Coca-Cola Continues Green Efforts

Coca-Cola has long held a historic place in New York's Times Square, as one of the longest continuous billboard advertisers, starting in 1932. Now, Coca-Cola Co. is turning those billboards green as they introduce wind-powered digital billboards to Times Square.

Coke also announced it will debut a new "green" ad on New Year's Eve: "Refresh. Recycle. Repeat." The ad touts Coca-Cola's goal to recycle or reuse 100 percent of the aluminum beverage cans and PET plastic bottles it sells in the U.S., part of the company's Live Positively operating philosophy.The company also has a new environmentally focused ad campaign touting its green efforts, called "Refresh. Recycle. Repeat."

Coke's CEO says environmental sustainability is "absolutely key" to the company's strategy. "It's center of play. It's not niche anymore," says CEO John Brock. The company is focused on water stewardship, packaging and energy conservation and now owns 142 large-scale, hybrid electric trucks -- the largest such fleet on the planet. "And we are buying, literally, as many as we can get, as fast as we can get them," he says.

Sources: Mediaweek and Knowledge@Wharton