PepsiCo's New ESG Summary Offers First Look at Progress Toward Industry-Leading PepsiCo Positive Goals

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Jul 07, 2022, 05:00 ET

PURCHASE, N.Y., July 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) today 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.

pep+ is embedded in every part of PepsiCo's business and the 2021 ESG Summary details initial progress and real-world examples across three pillars – Positive Agriculture, Positive Value Chain and Positive Choices. Highlights include:

Positive Agriculture

Helped to spread the adoption of regenerative agriculture practices across more than 345,000 acres – progress toward its goal of seven million acres, the approximate equivalent of PepsiCo's agricultural footprint, by 2030.
Supported the livelihoods of female farmers and rural communities via initiatives such as the $20 million USAID partnership to develop women-led enterprises and the $2 million Next Generation Agriculture Fund with the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), to demonstrate the impact of gender-smart solutions along our agricultural supply chains in Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Guatemala. These programs mark initial action towards a new pep+ goal to improve the livelihoods of more than 250,000 people in PepsiCo's agricultural supply chain and communities, including by economically empowering women.

Positive Value Chain

Reduced Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 25 percent from a 2015 baseline, with more than 70 percent of global electricity needs in direct operations now met by renewable sources. In 2021, Scope 3 emissions – which account for 93 percent of the company's emissions – increased by 5 percent¹ from a 2015 baseline, due largely to unprecedented business growth.
Improved operational water-use efficiency by 18 percent in high water-risk areas from a 2015 baseline, against a target of 25 percent by 2025² and replenished 34 percent of water used in operations to local watersheds³ 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 the U.S., increased Black managerial representation to 8.3 percent and Hispanic managerial representation to 9.5 percent of our 10 percent by 2025 goals for each and achieved 43 percent of women in managerial roles against our goal of 50 percent by 2025 globally.

Positive Choices

Four years ahead of schedule in 2021, PepsiCo attained its saturated fat reduction goal of 75%² of its convenient foods portfolio⁴ not exceeding 1.1 grams of saturated fat per 100 Calories. In addition, 53% of PepsiCo's beverage portfolio volume now has less than 100 Calories from added sugars per 12oz. serving⁵ and 66% of its convenient foods portfolio volume does not exceed 1.3 milligrams of sodium per Calorie⁶.

"PepsiCo's commitment and action to create a more sustainable and resilient food system is unwavering and we are proud of the progress that we have made in 2021 toward our new and updated pep+ goals," said Jim Andrew, Chief Sustainability Officer, PepsiCo. "Our aim is to decouple so our business can grow sustainably, while decreasing environmental impacts. There is still much more work to be done and we cannot do it alone, so we – in partnership with our value chain partners, communities, NGOs and government leaders – will continue investing in action, innovation and partnerships that enable us all to realize a more sustainable future."

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.

For more information, please contact [email protected]

About PepsiCo

PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated more than $79 billion in net revenue in 2021, driven by a complementary beverage and convenient foods portfolio that includes Lay's, Doritos, Cheetos, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, Quaker, and SodaStream. PepsiCo's product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including many iconic brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales.

Guiding PepsiCo is our vision to Be the Global Leader in Beverages and Convenient Foods by Winning with PepsiCo Positive (pep+). pep+ is our strategic end-to-end transformation that puts sustainability and human capital at the center of how we will create value and growth by operating within planetary boundaries and inspiring positive change for planet and people. For more information, visit www.pepsico.com.

Cautionary Statement

This release contains statements reflecting our views about our future performance that constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are identified through the inclusion of words such as "aim," "anticipate," "believe," "drive," "estimate," "expect," "goal," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "strategy," "target" and "will" or similar statements or variations of such terms and other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted in such statements, including the risks associated with the deadly conflict in Ukraine; the impact of COVID-19; future demand for PepsiCo's products; damage to PepsiCo's reputation or brand image; issues or concerns with respect to product quality and safety; PepsiCo's ability to compete effectively; water scarcity; changes in the retail landscape or in sales to any key customer; disruption of PepsiCo's manufacturing operations or supply chain, including increased commodity, packaging, transportation, labor and other input costs; political or social conditions in the markets where PepsiCo's products are made, manufactured, distributed or sold; future cyber incidents and other disruptions of our information systems; failure to successfully complete or manage strategic transactions; climate change or measures to address climate change; imposition or proposed imposition of new or increased taxes aimed at PepsiCo's products; imposition of limitations on the marketing or sale of PepsiCo's products; changes in laws and regulations related to the use or disposal of plastics or other packaging materials; failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations; and potential liabilities and costs from litigation, claims, legal or regulatory proceedings, inquiries or investigations.. For additional information on these and other factors that could cause PepsiCo's actual results to materially differ from those set forth herein, please see PepsiCo's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent reports on Forms 10-Q and 8-K. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. PepsiCo undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

1 Where 2021 actual data was not available, estimated 2021 data was used. Results reflect the exclusion of Hangzhou Haomusi Food Co., Ltd. (Be & Cheery) and certain Scope 3 emissions for other acquisitions where data is not available
2 Results reflect the exclusion of Be & Cheery
3 Results reflect the exclusion of SodaStream and Be & Cheery
4 Based on our Top 23 convenient foods markets, which represent 86% of our global convenient foods volume as of 2021
5 Our global progress is based on our Top 26 beverage markets, which represent 79% of our global beverages volume as of 2021
6 Our global progress is based on our Top 23 convenient foods markets, which represent 86% of our global convenient foods volume as of 2021. Results reflect the exclusion of Be & Cheery

SOURCE PepsiCo, Inc.