Jeff Seabright speaks to audience at the College of Education building

Jeff Seabright, the Vice President for Environment and Water of the Coca-Cola Company, gave a seminar on “Sustainability and Water” Tuesday at the College of Education Auditorium.

Seabright has held several positions in government and business, including as a foreign service officer in the U.S. State Department and as legislative assistant to U.S. Senators Timothy Wirth and John Rockefeller IV. In 1993, he joined the U.S. Agency for International Development, later serving as director of the Office of Energy, Environment and Technology.

He then moved to the White House in 1999 as executive director of the Climate Change Task Force, where he helped negotiate the Kyoto Protocol, and later joined Texaco as vice president for policy planning. Seabright has a master's degree in international relations from the London School of Economics.

In his seminar, Seabright noted that Coca-Cola is the largest beverage company in the world, in over 200 countries, 2,600 beverage products, and 1.5 billion servings per day worldwide.

Seabright said of Coca-Cola, " we are taking steps to improve our social and environmental footprint. These actions are becoming more and more integrated into our business process than ever."

He also presented a idea to the audience on what they could do to help the environmental cause.

"We need to enable and engage in our local communities to create a shared value in environment sustainability in the world," said Seabright. He noted that this includes both water management and recycling plans.

Seabright also mentioned a Coca-Cola sponsored program called "Recyclemania," which involves colleges around the country to enter a 10-week competition to see which school can recycle the most bottles and cans. He noted that recycling 10 bottles is equivalent to one t-shirt, to put into perspective of how much it can benefit communities abroad.

To end his presentation, Seabright said, "We envision a world in which our packaging tools are no longer seen as waste, but for future use."

Rashaun Turner