Ecological green or economic green?

by Eleonora Anello

Encouraging a culture of separate waste collection, enhances creativity and professionalism of young designers and creates new containers of high quality with high aesthetic value. This is the threefold aim of the competition “Re: Design Positively - New containers for separate collection”, created under the communication project' “Live Positively”, sponsored by Coca-Cola with the scientific support of the Faculty of Design of the Polytechnic of Milan in collaboration with the Association ReMade in Italy.
The final prototypes, that best will succeed in raising awareness about the importance of environmental sustainability and embody the concept of environmentally sustainable design, will be exhibited at the “Triennale di Milano”.

It seems that the environment and sustainability are in the DNA of Coca Cola Company, as stated by Alessandro Mangoni, Director of General Affairs of Coca-Cola HBC Italy. In fact, “Live Positively” is a project to redesign the daily lives of people in a sustainable way for the environment and the multinational corporation wants to give the first example saying it wants to always produce more with fewer resources.

Too bad Coca Cola, the world's best known brand and which has made its packaging a real cult object, was one of the companies that won the first Greenwash Award given by Canadian Polaris Institute. The Oscar of greenwashing, for those who want to clean up its image, giving itself a false social and ecological patina, is actually assigned to the UN mandate on water. According to the jury, companies like Nestlé and Coca Cola use the United Nations for «continuing to privatize a common property like the water, without complying with either social or environmental standards».

Not to mention the accusations repeatedly raised against it by various parties regarding such issues as: the adverse health effects in the acquisition of certain ingredients of the secret recipe, especially for children; the exploitation of labor; the high levels of pesticides in their products; the use of unfair practices for the maintenance of what may be considered an exclusive monopoly.

Constantly at the centre of an intensive and successful communication, Coca Cola was the first company that in 1931 had the idea to use Santa Claus as a testimonial, the multinational stokes an intense counter information. The activists use Internet to disseminate the actions and to do a boycott.

While distancing us self from the activists that boycott any choice of Coca Cola, the question arises: ecological green or economic green, like the colour of the dollars that Coca Cola gains for years at the expense of the environment?

We hope, in Machiavellian way, that the ends justify the means. We hope to see soon in the streets these new bins for waste collection, beautiful and functional objects that probably increases the amount of sorted waste and cheer our virtuous behaviours.