Coca-Cola Cashes in on Green Trend
Coca-Cola's new concept store in Toronto comes in a neatly wrapped package: bamboo, overstuffed chairs, recycled cups and fair trade coffee. However the Yorkville store, Far Coast, won't admit its ties with CokeĀa company renowned for gross human rights violations and murder, covered up by corporate branding and a sugar-coated smile.
As reported in NOW Magazine, the cafe is "a trendy teal and orange" with all the upscale features you'd expect to find in a modern coffee shop. Far Coast offers a fair trade option and features reclaimed wood in its design.
The cafe, however, is "basically appeasing people with the bare minimum," says Jennifer Wright of Green Shift, pioneers of the biodegradable coffee cup.
Silvio Annosantini, Coca-Cola's director of premium brewed beverages (how's that for a job title?), is quick to point out that a fair trade coffee is always available at Far Coast, perhaps taking aim at Starbucks, which only brews some once a month.
But consumers must wonder, where does the company get the rest of their beans? The company playing nice with coffee farmers is a little hard to swallow if you add up all the charges made by global human rights groups like New York-based Killer Coke.
NOW is confident that Toronto's green-conscious community will ask the right question: who's dying for your coffee?
