Coca-Cola: an unsustainable relationship with water and workers

“We commit ourselves:

To continue our ongoing conversion of heart and mind, opening ourselves ever more fully to the transforming action of Providence in our lives and our relationships

To live as citizens of Earth community with a common future…”

(Acts of Chapter, Summer, 2006)

Congregation commitment

Beginning June 20, 2007, the Sisters of Providence no longer offer Coca Cola products, either in bottles or in the soft drink dispensers at the Saint Mary-of-the-Woods buildings. This action resulted from the 2006 Chapter discussion recommending that we educate ourselves about the problem with Coca Cola Company policies that affect the peoples and the land in both India and Colombia. A large number of people in India are deprived of clean drinking water because of the exorbitant extraction of water, and Coca Cola plant workers in Colombia have been the victims of severe paramilitary tactics to crush their efforts to organize unions.

The Coca Cola Company, although not the only such soft drink company abusing people and lands, has been chosen for this action because it is the largest beverage company in the world. Our hope is that the Coca Cola Company will eventually use its enormous economic leadership power to champion human rights and sustainable community efforts in both India and Colombia.