PepsiCo releases 2019 Sustainability Report

PepsiCo has published its 2019 Sustainability Report, highlighting progress toward its sustainability goals and reaffirming the company’s plan to help build a more sustainable food system.

“Today’s global environmental and societal pressures are bringing into sharp focus the need for systemic change,” said Ramon Laguarta, PepsiCo’s CEO and chairman, in a press release. “These challenges not only require deeper commitment from the private sector, they also require demonstrated and sustained action. As a global food and beverage leader, we have a responsibility to use our scale and influence to help tackle long-term challenges, including addressing the threats to our food system, which have been further strained by the unfolding pandemic.”

The 2019 Sustainability Report shares progress across the priority areas where PepsiCo believes it can have the most meaningful impact: agriculture, water, climate, packaging, products, and people. Highlights include the following:

• Delivering safe water access. The PepsiCo Foundation has helped more than 44 million people in underserved communities around the world gain access to safe water through distribution, purification, and conservation programs since 2006, surpassing its goal to reach 25 million by 2025. Building on the success of these programs, PepsiCo has set a new target to reach a total of 100 million people by 2030. It will focus its near-term work on water distribution, sanitation, and hygiene programs to bolster public health in the wake of COVID-19.
• Sourcing ingredients through more sustainable and resilient agriculture. Through the company’s Sustainable Farming Program (SFP), in 2019, nearly 80% of PepsiCo’s farmer-sourced agricultural raw materials—like potatoes, whole corn, oranges, and oats—were verified as sustainably sourced, meeting the SFP’s criteria, and helping achieve the goal to reach 100% by the end of 2020.
• Accelerating climate action. PepsiCo reduced its absolute GHG emissions by 6% across its global value chain in 2019. In April 2020, PepsiCo affirmed its plans to accelerate action on climate change by signing the UN’s Business Ambition for 1.5°C pledge, joining other leading companies in committing to set science-based emissions-reduction targets across its entire value chain, aimed at limiting global warming to 1.5°C, while also developing a long-term strategy for achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. This builds on PepsiCo’s announcement earlier in the year that the company is shifting to 100% renewable electricity through a diverse portfolio of solutions for direct operations in the United States, its largest market.