• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, June 19, 2012

Yeah sure, we all associated Coca-Cola Co. with the sweet stuff, you know, high fructose corn syrup, but the global beverage marketer innovated its product packaging and distribution model with sugar cane. Not as a sweetner, but as part of some new, environmentally-friendly packaging that also is boosting its sales, according to Joseph Tripodi, executive vice president, Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer of the Coca-Cola Company.

Tripodi, speaking at Coca-Cola’s presentation at the Festival of Creativity (aka the Lions) in Cannes, France, this morning, said the company had a distribution problem with its biggest retail distributor, Wal-mart, which discontinued distribution of its Desani brand of water.

“To counter that we launched the innovative plant bottle,” Tripodi told Cannes attendees, noting that the new bottles come from the “waste from sugar cane.”

Best of all the bottles are 100% recyclable and have zero impact on the environment, he said, adding that those attributes convinced Wal-mart to begin distributing Desani again to boost its own environmental image.

The result, Tripodi said, was a 20% growth in Desani’s sales.

“It was good for consumers, it was good for retailers, and it was good for the environment. And quite frankly, that was good for us,” he said adding that 10 billion plant bottles have been distributed to date.