PepsiCo Launches Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Summary

PepsiCo, Inc. recently published its first Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Summary since the launch of PepsiCo Positive (pep+), a strategic end-to-end business transformation with sustainability and human capital at the center of how the company will create growth and value. The 2021 ESG Summary – an evolution from PepsiCo’s prior Sustainability Reports – highlights how the company is leveraging its brands, people and scale to chart a new course to drive positive action for the planet and people. It also highlights progress made on industry-leading commitments.

The report is an easy navigation through every part of pep+ business, and is a very relevant, information rich source for all, be it consumers or subject matter experts. It details initial progress and real-world examples across three pillars – Positive Agriculture, Positive Value Chain and Positive Choices.

Working on positive agriculture

PepsiCo has helped spread the adoption of regenerative agriculture practices across more than 345,000 acres around the world with a goal of reaching seven million acres in 2030. The company is actively supporting the livelihood of female farmers and rural communities, focusing on gender-smart solutions along its agricultural supply chain.

In Pakistan, PepsiCo has enhanced the capacities of local Pakistani growers by introducing them to high efficiency irrigation systems, high-yielding varieties, and agricultural technology transfer. It has not only enhanced their efficiency but has also benefitted them with higher economic returns. The company has also introduced a mechanization agenda and changed the paradigm from manual sowing to precision planters. Precision planters not only increase efficiency but also reduce the cost of production hence improving the farmer’s profitability.

PepsiCo Pakistan is also working with USAID on the capability enhancement of female workers through the ‘Investing in Women to Strengthen Supply Chains partnership’. The partnership is working on the provision of basic facilities such as access to safe drinking water, day-care facility for children and training on different agricultural technologies. The company is also working on identifying female potential growers that can benefit from this program.

Creating a positive value chain

PepsiCo is invested in improving the global water use efficiency, focusing on high water-risk areas. It is continuously working on replenishing water used in operations to local watersheds, currently replenishing 34% of its global consumption in 2021– more than 6.1 billion liters of water. In addition, PepsiCo continued to advance safe water access globally to more than 68 million people since 2006, putting the company more than halfway to its 2030 goal of 100 million people.

In Pakistan, PepsiCo is working on providing local safe water community systems, building sanitation facilities, improving hygiene and the adoption of best practices with key partners in the community. PepsiCo’s Safe Water Program has enabled safe water for over 200,000 people in the urban underserved areas of Karachi, Islamabad, and Lahore.

The company is also collaborating with partners such as WWF to replenish water. In 2021 PepsiCo replenished 148 million liters of water into the watersheds of Lahore and Multan.

In Pakistan, PepsiCo has also been actively working on collecting, recycling, upcycling, and reusing plastic. In 2021, the company collected and recycled 16000 tons of plastic through one of the largest waste collection programs in Pakistan and has expanded its target to twice as much for 2022.

PepsiCo Pakistan, in collaboration with Novatex Limited is also conducting trials on recycled plastic bottles to assess them for future commercial production in the Pakistan market. The companies are working together to significantly scale up the collection of used plastic bottles and commercialize the use of bottles made from recycled plastics.

PepsiCo Pakistan is also incentivizing plastic waste collection for the citizens of Islamabad and Rawalpindi through its collaboration with, ‘Saaf Suthra Shehar’, and Haidri Beverages Limited. The company also unveiled a first of its kind Reverse Vending Machine (RVM) in Islamabad to reduce plastic waste. The consumers are offered discounts on various outlets in return of used plastic bottles. This is a great way to encourage plastic waste collection.

Making positive choices

As a global corporate leader PepsiCo is always making positive choices, making it easier for consumers to choose great-tasting beverages and convenient foods that are better for themselves and better for the planet. In 2021, PepsiCo attained its global saturated fat reduction goal of 75% of its convenient foods portfolio. In addition, 53% of PepsiCo’s beverage portfolio volume now has less than 100 Calories from added sugars and 66% of its convenient foods portfolio volume does not exceed 1.3 milligrams of sodium

Apart from food choices, the company is also supporting the environment through various initiatives. One of these initiatives is Lay’s RePlay, a partnership with the UEFA Foundation for children and streetfootballworld. Through this collaboration empty chip packs are reused to help create sustainable football pitches, uniting communities around the world through the power of football.

Lay’s also supports female farmers around the globe and celebrates the local origin of its potatoes in key markets. In Pakistan, Lay’s partnered with one of their progressive and pioneer growers to set up a state-of-the-art day care center at one of their agriculture farms near Kasur. The day care center will support the women field workers and provide them safe and secure environment, conducive for learning and growth of their children.

The digital 2021 ESG Summary was designed to link seamlessly with PepsiCo’s ESG Topics A-Z, an evergreen deep-dive on PepsiCo’s approach and progress for roughly 50 sustainability-related topics. In addition to ongoing transparency in reporting, PepsiCo will continue to publish its ESG Summary annually.

This year’s Summary and all associated downloadable assets are available here.