Integrate nature into strategy and risk decisions

Coca-Cola FEMSA is a beverage bottling company with operations in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. Its operations and value chain interact with nature through their reliance on water, ecosystem services and agricultural inputs, as well as through activities involving water use, wastewater management, land use, packaging and waste. In 2025, the company began adopting the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures framework to identify and manage nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities across direct operations and critical value-chain sectors (1).

Location of the initiative: Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.

In 2025, the company conducted an assessment using the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures LEAP approach: Locate, Evaluate, Assess and Prepare. The assessment covered more than 300 sites, including bottling plants and distribution centres, across nine countries, together with critical upstream and downstream sectors. The company used geographic screening to classify sites according to biodiversity and nature sensitivity. It then used the ENCORE (Exploring Natural Capital Opportunities, Risks and Exposure) tool to identify sector-level dependencies and impacts. Physical and transition risks were assessed qualitatively, and the review considered how material findings connect with the company's targets, performance management, reporting and Enterprise Risk Management Framework. Nature was treated as an underlying element across the existing Sustainability Framework rather than as a separate pillar. The company reported that the results of the specific assessment were undergoing progressive integration into the corporate risk matrix, with the objective of strengthening systematic integration during 2026 (1).

Sustainability impact

Nature

• Assessment coverage

  More than 300 operational sites were classified according to sensitivity to biodiversity and nature, considering biodiversity importance, ecosystem integrity, ecosystem integrity decline and water stress. Among bottling plants, 2% were classified as very low sensitivity, 66% as low sensitivity and 32% as medium sensitivity. Among distribution centres, 2% were classified as very low sensitivity, 77% as low sensitivity and 21% as medium sensitivity. The report does not show sites classified as high or very high sensitivity (1).

• Dependencies and impacts identified

  For direct operations, the assessment identified water supply as a critical dependency of bottling plants and water use as the most relevant operational impact. The company also identified ecosystem services that support water availability and quality, including water purification, water-flow regulation and precipitation regulation (1).

  For the upstream value chain, the assessment identified sugarcane and cereals used for sugars and syrups as the sectors where the most relevant dependencies and impacts were concentrated. Sugar represented 62% of direct agricultural inputs and was associated with an estimate of approximately 80,845 hectares, mainly in Brazil and Mexico. High-fructose corn syrup represented 38% and was associated with an estimate of 63,268 hectares in Mexico and Argentina. The crops depend on services including biomass provision, water supply, soil retention, climate regulation and soil fertility (1).

  For the downstream value chain, the assessment focused on the most material sectors, such as waste disposal and material recycling for PET, glass, aluminium and cardboard. It identified soil and water remediation as critical ecosystem-service dependencies because inadequate waste management through the post-consumer value chain can generate leachates that affect soil and water quality (1).

• Local verification

  The company refined sector-level screening with site-level data. At the Itabirito bottling plant in Brazil, dependencies and impacts initial severity was adjusted after considering mitigation measures for water stewardship. The resulting assessment described moderate dependencies on water resources and related ecosystem services and low impacts due to mitigation measures in place. At the Chimaltenango distribution centre in Guatemala, the assessment described moderate dependencies on natural resources and ecosystem services related to soil retention and climate regulation and low impacts due to mitigation measures in place (1).

• Management response and related performance

  This assessment evaluates operational and financial implications, highlighting critical vulnerabilities such as water scarcity, loss of ecosystem services, and extreme weather events across direct operations and the value chain, particularly within agricultural supply chains.

Figure 1: Nature-related physical and transition risks identified through the assessment. Source: Coca-Cola FEMSA 2025 Integrated Report (1).

Nature-related risks are managed within the existing Enterprise Risk Management Framework. The company continues to strengthen the progressive integration of findings from this specific assessment into its corporate risk matrix.

The assessment reinforced the relevance of existing targets related to water stewardship, packaging circularity and sustainable sourcing. Figure 2 summarizes the principal nature-related targets disclosed by the company:

Figure 2: Coca-Cola FEMSA's priority targets focus on water replenishment, water-use efficiency, waste diversion, recycled PET content and PET collection, reflecting the nature-related dependencies impacts, risks and opportunities identified through the TNFD-aligned assessment. Source: Adapted from Coca-Cola FEMSA 2025 Integrated Report (1).

Social

The company's broader water-stewardship and community-development programmes engage local stakeholders in watershed protection and local community initiatives. In 2025, the company reported 30 active Community Engagement Plans and 551,163 people reached through community initiatives. It also reported that 71% of community-development projects focused on water access, sanitation, hygiene and water-replenishment initiatives (1). These activities were already part of the company's broader approach.

Business impact

Benefits

The assessment provided a structured view of nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities across direct operations and selected value-chain sectors. It made links between nature and the company's existing water, packaging, sourcing and risk-management priorities more explicit.

The company reports that nature-related risks are managed through its existing Enterprise Risk Management Framework using the same methodologies, evaluation criteria and review cycles applied to other strategic, operational, financial and compliance risks. Findings from the specific nature assessment are being progressively integrated into the corporate risk matrix to further strengthen their consideration in strategic planning, mitigation actions and decision-making.

The preparation of the company's sustainability and nature disclosures also helped identify information gaps, strengthen internal alignment, and improve the management and monitoring of sustainability topics. The report states that these improvements support more systematic integration of sustainability into decision-making (1).

Costs

The company allocates resources to sustainability activities through financial planning, investment prioritization and operational execution, and that responses may involve trade-offs in cost, timing, operational complexity and other strategic objectives. The 2025 Integrated Report does not disclose a separate cost figure for this nature-related assessment. Related sustainability activities are addressed through the company's existing planning and resource-allocation processes (1).

Typical business profile

• Large multi-country agri-food company, especially in food and beverage with agricultural value chains and water-intensive operations.

• Multi-tier agricultural value chains (with upstream commodities such as sugarcane and cereals).

• Packaging-intensive downstream (PET, glass, aluminium).

• Existing sustainability framework or reporting infrastructure where nature can be integrated.

• Companies preparing to report in line with the TNFD recommendations, IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards, or equivalent regional norms.

Approach

1. Define the assessment boundary: Identify direct operations and the critical upstream and downstream sectors. Coca-Cola FEMSA included bottling plants, distribution centers, agricultural inputs, packaging materials, waste treatment and material recovery.

2. Locate interfaces with nature: Classify sites using geographic criteria for biodiversity importance, ecosystem integrity, ecosystem decline and water stress. Coca-Cola FEMSA classified more than 300 sites.

3. Evaluate dependencies and impacts: Use sector-level information and the ENCORE tool to identify ecosystem-service dependencies and potential drivers of impacts across direct operations and the value chain.

4. Refine the assessment locally: Assess an initial sample of sites using local context, the Locate results, typical dependency and impact magnitude, quantitative data where available and mitigation measures already implemented.

5. Assess risks and opportunities: Review physical and transition risks qualitatively across direct operations and the value chain, identify priority sectors and consider operational and financial implications.

6. Prepare the management response: Review how material nature-related risks and opportunities connect with targets, performance management, double materiality assessment and reporting under the Sustainability Framework.

7. Integrate findings into risk management: Incorporate nature-related risks into the risk and controls matrix according to potential impact and likelihood, and use the results in strategic planning, mitigation actions and operational and financial decisions.

8. Improve data and analysis over time: Continue strengthening the strategy, deepening analysis, expanding data availability and quality, and reinforcing systematic integration into strategic decision-making.

Stakeholders involved

• Project lead: the corporate sustainability function led the nature-related assessment and disclosure process.

• Risk-management function: integrated relevant nature-related findings into the established Enterprise Risk Management Framework and risk and controls matrix.

• Technical, supply-chain and operations functions: provided operational information and local context for bottling plants and distribution centres.

• Procurement and sustainable-sourcing functions: supported analysis of agricultural and packaging value-chain sectors and supplier-related information.

• Finance, legal, investor-relations and reporting functions: contributed through the company's cross-functional sustainability-disclosure processes.

• Governance bodies: the Sustainability Committee oversees nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities; the Board oversees the Sustainability Framework; and the Audit Committee monitors integration within risk management and internal controls.

• Suppliers, communities and external partners: contributed through existing sourcing, water-stewardship, watershed, collection and community programmes described in the report.

Key parameters to consider

• Initiative maturity: 2025 was the company's first Nature and Biodiversity Report and the year it began adopting the TNFD framework (1).

• Assessment boundary: direct operations plus selected critical upstream and downstream sectors using materiality and spend based criteria.

• Data requirements: geographic site data, biodiversity and ecosystem-integrity indicators, water-stress information, sector-level ENCORE data, operational information and supplier or materials data.

• Validation: sector-level screening refined with site-specific context and implemented mitigation measures.

• Risk integration: findings use the same impact, likelihood, review and reporting processes as the existing enterprise risk framework.

• Attribution: distinguish evidence generated by the assessment from environmental outcomes delivered by existing water, restoration, sourcing and circularity programmes.

• Progressive development: the report states that data availability, analysis, and systematic integration will continue to be strengthened.

Implementation and operations tips

• Anchor to existing frameworks: the adopting company embedded LEAP results into its existing Sustainability Framework so nature runs through strategy, risk management and decisions as an underlying element rather than a separate pillar.

• Combine sector-level data with geospatial screening and site-level validation.

• Place nature in double materiality from the start: avoids nature sitting outside the mainstream materiality process.

• Treat integration as a progressive process: strengthening the strategy, deepening the DIRO (Dependencies, Impacts, Risks, Opportunities) analysis, expanding data availability and quality, and reinforcing systematic integration into strategic decision-making.

• Record how mitigation measures change the interpretation of dependencies and impacts at site level.

• Be explicit about data gaps and improve data availability and quality over successive assessment cycles.

External links

Coca-Cola FEMSA 2025 Integrated Report

Source list

(1) Coca-Cola FEMSA, 2025 Integrated Report, including "Nature and Biodiversity," pp. 210-230, plus cited governance, risk-management and performance disclosures.