Hello, welcome to our 2023 annual meeting of shareowners. I'm James Quincey, Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company. On behalf of the board of directors and the Coca-Cola team, thank you for your continued commitment and investment in The Coca-Cola Company. I also wanna thank everyone from the Coca-Cola system for working together to have a strong year in 2022, even amidst many challenges. Before we get underway, I wanna let you know that today's session is being recorded. Today's event may contain forward-looking statements about our business. We began 2023 by focusing on what we can control, which includes providing great products to consumers. This focus has guided us successfully through our 137-year history, and it will guide us into the future. In a world of many unknowns, there are always many things we can do to grow our great business.
We see many opportunities ahead of us. Over the past few years, we've done significant work to ensure a solid path to sustained growth. Next, we must continue to build on this momentum to achieve our vision of achieving strong all-weather growth and pursuing our total beverage company ambition. This ambition rests on our optimism about our industry's and our company's future. Simply put, we see vast long-term potential to continue building our business. To capture this potential, we must continue building loved brands that refresh the world and providing beverage choices for all occasions, tastes, and lifestyles. We know consumers are constantly changing, and this means the work of maintaining and building brand relevancy is never ending. Today, we are driving the most significant marketing transformation in our history. We've shaped a focused portfolio. Our engagement with consumers is digital first.
We've moved away from focusing on broadcast TV ads to creating immersive experiences. We're embracing artificial intelligence to help develop ways to be even more engaging with consumers. When it makes sense, we move beyond traditional boundaries. Jack Daniel's and Coca-Cola, our ready-to-drink cocktail launched through our relationship with Brown-Forman, is one example of how we are bringing Coke to consumers in new and dynamic ways. While innovation is essential, it's not merely about expansion, it's also about discipline. We look to grow in ways that can connect with consumers while also creating value for our bottling system and customers. Our commitment to sustainability is core to our business. Sustainability is centered on what consumers care about as well as our business priorities. This encompasses building resilience in our business to bolster growth and create positive changes in the world.
We focus on the issues that matter most to our system, which are water, packaging, and climate challenges. These are interconnected issues and so are the solutions we support. Our investments in water replenishment create benefits in ecosystem biodiversity and carbon sequestration, which helps our business and communities adapt to climate change. I encourage those interested in learning more to check out our 2022 Business and Sustainability Report, which will be available this week. Looking ahead, we are confident in our ability to win in the marketplace and grow our business. We have many opportunities in front of us. In fact, our market share of commercial drinks in developed markets is only in the mid-teens. In developing and emerging markets, which account for about 80% of the world's population, our market share is only in mid-single digits.
We've built agility across the enterprise to ensure we remain nimble while pushing forward on initiatives to accelerate our growth. We are well-positioned to take advantage of these opportunities. As we look forward, our company is taking bold steps to thrive in the future. I'm proud of what we've achieved and the way we've been able to navigate many challenges. Thank you for being on this journey with us. I'd like to open the business portion of the meeting. Today, we will address the 9 business items detailed in your proxy statement. 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 other business issues you may wish to raise. We will need to wrap up today's meeting no later than 9:40 A.M. this morning.
For our shareowners logged into the live webcast today, you do not have to wait until the Q&A session to submit a question. Please go ahead and submit questions by clicking on the Q&A icon at the top of the screen, type in your question, then click Send to submit it. Let me welcome the members of the management team joining me this morning for the meeting. We've got John Murphy, our President and Chief Financial Officer. Monica Howard Douglas, our Senior Vice President and General Counsel, and Jennifer Manning, our Associate General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. I also extend a special welcome to our board of directors who have joined us this morning. Information on our director nominees is included in your proxy statement beginning on page 13. Today, we're also joined by representatives from our independent auditing firm, Ernst & Young LLP.
Finally, many of our shareowners, as well as employees and alumni, have joined the meeting today. I extend to all of you a very warm welcome. Now, on to today's voting matters. The agenda for the meeting and our proxy statement are available on the virtual meeting platform. These will serve as your roadmap to the business items we'll be discussing today, and I encourage you to follow along. Our rules of procedure can also be found on the meeting platform. Ensuring this meeting is productive is our top priority, I ask you to please follow the rules. Here's how the meeting will flow. Our Corporate Secretary, Jennifer Manning, will present each of the 4 management proposals. There are also 5 share owner proposals, which will then be presented by the proponent or their representative. The presentation of each shareowner proposal will be limited to 3 minutes.
Right after each proposal is presented, I will present our board's point of view and voting recommendation. Just like in our past meetings, after all nine business items have been presented, I will conduct a Q&A session where I'll take questions on any of the nine business items we are voting on today or on any other appropriate business topics you would like to raise. Jennifer, would you please present the secretary's report?
Notice for this annual meeting was furnished to shareowners on March tenth, 2023. The proxy statement for this meeting was mailed beginning March tenth, 2023 to all shareowners of record as of February twenty-fourth, 2023. Our inspectors of election from Computershare Trust Company, N.A. advise that we have a quorum represented by 83% of the total shares eligible to vote. The polls are now open. There are nine 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 votes may do so by clicking on the voting button on the webcast page 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.
Thanks, Jennifer. Would you please present the first matter to be voted on?
The first matter is the election of directors. The company's bylaws require that directors 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 2024.
Thanks, Jennifer. Our director nominees are highly qualified to represent the interests of our shareowners. Beginning on page 13 of your proxy statement are details about each director candidate, including their qualifications. The Board of Directors recommends a vote for each nominee. Jennifer, let's go to the second item.
The second item 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 officers as described in the compensation discussion and analysis and compensation tables of the proxy statement.
Thank you. The compensation discussion and analysis in your proxy statement explains how the talent and compensation committee views company performance and how executive pay is tied to performance. Of course, we take this say on pay vote very seriously, and we 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 now present the third item?
The third item is a vote on the frequency of holding future advisory votes to approve executive compensation. The frequency options are to hold the advisory vote to approve executive compensation each year, every two years, or every three years.
Thank you. In the past, our shareowners have indicated a preference to hold this advisory vote to approve executive compensation every year. The board continues to believe that holding this advisory vote annually is the most appropriate policy for our shareowners and the company at this time. Therefore, the board recommends a one-year frequency for the advisory vote to approve executive compensation. Jennifer, would you please present the fourth item?
Our audit committee has appointed Ernst & Young LLP to serve as the company's independent auditors for the 2023 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 95.
Thank you. 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 fifth item?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The next five 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, James will present our board's point of view and voting recommendation. These are important issues on which shareowners have been asked to cast a vote. 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 being considered. Inaccuracies or unrelated issues, including personal matters, employment matters, or legal matters that are raised during the presentation of a shareowner proposal will not be addressed by the Chair. We have a question and answer session coming up where we welcome other questions.
3 of our shareowner proponents have chosen to pre-record the presentation of their proposals. Meeting participants will notice a quick pause at the beginning and end of each of these recorded proposals. Our 5th business item is a shareowner proposal requesting an audit of the company's impact on non-white stakeholders. This proposal and the board's response begin on page 99 of your proxy statement. Armando Pintado, representing SEIU, will present the proposal. The presentation of the proposal is limited to 3 minutes. The phone line for the presentation will be open only for these 3 minutes. For the convenience of the presenter, I will signal when they have 20 seconds remaining. I now ask the operator to open the line.
One moment. Mr. Pintado, your line is open.
Hello, my name is Armando Pintado, and I speak today on behalf of the Service Employees International Union Pension Plans Master Trust as the proponents of proposal number 5 on the proxy card. Our proposal calls for the board of directors of Coca-Cola to oversee an independent racial equity audit, analyzing the impact of the company on non-white stakeholders and communities of color, with input from civil rights organizations and employees to help auditors determine the specific matters to be analyzed. As specified in our proposal, the requested audit does not need to include a pay equity analysis by race, which Coca-Cola will analyze in a separate study. A report on the results of this audit would be publicly disclosed on the company website to be prepared at reasonable cost and omitting confidential and proprietary information.
Shareholders of Coca-Cola can send a message by voting for proposal number five, that the company must move beyond diversity, philanthropy, and colorblind public health initiatives to analyze the full range of adverse racial impacts caused by the company's business and operations. The company's statement in opposition is largely unresponsive to our proposal. The company touts diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, as well as philanthropic endeavors. According to its EEO-1 data, we note that the proportion of its senior executives that are Black has declined from 7.7% in 2018 to 5.9% in 2020 and 2021. Coca-Cola touts its efforts to provide more low and no-calorie beverage choices through marketing targeted at communities of color. Coca-Cola does not disclose how those promotions compare to the company's marketing of high-sugar beverages in communities of color.
Research shows that the majority of targeted marketing campaigns aimed at multicultural youth and communities of color in 2021 were undertaken by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, and that such campaigns almost exclusively promoted unhealthy products. Adverse racial impacts of Coca-Cola's business are not limited to those caused by high-sugar beverages. Brand audits in locations as diverse as Georgia, Uganda, and Bangladesh in 2021 identified Coca-Cola as the source of the largest number of pieces of plastic waste, more than the next two companies combined. Both the production of plastic and plastic pollution impose disproportionate environmental and health harms on communities of color. Coca-Cola is a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable, both of which lobbied in 2020 against a proposed Canadian ban on single-use plastics. Coca-Cola's political activities and charitable contributions also suggest that a racial equity audit would be useful.
Coca-Cola's political action committee contributed to sponsors of Georgia's 2021 voting law that has been condemned for-
20 seconds remaining.
Restricting voting votes, especially in communities of color. The company also contributed $1 million to the Atlanta Police Foundation's fundraising efforts for a controversial police training facility that has been dubbed Cop City. For all the reasons discussed, we urge you to vote for proposal number 5 on Coca-Cola's proxy card. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Pintado. The board of directors has carefully considered this shareowner proposal, and while we respect the intentions of the proponents, we are recommending a vote against the proposal. Our board offers a thoughtful and very detailed response to this proposal that we encourage our shareowners to read, beginning on page 100 in your proxy statement. To summarize what is published in the proxy statement, and contrary to what might have been suggested by the proponent, we are already taking meaningful action in addressing the overarching issues raised in the proposal. We are already regularly review the company's policies, practices and goals, as would the purpose of the proposed audit. We also already provide robust disclosures around our initiatives in this area.
We do not think it is in the best interest of the business or our shareowners to divert resources from ongoing DE&I commitments and apply them towards an audit that would not yield meaningful enhancements beyond our company's existing practices and robust public disclosures. Jennifer, would you please present the sixth item?
Our sixth business item is a shareowner proposal requesting a global 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 105 of your proxy statement. Dr. Marcos Arana will present the proposal on behalf of the proponent. The presentation of the proposal is limited to 3 minutes. The phone line for the presentation will be open only for these 3 minutes. For the convenience of the presenter, I will signal when they have 20 seconds remaining. I now ask the operator to open the line.
One moment, please.
Good morning.
Dr. Arana, your line is open.
Yes, thank you. Good morning, CEO James Quincey, trustees and shareholders of Coca-Cola. I am Marcos Arana, director of the Observatory on the Right to Health. Thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf Harrington Investments and introduce item 6, which requests Coca-Cola to fully globalize disclosure of its political activities. From my work in Chiapas in the indigenous regions, I can tell the lack of political transparency of Coca-Cola does not imply only concern increase for investors, but relates to matter of life and death. Coca-Cola's long political activity in Mexico and that of FEMSA, its Mexican subsidiary, whether opposing sugar taxes, stronger nutritional labeling, or maneuvering politically to keep over exploiting the water resources in Cristóbal Chiapas continues to provoke strong public reprobation. You will find little or no disclosure of this activity on the corporation's website.
I can only assume that this is due to the fact that the corporation deliberately hides from investors the damage its political and commercial strategy pose to health, environment, and culture of the Mexican population. This situation was described by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food as the Coca-colonization of Mexico. A recent survey found that a third of indigenous children are given Coca-Cola before they reach the age of one year. In Chiapas, due to the aggressive marketing, it is easier to find Coca-Cola than any healthy food. The addictive high consumption of Coca-Cola contributes to higher rates of death and diabetes among indigenous communities. From sales to this population, the company gets much of its revenues.
To neutralize criticism and ease political access, every year Coca-Cola sponsors the Coca-Cola Award for Nutrition Research, affecting the credibility of the Mexican health institutions that host it. Investors should have full visibility into such politically motivated activities. A new research from Corporate Accountability evidencing the corporation's extensive spending on UN SDG-related initiatives across the globe. A splendid reportage that highlights the practice of Coca-Cola to influence public health policies in Mexico has just been awarded important 37 international prize. I strongly recommend you to watch it. For the sake of the children in Chiapas and for the integrity of this corporation and your investment in it, I kindly request you to support resolution number 6, as well as the fullest grade of the shareholder proposals today before you. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you.
Thank you, Dr. Arana. Let me respond and focus in on the proposal we're voting on. The board has considered this shareholder proposal and recommends that shareholders vote against it. The company already discloses the information being requested relative to political expenditures outside the U.S. The proponent claims that our company does not comprehensively disclose our involvement in politics and advocacy on public policies outside the U.S. Here are the facts. The company follows all national laws regarding political engagement and fully discloses political contributions according to each country's legal framework and through the relevant national regulatory authorities. I will also note that our company's political giving outside of the United States is very small. In 2022, our international political contribution totaled less than $20,000 and were limited to costs to attend political party conferences in two countries.
In the past two years, the company has not made a monetary contribution to an individual politician outside of the United States. Regrettably, the proponent is aware of all these facts but chose to keep the proposal in the proxy regardless. Jennifer, would you please present the seventh item?
Our seventh business item is a shareholder proposal regarding political expenditures values alignment, seeking a report analyzing the congruency of the company's political and electioneering expenditures in the U.S. against its publicly stated company values and policies. This proposal and the board's response begin on page 108 of your proxy statement. Molly Betournay, representing Clean Yield Asset Management, will present the proposal. They have chosen to submit a recording of their presentation. I now ask the operator to begin the presentation, and we will pause for a few seconds while we connect to the recording.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman, board of directors and my fellow shareholders. My name is Molly Betournay, and I submit the following statement on behalf of my firm, Clean Yield Asset Management, and the filer of this proposal, Julie Kalish. Our proposal, item number seven on the proxy ballot, calls on Coca-Cola to make a regular practice of examining its political contributions, to review congruency with the company's values and policies, and to report out on this review. We have made this request because Coca-Cola has shown a pattern of donating to politicians and political committees whose activities appear to be substantially misaligned with the company's publicly stated values and policies. Such misalignment may enable the enactment of public policies that undermine Coca-Cola's values and priorities.
Misalignment also poses reputation risk to the company as these incongruities, even though they are likely to be inadvertent, can be interpreted by stakeholders to have resulted from neglect, indifference, or hypocrisy. We have outlined four examples of misalignment in our proposal. Companies have faced heightened media scrutiny in recent years when their political donations do not appear to match their values. The risk is higher for companies with high brand name recognition, like Coca-Cola, whose products can be easily boycotted. In 2021, Coca-Cola faced boycotts and social media censure when it was perceived as being supportive of legislation in Georgia restricting voting rights. This proxy season, over 30 values congruency proposals have been filed. Companies are responding. CSX, Heidelberg and Woodside Energy have produced reports on trade association misalignment.
In April 2023, it was announced that AT&T will report on the extent to which its political contributions align with the company's public policy and sustainability priorities. It is important to point out that the purpose of this proposal is not to achieve 100% alignment, but to ensure that the company has a process in place to identify and respond when misalignment is found. We believe a report reviewing the congruence of Coca-Cola's political activities and values is an important step in mitigating risk for the company and its shareholders. Fellow shareholders, if you have not already cast your vote, please vote yes on item number 7. Thank you for your attention.
Thank you, Molly. Thank you for presenting the proposal. The board has considered the shareowner proposal and recommends shareowners vote against it. We believe the existing policies and practices governing the company's political spending, including our recently developed contribution criteria and enhanced disclosure regime, adequately address the issues raised in this proposal. The board of directors believes participation in the political process provides an important means for our company to protect the interests of the business, our employees, and our shareowners. The board also recognizes that in today's environment, not every shareowner will agree with every decision the company makes in this area, as is the case with these proponents. Shareowners have elected the board to oversee the business of the company, which includes setting and overseeing policies on political advocacy.
We have instituted a political engagement policy with that in mind, which helps ensure our political activities are, in fact, aligned with our company's values and vision for success. We support political candidates based on publicly disclosed criteria who take reasonable positions on policies that affect the long-term business objectives of the company. Of course, support does not mean that we agree with their positions on all issues. Over the years, we believe transparency and accountability have been the hallmarks of our political engagement activities. We have for some time voluntarily disclosed our political activity on the company's external webpage. And importantly, a committee of the board has for years overseen the company's public policy advocacy, including political spending policies and practices. The process the company uses and the transparency it provides has been recognized by accountability organizations as well.
In 2022, the company was again recognized as a trendsetter in the Center for Political Accountability at CPA-Zicklin Index of Corporate Political Disclosure and Accountability, the company received its highest score to date of 95.7%. Jennifer, would you please present the eighth item?
The eighth item is a proposal requesting the board of directors adopt a policy to require the chair of the board of directors be an independent director. This proposal and the board's response begin on page 111 of your proxy statement. Paul Chesser of the National Legal and Policy Center will present the proposal. The presentation of the proposal has been recorded. I now ask the operator to begin the presentation, and we will pause for a few seconds while we connect to the recording.
Good morning. After I delivered my remarks last year in support of this same proposal for Coca-Cola, Mr. Quincey said something along the lines of, quote, "Well, I can see why Mr. Chesser doesn't want to see me as Chairman and CEO." End quote. Then he defended the company's policy to keep the Chair and CEO positions unified. It's true that I was critical of some of Mr. Quincey's decisions in both roles. It's nothing personal. The reason we bring this proposal again is because we truly believe, and that the majority of evidence shows, that having a separate Chair and CEO delivers a far better leadership structure in terms of accountability via checks and balances. The current structure is a systemic problem, not one of personalities or of leaders' integrity.
Often when there's a concentration of power in one individual, he or she is more prone to misjudgments and miscalculations that can prove costly to the enterprise he or she leads. The board argues that the company's lead independent director provides robust accountability. We really don't see that as the case, as we explain our notice of exempt solicitation report that we filed at the SEC for Coca-Cola. In my remaining time, I'd just like to say, if nothing else, I hope Mr. Quincey has learned some things since my presentation last year. One of his statements that I had challenged last year was his inappropriate characterization of the Georgia election integrity law under the banner of Coca-Cola. He said at the time, quote, "The Coca-Cola Company does not support this legislation as it makes it harder for people to vote, not easier." End quote.
I hope the 2022 election in Georgia was instructive for Mr. Quincey to not let his rhetoric to get ahead of facts, because as it turned out, there was high turnout across the board in the Peach State. General election turnout mirrored a national trend of being only slightly below 2018's record high turnout for midterms. Participation in the special runoff election was extremely strong. We asked Mr. Quincey to be more measured about making political statements in the name of The Coca-Cola Company in the future, lest he again risk its reputation. We also hope he sees comparative geopolitical issues differently from the time when he imposed racial sensitivity training on Coca-Cola employees, which included a class that taught that white people in America are socialized to believe they are inherently superior, and suggested that they try to be less white by being less oppressive.
We hope since then that Mr. Quincey has reexamined such practices in light of the hypocrisy of Coca-Cola doing such extensive business in China, where the U.S. State Department reported this year that the communist nation is still engaged in ghastly practices like slavery, organ harvesting, and genocide. If Mr. Quincey wants to express moral outrage in the name of Coca-Cola than China other than Chairman Xi.
Thank you, Mr. Chesser, for presenting the proposal. The issue of requiring the company to always have an independent director as the board chair is an important issue for our share owners. I encourage you all to see the board's full response that begins on page 112 of the proxy statement. You will see that the board has carefully considered the proposal and recommends that share owners vote against it. This proposal is about our board's leadership structure. More specifically, it seeks to permanently separate the roles of chairman of the board and CEO, and to limit the board's ability to determine who should serve as chairman of the board. Our board believes this would be unnecessarily rigid and not serve the interest of share owners.
The proponent clearly is opposed to the concept of the board having the flexibility to decide on a leadership structure based on what they think is the best interest of the business and our share owners. We simply disagree. The board believes that the leadership of both the board and the company and by one person is the optimal structure today 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 the Chairman and CEO roles, the independent directors make that decision without my influence in a meeting where I'm not present. As opposed to what the proponent has just said, there's not a concentration of power that is detrimental to the independence of the board.
We have a robust leadership structure for our board that includes the combined chairman and CEO, complemented by a lead independent director. Many investors remain supportive of this leadership structure. Moreover, the main board committees are chaired by independent directors. With the exception of the executive committee, all the board committees are composed entirely of independent directors. Now let me talk about our lead independent director, Mel Lagomasino. Unlike the proponent, we believe the role of lead independent director provides an effective balance between strong company leadership and appropriate safeguards and oversight by independent directors. Mel 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.
Finally, I will point out that every year our board discusses what they believe will be the most appropriate board leadership structure to best serve the needs of the business and our share owners, including whether the roles of chairman of the board and CEO should be combined. Jennifer, would you please present the ninth item?
Our ninth business item is a share owner requesting a report on risks or costs to the company caused by state policies restricting reproductive rights and detailing any strategies to minimize or mitigate these risks. Meredith Benton, representing share owner Brian Patrick Carriger, will present the proposal. They have chosen to submit a recording of their presentation in advance. This proposal, and the board's response, begin on page 114 of your proxy statement. I now ask the operator to begin the presentation, we will pause for a few seconds while we connect to the recording.
Hello. My name is Meredith Benton, and I am speaking on behalf of the nonprofit advocacy organization, As You Sow. I formally move proposal item nine, asking for Coca-Cola to issue a report detailing known and potential risks and costs to the company caused by enacted and proposed state policies that severely restrict reproductive rights. The company is asked to detail strategies that it may deploy to minimize or mitigate these risks. Coke may not want to get involved in the politics of this topic, but the politics of this topic have gotten involved with Coca-Cola. The ability of thousands of existing and potential Coca-Cola employees to access the healthcare they want for themselves and their dependents has been directly impacted by decisions being made by state legislators. Abortion is a complex issue.
It is one that companies did not have to deal with directly before the Dobbs decision, a decision that fundamentally changed the landscape that Coke is running its business within. Coke's employees now face, dependent on their location, challenges in accessing sufficient medical care. This includes Georgia, where Coca-Cola is headquartered. In its statement and opposition to this resolution, Coke wrote of its risk management process and also stated that it reimburses medically necessary travel for procedures not available within a state. It did not identify or respond to the questions posed by this resolution. What does it mean for Coca-Cola that it is operating within a slippery, shifting landscape of healthcare access? How is Coke responding to this politically driven attack on its ability to have a healthy workforce?
Investors have asked Coke to show that it is not responding to the increasing restrictions against healthcare access by wishing the issue away, hoping to avoid discussion. The requested report would reassure investors that Coca-Cola has thought carefully about how current or potential legislation might impact its business. The report would reassure investors that the company has a plan to respond to these risks and to ensure that its employees have continued access to the medical care they want and need to have. Thank you.
Thank you. The board has considered this shareowner proposal and recommends that shareowners vote against it. We believe that the company's robust risk management processes that are already in place are sufficient to address potential risks raised in the shareowner proposal without conducting additional analysis or reporting. The company already has in place comprehensive health benefits that provide for our employees' needs as opposed to what might be otherwise suggested in this proposal. Shareowners have elected the board to oversee risk, including the type of risk raised in this proposal. Shareowners are encouraged to review more information about the board's oversight of risk, which is detailed in the proxy statement. Risk oversight includes risks related to our workforce, which is a primary focus of this shareowner proposal.
We know that the success of our business depends on our ability to attract, hire, develop, motivate, and retain a highly skilled and diverse workforce. Our success also relies on our ability to nurture a culture that supports our growth and aligns employees around the company's purpose and the work that matters most. This proposal suggests that our employees may face challenges accessing certain benefits. The company has in place comprehensive health benefits that provide for our employees' needs, and the company takes pride in the comprehensive total rewards package offered to our employees. This includes benefits essential to the well-being of women, children, and families such as reproductive and maternal health services and family planning. Thank you. This concludes the voting matters. Jennifer, would you please draw this portion of our annual meeting to a close, at which point I will conduct a 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 shareholder who has not yet voted or who wishes to change their vote may do so by clicking the Vote button on the virtual meeting page. Shareowners who have already submitted a proxy or who have voted by telephone or internet and do not wish to change their votes do not need to 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 2024. As discussed in the proxy statement, Ms. Millhiser will begin her service as a director effective July 1, 2023, after her retirement from her current role. The advisory vote to approve executive compensation has received an affirmative vote of 90%. The management proposal on the ratification of Ernst & Young LLP as auditors for the 2023 fiscal year has received an affirmative vote of 95%. The management proposal regarding the frequency of future advisory vote on compensation received an affirmative vote of 98.5%. The shareowner proposal requesting an audit of the company's impact on non-white stakeholders received an affirmative vote of 13.4% and therefore did not pass.
The shareowner proposal regarding a global transparency report received an affirmative vote of 14% and therefore did not pass. The shareowner proposal regarding political expenditures values alignment received an affirmative vote of 30% and therefore did not pass. The shareowner proposal regarding an independent board chair policy received an affirmative vote of 19% and therefore did not pass. The shareowner proposal requesting a report on risk from state policies restricting reproductive rights received an affirmative vote of 13% and therefore did not pass. That concludes the preliminary vote report.
Thank you, Jennifer. We will now turn to the question and answer session. Meeting participants can submit questions as we said earlier, and we also have several questions to address that were submitted in advance. For our shareowners logged into the live webcast today, to submit a question, please go ahead and click on the Q&A icon at the top of the screen, type in your question, and of course, click Send. We would like to answer as many questions as we can during the time remaining. The way that you can help us do that is to keep your questions as succinct and to the point as possible. 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 personally disparage someone will not be presented. Jennifer, can we please go to the first question?
Sure. The first question is from Ms. Kelly. I am a fan of dividends for a lot of reasons, including that they tend to grow over time, and now they can help provide a hedge against inflation. Are you able to comment on the company's plans for the Coke dividend going forward?
Great. Thanks for the question. Of course, yes, lots of people do ask me this question in one way, shape, or form. Firstly, let me say that we have had a disciplined and consistent strategy for the way we use cash that we have been following for a good number of years. The way we think about this is to prioritize the available cash in the following way. Firstly, of course, we seek to reinvest in the business for sustainable growth, whether that be through CapEx projects or multiple other ways. We look to invest in the organic business. The second priority is to continue to grow the dividend, which is really the focus of your question, and that's the second priority.
The third use of cash is on consumer-centric mergers and acquisitions. There, we've talked over the years about how we seek to buy often fast-growing businesses to bolt onto our and fit in our portfolio that we can use to expand internationally. That remains our third priority. The fourth priority, or the fourth use of cash is in share repurchases when we feel it'd be appropriate to do so, and that tends to be either ad hoc or to cover the dilution of some of our incentive programs. We have four big buckets that we use to guide our use of cash, which of course, as I said, includes growing the dividend.
With that, you know, we have this clear north star, of how we're gonna use the cash, and it's gonna ultimately end up driving our business, which means more share in the marketplace, more consumers, good system economics. That, of course, it means that the investments we make, drives the dividend growth and maintains a good level of coverage of the dividend. Obviously, we can't, we don't wanna pay out a dividend that is unsupported by the business, so we drive the business in order to continue driving the dividend. As been witnessed over many, many years, this approach has been working well. In fact, earlier this year, we announced our 61st consecutive annual dividend increase.
Yes, we will continue to prioritize investing in the business to drive long-term growth as well as supporting dividend growth for our shareowners. Okay. Jennifer, should we go, should we go to the second question?
Yes. This question is from Ms. Bacon. Plastic continues to be a major cause for pollution worldwide. Coke continues to be a big contributor to the plastic pollution problem. Can you move away from plastic altogether? Aren't aluminum containers and refillable bottles a better option for consumers and the environment?
Thank you for the question, and another important question which I get often. Let me start from a couple of thoughts initially. We absolutely recognize the urgent need to address pollution in general and plastic pollution, as you mentioned, and we absolutely believe we have a responsibility to help solve this and be part of the solution. Let, you know, let's think about this from two angles. One is the waste in the environment, and the second is the carbon footprint of the materials. Those two issues come together.
The way we think about it is, yes, we can make great strides in reducing our use of packaging materials, including plastic, because we can make the packages smaller, we can make the walls of the packages thinner. That means we use less virgin material. Ultimately, still, consumer convenience is driven by the need to have packaging. When we look at our packaging, the first and a very important point is that the materials we use have residual economic value. In other words, if collected, they have economic value that can drive a circular economy. Rather than moving away from one material to another, I think we need to look at a world of saying, we need to drive a system that creates a circular economy around our packaging materials.
In that way, we can collect back each of the ones we sell. We have set ourselves an objective by 2030 of collecting back 1 bottle or can for every 1 we sell. If we collect that bottle or can back, firstly, it won't be waste in the environment. Secondly, because of the nature of the material, both aluminum and PET, the plastic, have economic value because if we get them back, we can essentially just chop them up, melt them down, and make new bottles or cans out of them. The importance of that is not just the reduction of waste in the environment, but those recovered materials make perfectly new bottles and cans again, and actually done that way can have a lower carbon footprint.
Our vision of the future is about a world where there is no waste. Where in fact, we can have, you know, largely eliminated pollution and have a lower carbon footprint by driving a circular economy around our packaging materials. When seen this way, what in fact you find is that both PET and aluminum fit very nicely into this circular economy system, and glass as well. We can continue to provide choice of packaging materials to our consumers because we can solve both of the problems out there around waste and the carbon footprint. This isn't just something that's hypothetical, relative to the future. There are already a good number of countries on the path to this vision. There are countries around the world where collection of PET bottles and aluminum cans is over 90%.
We already have countries in the world where we have been able to achieve the objective of having all the plastic bottles we sell in that marketplace be made from recycled PET, therefore creating a fully circular economy. This is not yet true at a global scale. There is more yet to be done. In some countries, we face challenges in driving up the degree of collection, and in some countries, we still need to see not just the regulatory framework for using recycled materials, but the infrastructure around the recycling of the materials themselves.
I think what you can see out there in the marketplace, out there in the world, that slowly but surely a circular economy around packaging materials, often referred to as EPR, Extended Producer Responsibility , is driving a circular economy around these packaging materials that will, as I said earlier, eliminate waste from the environment, whether it be sea or land, reduce the carbon footprint, and make very sustainable the packaging materials we use. Let's go to the next question, Jennifer.
Coca-Cola seems to be going all in on AI with its partnership with Bain. Can you talk about the plans for AI for the Coke business? This question is from Ms. Scott Lee.
Thank you for the question. Much has been said about AI, it's certainly, I think, gone to obey the maxim that people have commented on out there in the world where, you know, profound transformative technology is often overestimated in its impact in the short term and underestimated in the long term. I think AI will end up being in that category. It's certainly been talked about and experimented with and used on a, on a more modest level over the last number of years. I think we're slowly starting to get to the point where it's gonna seep into much more mainstream. Everyone I'm sure has heard about OpenAI, and their ChatGPT and their visual AI tool, DALL·E.
We certainly teamed up with them, and with Bain to experiment with that. I think it's gonna have whole set of usage. Let me just talk about a couple of them, and then talk about where it might be going. We've already experimented with marketing. At the end of March, we launched a campaign called Create Real Magic, which allowed consumers to go onto the webpage and to select visual imagery of Coca-Cola and then to use the AI tools to create, through artificial intelligence, visual images, through basically giving instructions to the AI and then add text to it in an AI sense as well. The best of these images from the consumers we put up on our electronic signage in Times Square in New York and in Piccadilly Circus in London.
It was a tremendously engaging promotion with consumers that allow them to experiment with some of Coke's most iconic creative assets. I think it's gonna make a huge impact in marketing as we go forward. One doesn't have to think very far to think of all the design work that goes into some of our point of sale material, and how that can be driven through AI into the future. Obviously, it has an internal impact as well.
We have, you know, many, like many other companies, been struggling with knowledge management systems over the last few decades on how can we let employees get access to everything we've learned over the last number of decades and all the documents and policies and research reports that are stored in the system, which are very hard to access. AI is now opening to the door to what we already have in our hands and presenting it in a form that's much more usable. That's just the beginning. I think this is the start, perhaps the start of the next phase of open of AI, where it's really starting to unlock its long-talked-about potential.
There'll be much ahead. There are things to worry about in the implementation of AI, issues and problems and ethics and things, bridges that will have to be crossed. We would rather be on the front end experimenting and learning and leveraging it as a competitive advantage for The Coca-Cola Company than waiting for everything to be sorted out and fixed. Exciting area, much more to come. I think I'm sure we will be seeing the results of it in the quarters and years to come. Jennifer, let's go to the next question.
We received 2 similar questions on this next topic, but in the interest of time, we will only be presenting the earlier received question from Mr. Hale. Mr. Hale's question is: When will The Coca-Cola Company set global targets for sugar reduction across its portfolio and increase the number of products in its portfolio in line with your consumers' expectations for healthier products?
Thank you, Mr. As a total beverage company, our objective is to offer people, of course, the choices of drinks that they want across a whole range of categories and packages. Of course, as consumer tastes and preferences evolve, we have to continue to steer our business strategy and shape the lineup of beverages that we sell. And we take a very disciplined approach to this product innovation and portfolio management, ensuring, of course, that we develop beverages that are preferred, that are great tasting, that suit all occasions and palates and lifestyles. This obviously includes offering drinks with less added sugar and brands with more enhanced benefits, providing small package choices, clear nutrition information on packaging in our communications, and marketing drinks responsibly. Take just Coca-Cola itself.
You can get it in a whole variety of different sizes from all the way from 6 ounces up. You can get it with and without sugar. You can get it with and without caffeine. You can get it in original taste or with flavoring. We have a full portfolio. In fact, in yesterday's earnings release, we highlighted in particular the growth of a number of categories. Water, sports, coffee and tea are all up strongly in the quarter. We do offer a full portfolio for consumers across many categories and across many different ingredient profiles. Ultimately, the role of our beverages in diet does vary to some extent market by market.
Of course, in addition, we also engage with local stakeholders to tailor our responses and tailor our portfolio to public health challenges in the local context. As a result, not do we not just have a global strategy on our portfolio, we are currently supporting more than 50 sugar and calorie reduction pledges by country across the globe. For example, the juice and value-added dairy and plant-based category is one of our 5 big cat beverage categories. In 2022, our value-added dairy brand, Fairlife, principally in the U.S., became our first billion-dollar brand in the dairy category. Again, expansion in a lot of different vectors.
This, you know, is also allied to ensuring the growth of our business by actively promoting all the brands, particularly, the low and no-calorie ones. In fact, almost 30% of our volume sold in 2022 was low or no calorie, and more than half the products in our beverage portfolio have less than 100 calories per 12-ounce serving. With delivering growth in all these brands, of course, as I indicated earlier, Coke, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar continues to grow at very strong rates after many years of expanded success. We also added to that accelerated growth in Sprite Zero Sugar with the brand's first ever cinematic partnership with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. I think you can see that our aspiration is to continue to be leaders across the categories we have chosen to participate in.
We prioritize the brands with the strongest potential to scale and grow whilst doing so, responding to both consumer desires, across ingredient profiles, and diets, as well as overall government objectives, by country. We absolutely are working this. I think you've seen strong progress over the last number of years that has allowed us to both grow our business while responding to the sorts of profiles the consumers and government wants, including the health profile of the products. With that, Jennifer, let's go to our next question.
The next question is from Ms. McLean. We also received a similar question from another sharer and want to thank both for their questions. Ms. McLean asked, "I was a loyal TaB drinker for a long time and am disappointed that some of your brands with strong fan bases, like TaB and Honest Tea, are being eliminated. How is Coke thinking about this as well as the rest of your portfolio, and will other popular products be taken away?
Thank you. Thank you for the question and apologies for being the one to remove the brand you love. Building brands and maintaining discipline on the portfolio is a very important part of what makes us a total beverage company. It's a very important set of decisions. Let me talk a little bit about how we come to these sorts of decisions. Because over the last few years, we've worked on a number of critical features, including trimming our portfolio, almost halving the number of brands that we've worked on so that we can ultimately focus on the brands with the greatest growth potential.
Now, the half of the brands we took out over the last few years was only a couple of % of the company's overall sales, and these brands essentially weren't in a growth phase. While the decisions weren't easy, it is imperative that we constantly position for growth. Yes, in the last answer, I talked about how we were very much focused on remaining consumer-centric. As we think about the portfolio of brands, we also have to recognize how it creates value for our retail partners, the customers where the products will sold. Almost all these customers ultimately have a limited amount of physical space, as do ultimately, our trucks as well.
Therefore, for the health of the total business, not just our business, but the retailer's business, everyone is focused on making sure they get the most sales for what is ultimately a fixed amount of space available to be sold through. When we do the process of managing the portfolio, I think said in the simplest way, if you imagine a Coca-Cola cooler, there are only so many slots for bottles and cans in that cooler. Unfortunately, we have to take the decisions that generate the most sales for us, but also very importantly, the most sales for the retailer from each one of those slots in the cooler. That does mean sometimes taking out some brands or some flavors and replacing them with newer, higher growth potential products.
Overall, we're always looking for growth opportunities, fill wide spaces in categories, and to optimize the space available. I think this strategy is paying off overall. Last year, the company gained value share again, in the total non-alcoholic ready-to-drink beverages. As we optimized the portfolio, we had volume growth of unit cases of 5%, including 11% growth in Coke Zero Sugar, 5% growth in sparkling flavors, and 6% growth in water, sports, coffee, and tea categories. I think this ongoing optimization, whilst we recognize it does disappoint some existing consumers, and we apologize for that, ultimately, it produces a healthier portfolio, for the retailers, and for ourselves. With that, Jennifer, let's go to the next question.
The next question is from Ms. Botters. With the recent announcement of Jack and Coke, the company looks to be increasing its involvement in alcohol. What are your plans for alcoholic beverages, and how much of a contributor to growth will they be?
Thank you for your question. Consumer demand has been leading to some causing categories to start overlapping in the alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage space, I think creating a unique opportunity for Coca-Cola. Our strategic approach that began with experimentation with flavored alcoholic drinks is driven by consumer-focused approach. Ultimately, we only wanna do work if it can be significant to The Coca-Cola Company. I think that experimentation, now complemented with products like Jack Daniel's and Coca-Cola, is gonna allow us to tap into a larger commercial beverage market. Even though it's still in its early stages, we're rapidly moving our global learning around the various countries in this area.
We currently have, actually, when you take the global footprint, about 27 different products, including Jack and Coke, which came out first earlier this year, late last year in Mexico. We've got them around the world. In 2023, we plan to expand the alcoholic offerings in selected countries in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, and also continue the conversion and launch of Jack Daniel's and Coke, most emblematically perhaps, the almost rolling out as we speak in the U.S. I think taken together, this will demonstrate that it has the potential not just to create growth, but to be something significant for The Coca-Cola Company because we'll be catering to both consumers and retailers, each of their needs.
I think if we can do this, we can start proving out some of the potential of this venture if we maintain our discipline. We're just getting started. There's much to be done. There's much to learn. I'm sure there'll be some twists and turns as we move forward. I think it's an important area that we approach with responsibility, with vision, but with discipline as well. Jennifer, next question.
Mr. Chairman, this is our last question. This question is from Ms. Whitmire. What is Coca-Cola's strategy for addressing potential barriers to women's career advancement within the company, and how are you progressing against gender diversity across your leadership?
Thank you for the question on gender diversity and inclusion efforts. Coca-Cola strives for a gender equal workplace, and we believe that investing in and empowering women not only directly benefits them, but also our business and our communities. That's why our aspiration is to mirror the diversity of the markets we serve, and includes being 50% led by women by 2030. One significant milestone against that goal is our board representation. For example, the recent appointment of Carolyn Everson, former President of Instacart, to our board marked the first time in our company's history that half of our board members were women. In addition, women currently represent 50% of our executive leadership team.
I think you can see that this demonstrates our dedication to achieving great business results by having the best people, but also being able to achieve gender parity at the highest levels of leadership. In addition to the board representation and the ELT, we're growing our pipeline of female talent in the organization. We've been implementing various initiatives such as mentorship and sponsorship programs aimed at supporting the professional growth all through the ranks of the female employees. In 2007, we started a Global Women's Leadership Council to support women in global leadership positions and grow our pipeline of female talent.
Since 2019, this Leadership Council's sponsorship program has paired high-potential female talent around the world with members of the company's Executive Leadership Team to help prepare them for senior roles. Actually, furthermore, we actively review and address pay equality and work-life balance issues to ensure a level playing field for all employees. I think while we recognize we have much more to do, we are actually also energized by the progress we have made. That concludes our question and answer session. The polls are now closed. I would like to thank everyone who took time to participate today. That concludes our shareowner meeting for this year. Thank you all very much. Stay safe and have a great rest of your day.