Unpacking Coca-Cola with Bart Elmore

In his new book, Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism, historian Bart Elmore complicates the narrative that Coca-Cola’s rise to global empire is one of inimitable marketing alone. His research shows how the company’s success has depended on an ever-expanding exploitation of natural resources and taking advantage of public works and government interventions. It's a very revealing look at how the environmental costs shed by Coke have fallen on the public at large.

He also stressed the importance of giving historical figures depth. If we are to learn from the past, we can’t simply explain it away as mistakes made by evil people.

Coke’s model is not unique as Bart reminded me with his comparison to Wall Street commodity trading. And both models have ecological consequences that we have to reckon as we think about designing sustainable businesses for the future.