Sean Kellett, Iina Airaksinen
Business for Social Good
Sean and Iina credit the One Young World Summit in 2019 as the launchpad for their new initiative, The Activist Network. The aim of this project is to use the scale and reach of The Coca-Cola Company to make positive change on a scale not feasible as an individual.
A first step they took was to map the company’s social impact and focus to align with the SDGs, a ‘language’ they had not been using prior to the Summit. They identified SDG 10, 12 and 13 as the closest to their goals and values as a business in Western Europe. They explored the policies the company already had, and simultaneously identified areas they could push the business to go further on to drive change. From this research, the team proposed their vision for the company’s future and presented it to the senior leadership with the basic principle of making their company, Coca-Cola, the best it could be.
The Activist Network was announced at the company-wide conference at the beginning of 2020. It is open to anyone who works for The Coca-Cola Company in Western Europe and has a passion to drive change within the organisation. All are invited to identify the SDG they most align with, and from these they identify a core project they will dedicate their time to. They will then reconvene to discuss the impact and where they can take the initiative forward. This varies from internal projects to make the workplace more inclusive, to external initiatives to benefit the community they work in.
The group is aligned with the CEO’s purpose, and will monitor the impact which is accelerated through their network.