021 , Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO, James Quincey, caved to progressive political activists and said about Georgia's election integrity law, quote, "I want to be crystal clear. The Coca-Cola Company does not support this legislation as it makes it harder for people to vote, not easier." End quote.
However, as voter ID legislation has moved through the parliament in the last few months in Mr. Quincey's home country, the United Kingdom, we've not heard a peep from him. Why not? Why does Mr. Quincey apply more stringent voting standards against the United States where he receives his sizable paychecks?
That's not the only example of Mr. Quincey's lack of awareness. Last year, it was discovered also under Mr. Quincey's leadership that Coca-Cola had imposed diversity training for its employees. The sessions reportedly included a course called Confronting Racism, which alleges that U.S. whites are socialized to believe they are inherently superior, and so it suggests that they try to be less white by being less oppressive and break with white solidarity.
And, during the height of the rioting across the nation during the summer of 2020, Mr. Quincey poured gasoline on the fire by embracing the violent Marxist Black Lives Matter cause that destroyed many of our city's downtowns. Mr. Quincey's virtue signaling has addressed the topic of gender as well, with Coca-Cola boasting of its initiatives to help women and highlighting its equal opportunity policy that prohibits harassment, intimidation, and coercion of women.
Those policies ring hollow, however, as Mr. Quincey ignored our request for him to call a special meeting of the board to remove director Bobby Kotick, whose management of Activision Blizzard led to many credible charges of sexual harassment and assault at his company. Characterized as a frat boy culture by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, Mr. Kotick's company lost several top executives, and hundreds of employees signed a petition calling for his ouster.
While Mr. Quincey has bashed Americans and their alleged default racism, he has led the company in solidarity and submission to communist China, even sponsoring the Genocide Olympics and maintaining a factory in a province where millions of Muslim minority Uyghurs are forced into slave labor and concentration camps.
This is who the moralist James Quincey believes Coca-Cola should partner with, genocidal communists, while hypocritically bashing Americans and their freedoms back home here in America. His leadership has earned the company the mocking nickname Woke-a-Cola. If any corporate resolution to separate the roles of chairman and CEO is justified, it's this one.
Thank you, Mr. Chesser, for your proposal. I think you laid out extensively why you didn't think I should be the chairman, but this proposal is very clearly about the board's leadership structure. More specifically, it seeks to permanently separate the roles of Chairman and CEO and to limit the board's ability to determine who should chair the company going forward.
Our board believes this would be unnecessarily rigid and would not serve the interests of shareowners. This is an important issue to our shareowners, and I encourage you to look at the board's full response that begins on page 97 of the proxy statement. You will see that the board has carefully considered the proposal and recommends that shareholders vote against it.
The board believes that the leadership of both the board and our company by one person is the optimal structure to guide the company and maintain the focus required to achieve our business objectives. I will note that while the board has determined that I am the right person at this time to hold both the Chairman and CEO roles, the independent directors make that decision without my influence in a meeting where I am not present.
We have a robust leadership structure for our board that includes the combined Chairman and CEO, complemented by a Lead Independent Director. Moreover, the board committees are chaired primarily by independent directors. With the exception of the executive committee, all of the board committees are composed entirely of independent directors. Let me perhaps say a few words about our Lead Independent Director, Mel Lagomasino.
She is a very capable director, and we are fortunate to have her on our board. She has significant authority under our corporate governance guidelines to lead our board. For example, the Lead Independent Director, among other things, presides over all meetings of the board at which the Chairman is not present, including executive sessions.
She approves board meeting agendas and adds agenda items at her discretion. She also approves the board meeting materials for distribution to the board, may call meetings of the independent directors, and leads the annual evaluation of the Chairman and CEO. Ultimately, we believe these powers provide an effective balance between strong company leadership and appropriate safeguards and oversight by independent directors.
Finally, I will point out that each year, our board discusses what they believe most appropriate for the board leadership structure to serve the needs of our business and our shareowners, including whether the roles of chairman of the board and CEO should be combined or not.
Thank you, everyone. This concludes the section with the voting matters. Jennifer, would you please draw this portion of our annual meeting to a close, at which point I will conduct the Q&A?
Since all voting matters have been presented, that concludes the business portion of our meeting. The polls will close at the end of the Q&A session. Any shareowner who has not yet voted or who wishes to change their vote may do so by clicking the Cast Your Vote link on the virtual meeting page.
Shareowners who have already submitted a proxy or have voted by telephone or internet and do not wish to change their vote, need not vote again. The following are the preliminary voting results. If you voted today, your vote will be tallied after the meeting and included in our final vote.
The Inspectors of Election report that each nominee for election as director has received at least a majority of the votes cast in favor of their election. Therefore, all of the director candidates have been elected to serve as a director until 2023.
The advisory vote to approve executive compensation has received an affirmative vote of 51%. The management proposal on the ratification of Ernst & Young LLP as auditors for the 2022 fiscal year has received an affirmative vote of 96%. The shareowner proposal regarding an external public health impact disclosure received an affirmative vote of 11% and therefore did not pass.
The shareowner proposal regarding a global transparency report received an affirmative vote of 13% and therefore did not pass. The shareowner proposal regarding an independent board chair policy received an affirmative vote of 27% and therefore did not pass. That concludes the preliminary vote report.
Thank you, Jennifer. Now we'll turn to the question and answer session. We are taking questions from those who are attending virtually today, and we also have a number of questions to address that were submitted in advance.
For our share owners logged into the live webcast today, again, to submit a question, click on the Q&A icon at the top of the screen, type in your question, and then click the Send button. We would like to answer as many of your questions as we can during the meeting, and the way you can help us to do that is to keep your questions succinct and to the point. We welcome questions or comments about any of the voting items we just covered or the general business affairs of the company.
Questions regarding personal matters, employment matters, product issues, suggestions for product innovations, and importantly, questions that might disparage someone will not be presented. Jennifer, could you please present the first question?
The first question is from Ryan Halpern of Brightworth Investments. You recently acquired BODYARMOR, the largest acquisition you've made to date. What will you do with the brand now, and what are your thoughts about growing your portfolio organically versus through acquisitions?
Great. Thanks for that question. Certainly an important question, because it's really about how we continue to grow the portfolio, how we continue our journey, as a total beverage company, building loved brands with really disciplined, approach to growth, with the portfolio. It plays an integral role in our journey.
Of course, our goal is to have ever more powerful brand platforms from which we can innovate and invest behind, to expand the consumer base. In general, we are looking for growth opportunities that fill white spaces and also have potential for leadership on a global scale, for our total beverage portfolio. Of course, much of this is done organically, but it is paired with our disciplined approach to mergers and acquisitions.
This at times helps us bring scalable products or equipment or ideas to the table that we feel have the strongest potential to help us grow, as I said, the consumer base or increase frequency of interactions or even drive a system profit margin accretion.
BODYARMOR, which you asked about, is a good example of our approach to this M&A. BODYARMOR is a great addition to the brand portfolio 'cause it checks almost all the boxes we look at when we try to acquire a business. It's a high growth category that it's participating in. It's a high growth brand. It's a winning brand. It has a nicely differentiated offering. We believe it has some global scalability and much more. Thank you for the question. Jennifer, if we can move to the next one.
The next question is from Ned Montag. Coke has suspended operations in Russia, but can you talk about what the broader implications of this conflict are for the business in that area of the world or even beyond?
Thank you, Ned. First and foremost, on behalf of our company and the entire system, we would like to share our deepest sympathies to all of those who've been affected in the Ukraine and the neighboring countries. Now, if I go to the heart of the question, which is the business impact, we did, for those of you who were able to dial in or listen, we did address some of this on our earnings call yesterday.
But let me perhaps give some context for those that might have missed it. As previously announced, we suspended our operations in Russia. This quite simply means we are no longer supplying concentrate, a beverage concentrate, or other ingredients to our bottling partners for the production of brands, the brands we own.
The suspension in that sense means, as it sounds. It's, of course, a dynamic environment, and we're looking, as you asked, about the wider effects. It's a dynamic environment, and we're keeping a close watch on the spillover effects, into adjacent countries, to the conflict, and we remain ready to pivot and adapt as necessary. Jennifer, if you could go to the next question.
The next question is from Steven Krause. Shareholders delegate governance and supervision of the corporation's business affairs to the board of directors and management, where there is a clear alignment of mutual economic interest, whereas a similar common alignment of interest does not necessarily exist with regard to political affairs.
Wouldn't it therefore be appropriate that shareholders be asked to ratify on an advisory basis any political statement that the company issues at the next subsequent shareholders meeting, thereby adding the imprimatur of shareholder approval?
Thank you, Mr. Krause. Thank you for that question. Perhaps spend a little more time on this topic, because it's a question that gets asked a number of times. Mr. Krause's specific question is about the company seeking shareowner ratification on any political statement that has been made.
Actually, we've spoken to Mr. Krause because in addition to asking today's question, he also previously had filed a shareowner proposal with a similar request. That brings me back to what I think is the real issue.
There has been a lot said about whether companies should be engaged in public policy, and in particular, whether they should take public positions or speak out on public policy issues. First, of course, businesses need to be engaged in public policy.
We think private sector advocacy around public policy is an important part of the whole legislative process. It is the way we communicate how proposed policies may impact our business and our employees. As the stewards of this business, we believe we have an obligation to be involved.
For our company, advocacy on policy issues is rooted in those things that can have a potential impact on our business and our employees. Importantly, as we advocate on policy, sometimes we do it in private, and sometimes it is more public. We just don't believe it's our role to take public policy issues, positions on every issue. That's the way we see it. Look, we know that not everyone will agree with every position the company takes.
If you do speak out, some people prefer you say less, some people prefer you say more, and some people prefer you say nothing at all. With so many things politicized and polarized today, what our company would consider an economic issue for our business, someone else may consider a political issue.
You know, ultimately, the company simply doesn't fit into some left or right-leaning box as some would have it, and nor should it. If it did, it wouldn't be a good thing for our shareowners. We will focus on what's important for our business and our employees, and I'll leave it with that. Jennifer, if we could go to the next question.
The next question is from Caroline Hilton. Human rights continues to be an issue across corporate supply chains. In the past few years, there have been media reports of various human rights abuses across certain regions of the world. How are you ensuring that your operations and supply chain are not at risk from these issues?
Thanks, Caroline. Great question. Perhaps before I go over the company's human rights policies and practices, which are all aimed at ensuring that we respect human rights everywhere we operate, I'd like to discuss our commitment more broadly. First off, respect for human rights is a fundamental value of The Coca-Cola Company.
This means we strive to fulfill the expectations set out in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and do so through our human rights policy and supplier guiding principles. The company established our supplier guiding principles to ensure that companies supplying us with goods and services adhere to the same workplace values and expectations that we require of ourselves.
As part of our regular conduct of business, the company carries out third-party audits and supplier guiding principles training with all of our bottling facilities as well as our suppliers around the world to ensure full compliance. Moreover, to ensure a common accreditation for auditors and audit firms, we also support the efforts of the Association of Professional Social Compliance Auditors.
We are also active in several peer and civil society initiatives driving improvements in forced labor, due diligence, and remediation, including the Consumer Goods Forum Human Rights Due Diligence Coalition and the Leadership Group for Responsible Recruitment. I hope this gives you and others a glimpse into how important this topic is to us. Jennifer, if you could go to the next question.
The next question is from Kevin Chuah from ShareAction. Good morning. My name is Kevin Chuah. I am a shareholder at Coca-Cola, and I'm participating in this meeting on behalf of ShareAction, a responsible investment charity. Manufacturers have a critical role to play in influencing consumer diets and health outcomes.
The ATNI 2021 Global Product Profile found that only 23% of Coca-Cola's products can be classified as healthy. This is below the average of healthier products sold across all packaged food and drink manufacturers. Moreover, Coca-Cola's marketing seems to be geared towards promoting least healthy product varieties as the proportion of sales generated from healthier products, 10%, was lower than half of the proportion of healthier products themselves.
Given regulatory and consumer trends globally supporting healthier products, investors want to better understand companies' positions in this area. As such, we would like to ask the company to disclose the percentage of its sales associated with healthier food and drink products as classified by government-endorsed nutrient profiling models, and publish a strategy to increase such share ahead.
Thank you for that question. We know that people around the world certainly have an increased interest in managing the food and beverages they consume. Our team, I know, has discussed this with ShareAction. We monitor these trends closely in a variety of ways. Perhaps let me walk through the key actions we've taken that address this question.
First, related to supporting health guidance. We are one of the few companies to publicly support the recommendation of leading health authorities that people should limit their intake of added sugar to no more than 10% of their total energy or calorie consumption. In fact, globally, we support nearly 40 local sugar and calorie reduction pledges tailor-made to the expectations and needs from each country's local consumers and stakeholders.
Second, how we're reshaping our business to embrace people's evolving preferences and giving them more of the drinks they want by offering drinks for consumer needs throughout the day, including focusing on nutrition through our juice, dairy, and plant-based beverage categories.
Third, related to actions we're taking, including changing the recipes of our beverages to reduce added sugar, promote our low and no-calorie options, innovate and bring new drinks to the market, offer smaller portion sizes while marketing our beverages responsibly and providing consumers with easy-to-understand nutrition labeling.
Furthermore, we have continued to accelerate the growth of our zero and low-calorie beverages. In 2021, we rolled out a new and improved recipe of Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, and it grew volume by double digits in 2021. The new formula has driven accelerated growth in 80% of the markets where it's launched.
Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, as I commented earlier, is available in more than 180 markets around the world. Additionally, about 2/3 of the products in our portfolio have less than 100 calories per 12-ounce serving. With that said, since Mr. Chua referenced disclosures in his question, I'd like to mention that at around 10 A.M. today, we will release our annual business and ESG report.
It'll be published on the investor page of our website. It has a wealth of information regarding our progress across these areas, and we believe it adequately addresses the points brought forth by Mr. Chua. Thank you for that question. Jennifer, if we could go to the next question, please.
This question is from Brad Hale. Coca-Cola continues to be named one of the world's largest plastic polluters. What can the company do to manage the waste it creates, and would it be better just to eliminate plastic packaging from your portfolio?
Thanks for that question. As I mentioned just now, but I'll say it again, we're gonna release our annual business and ESG report, because it also speaks to and has a lot of information on this question of plastics. But with that said, let me get back to the original question on plastic packaging. We clearly recognize and share the growing global concern about plastic pollution, and we acknowledge our company has a responsibility to help solve it.
That was the driving force when we established our World Without Waste goals in 2018. World Without Waste is a framework to accelerate our progress across the business. We also recognize that tackling the global plastic waste crisis requires cross-sector collaboration and alignment on common principles and targets.
This is why we work in partnership with a range of stakeholders at global, regional, and local levels. We continue making progress on our goals to make 100% of our packaging recyclable by 2025 globally, currently at 90%, and also to use at least 50% recycled material in our packaging by 2030.
In support of our goals, earlier this year, the company announced a new global goal to have at least 25% of all our beverages globally across the portfolio brands sold in refillable, returnable glass or plastic bottles or in refillable containers through traditional fountain or Coca-Cola Freestyle dispensers.
Reusable packaging and beverages dispensed to reusable vessels support our World Without Waste collection goal and can be among the best packaging options for both reducing our carbon footprint, material use, and improving resource efficiency.
In addition, in 2021, we announced that we will reduce our use of virgin plastic derived from non-renewable sources by a cumulative 3 million metric tons over the next five years. This means that in 2025, we project we will use approximately 20% less virgin plastic than we do today. I hope this helps answer the question. Now, Jennifer, if we could go to the next one.
This question is from Kelly Johnstone. Has there been any update related to the tax IRS dispute? How should investors think about this?
Well, regarding our ongoing tax case with the IRS, in simple terms, there has been no material change in the case since we last spoke from the case. From a timing perspective, we simply don't know when the final opinion related to our case will come out. It could be tomorrow, or it could be many months from now.
In the end, ultimately, we still believe that we will prevail in the tax case, based on a few things. We believe that the IRS and the tax court misinterpreted and misapplied the applicable regulations in reallocating income to the U.S. from the company's foreign licensees.
Also, given our facts, we believe the IRS's retroactive imposition of such tax liability using a transfer pricing methodology different from that previously agreed on by the IRS and approved and audited for over a decade is unconstitutional.
Based on consultation with outside advisors and our thorough analysis of the technical and legal merits of the company's tax positions, we believe the company's tax positions will ultimately be sustained on appeal. Jennifer, can you go to the next question?
This question is from Renee Kelly. Why does Coke continue sponsoring big sporting events like the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics when they risk associating the company with various controversies in the countries hosting these events?
Thank you. Coca-Cola has been a longstanding supporter of sports at all levels for many decades, from grassroots development programs to the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games. In fact, in Los Angeles, 2028, this will mark the company's 100th-year anniversary of supporting the Olympic movement, and we are very excited to celebrate that milestone.
In the meantime, our teams are hard at work with partners getting ready for Paris 2024, which aims to be the games at the forefront of environmental stewardship. These global special events help drive growth for the Coca-Cola system, but they do more than that. Ultimately, we really do believe that sport has the unique potential to unite and be a force for good across all levels of play.
We believe that through our partnerships and continued involvement with these sporting events, we can help foster the optimism while making a positive difference in the communities we serve. In that spirit, we seek to collaborate to drive meaningful change through direct engagement with sports bodies, other sponsors, and civil society, as well as through critical multi-stakeholder initiatives.
Our involvement in the Centre for Sport and Human Rights is an example of how this comes to life. The center's objective is to embed human rights principles in future Olympic and FIFA events. The Coca-Cola Company was the founding partner of the center and provided sole start-up financial support. The center worked with FIFA to embed these human rights principles into their host country contracts.
In fact, the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico will have these principles embedded in the execution of the tournament. We remain committed to engaging with our partners to drive positive change for our communities worldwide. Thanks for that question. Jennifer, if we could go to the next one.
The next question is from Tina Vaters. Recycling rates across the globe are lackluster. Despite this, Coca-Cola continues to tout a goal of 50% recycled plastic in its packaging. Will it even be possible to overcome current challenges on recycling infrastructure? Can you talk about how you aim to address these challenges to assure you will meet the goals set?
Thanks for that question. Perhaps let me make a few comments on the overall context. Certainly, recycling more, the use of more recycled material and the use of more refillable reusable packaging are ways we can reduce our carbon footprint. All are important, and they are all interconnected.
In terms of collection, we know the important part we play in the equation. In this spirit, we aim to collect and recycle a bottle or can for every one we sell by 2030. Later this morning, you can find our business and ESG report on our website, and it will detail our collection progress. I can tell you this currently stands at 61%.
Though beverage containers continue to be one of the most recycled items, we know there is more to do, and we will not stop until we reach our goals. This is why we are actively engaged in discussions about collection policy around the world.
We do this in partnership with industry and NGO partners because we believe well-constructed circular collection systems offer the best opportunity for a financially stable and efficient way to collect and remake recyclable materials, including, of course, beverage bottles and cans.
We continue to engage with industry and government to drive new collection systems, including, for example, in the Baltics, Ontario, Canada and Romania. The recycling rates and infrastructure vary across the world. This reality requires a flexible approach. This is one of the many reasons we are actively involved in local deposit systems in more than 35 markets globally.
We support models when programs make sense, are affordable and well run, and are fair for all stakeholders. In fact, the As You Sow recently released their 2021 Corporate Plastic Pollution Scorecard. This rates the largest U.S. consumer-facing companies on their efforts to reduce plastic pollution.
The Coca-Cola Company received the highest score of the 50 companies ranked, highlighting our attempts to lead the industry. Key contributions to this excellent score of the company's grade included its efforts on recycling, transparency for its packaging use, and supporting producer responsibility initiatives.
Like I said, we know we have more to do. We're also committed to do more and faster so that we can grow our business in the right way. Thanks, Jennifer, if we go to the next question.
Mr. Chairman, this is our last question. This question is from Karen Danielson. The pandemic caused some companies to reduce or even eliminate their dividends. Are you able to comment on what impact, if any, the pandemic may have on the company's plans for the Coke dividend going forward?
Thank you, Karen. Certainly a great question to end with for a shareholder meeting. Firstly, let me say we have a disciplined and consistent strategy for the way we use cash. We prioritize the available cash in the following way.
Firstly, of course, to reinvest in our business for sustainable growth. Secondly, to continue to grow the dividend. Third, consumer-centric M&A as and when it makes sense. Lastly, to use remaining cash to repurchase shares.
For us, the starting point of all this is having a clear picture of what the North Star is. We want to make sure we can engage with consumers to bring more consumers into the franchise of the brands the company has, gaining share and generating great system economics.
Decisions around the right level investment as well as dividend coverage will always be seen through the context of driving the business forward for growth and allocating the capital appropriately. In this context, we will continue to prioritize, as I said, investing in the business to drive long-term growth, as well as supporting dividend growth for our shareowners, as we have done recently and increased that growth rate.
Hopefully that gives you some perspective on where we're going with the dividend, which has certainly done well through the pandemic. That was the. Thank you, Jennifer, that was the last question. That concludes our question and answer session. The polls are now closed. Our 2022 shareowner meeting is now concluded.
I would like to thank everyone who took the time to participate virtually today. Thank you very much. Stay safe and have a great rest of your day.
This concludes the meeting, and you may now disconnect.