Join Sustainable Student Action in demanding that Seattle University join the more than 50 other campuses in cutting our beverage contract with Coca Cola – a company with known allegations of environmental and human rights abuses (more details below). Seattle U’s 10-year contract with Coca Cola ends as soon as 2023. The time to act is now.  As “one of the most innovative and progressive Jesuit and Catholic universities in the world,” our food and beverage procurement system should reflect our mission to pursue a just and humane world. 

Our Demands:

1. Do not renew the contract with Coca Cola when it expires in 2023. 
2. Replace Coca Cola with ethical, sustainable, and local beverage vendors, prioritizing diverse suppliers, specifically BIPOC-, LGBTQ+-, and women-owned businesses. 
3. Engage with the student population to see what needs and desires they have for their beverage system. 
4. Ensure that the new beverage procurement system is financially accessible to students.

We have the opportunity to build relationships with local, small, sustainable, and diverse businesses, rather than an impersonal transnational corporation. Seattle University’s procurement leadership is ready to listen - we just need to be loud. How can SU’s beverages & beverage provider(s) be more socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable? What do YOU want to see in a new beverage provider?  Have any ethical brands that you want to see on campus? Add your ‘wish-list’ and suggestions to THIS PADLET to help craft SU’s criteria when searching for new beverage providers.

Currently, 90% of the beverages sold on SU’s campus (not including coffee) must be Coca Cola products. Of the extra 10%, only 0.7% of non-Coca Cola beverages sold on campus come from “diverse suppliers,” or businesses that are at least 51% owned by historically underrepresented groups, including BIPOC-, LGBTQ+-, and women-owned businesses. This is the perfect time for us as a community to re-envision our food and beverage procurement system. 

Why should Seattle U cut the contract with Coca Cola?

• Coca Cola has been involved in numerous accounts of alleged human rights violations including engaging in intimidation and torture of labor union leaders, child labor, and water theft. For more information, watch SSA’s Earth Talk here or visit this website documenting Coca Cola’s abuses. 
• Coca-Cola Company has been named as the top plastic polluters for the fourth year in a row in 2021. As demonstrated by a new report by the United Nations, and countless others, plastic pollution is an environmental justice issue because it disproportionately affects marginalized communities and communities living in close proximity to plastic production and waste sites. 
• Coca Cola has spent billions on ads targeted at hooking youth of color on sugar-laden beverages despite well-known health consequences.
• Coca Cola is on the international Boycott, Sanctions, and Divestment list, as Coca Cola Israel “operates one of Coca-Cola’s largest bottling facilities worldwide” on occupied Palestinian land.

Why is partnering with diverse suppliers important?

• According to the Greenlining Institute, in 2014, Fortune 100 companies spent just 4.8% of total contract dollars with minority-owned businesses, with many government agencies performing similarly.
• The United States has a long history denying communities of color and women of the ability to garner wealth. For example, in 1921 in Tulsa, Oklahoma a white mob targeted Black residents by attacking a portion of the city known as ‘Black Wall Street’, killing around 300 people and decimating the booming business community. The legacy of the Tulsa Massacre and historical violence against communities of color is reflected in present day wealth disparity trends. 
• New data from the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) show that the typical White family has eight times the wealth of the typical Black family and five times the wealth of the typical Hispanic family.
• More and more institutions, such as Princeton University, are shifting their practices to support more diverse-owned businesses. 

Follow @seattleu_ssa on Instagram for updates about this campaign and visit our linktree (linktr.ee/seattleu_ssa) for more information.