Coca Cola:

After making a big contribution to the coffers of the World Wildlife Fund, Coca Cola has been pledging to the world that it is going "water neutral" Coke uses 300bn litres a year .The company has been using the phrase “Water neutral” widely in the 18 months since its hook-up with WWF – notably during the Olympic Games in Beijing, the water-stressed city where Coca Cola was a major event sponsors.The company "pledged to replace every drop of water we use in our beverages and their production: to achieve balance in communities and in nature."

First, the stats. The company is using water more efficiently in many of its operations. It says the amount of water used to make a typical liter of its drinks fell 20% to 2.47 litres, between 2002 and 2007. But if anything, these efforts are faltering. The improvement from 2006 to 2007 was just 2%, the smallest to date.And because Coca Cola is manufacturing more product every year, its actual overall water use has been rising since 2005 and is now almost back at the 2002 level.

But definitions are critical. The company admits it won't stop using water. But it promises to carry on using water more efficiently, to ensure that all its wastewater is returned to the environment "at a level that supports aquatic life and agriculture" and, finally and most problematically, to "replenish the water we use".