PepsiCo has signed the Ceres BICEP Climate Declaration and the Prince of Wales’ Corporate Leaders Group Trillion Tonne Communique, and is reporting progress on its energy efficiency initiatives.
“Combating climate change is absolutely critical to the future of our company, customers, consumers and our world,” said Indra Nooyi, chairman & CEO of PepsiCo. “I believe all of us need to take action now. PepsiCo has already taken actions in our operations and throughout our supply chain to future-proof our company, all of which deliver real cost savings, mitigate risk, protect our licence to operate and create resilience in our supply chain.”
PepsiCo announced a goal that, by 2020, all of its future point-of-sale equipment (coolers, vending machines and fountain dispensers) purchased in the US will be HFC-free.
HFCs are a popular chemical coolant and are considered a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) that contributes to climate change. This goal is part of a recently launched partnership with the Obama administration and other US companies, which aims to reduce global consumption of HFCs by the equivalent of 700 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide, or 1.5% of the world’s 2010 GHG emissions, by 2025.
To meet its goal, PepsiCo will begin purchasing new HFC-free equipment starting in 2015. PepsiCo has already begun to phase out HFCs in its equipment outside of the US by buying more than 290,000 HFC-free pieces of equipment since 2009, and by using a 100% HFC-free insulation/foam for all new equipment.
It has also minimised the impact of existing equipment by innovating its coolers and vending machines to improve their energy efficiency by 60% compared with a 2004 baseline. These combined efforts have reduced total GHG emissions by 18% since 2007.
Along with this goal, PepsiCo has become the largest US-based food and beverage industry signatory of the Climate Declaration of the Ceres coalition, Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy (BICEP). PepsiCo also signed the Prince of Wales’ Corporate Leaders Group Trillion Tonne Communique.
“From our longstanding partnership with PepsiCo, and their commitment to ongoing stakeholder engagement, we know this leading food and beverage company understands the critical impact of climate change and the economic benefits of tackling it sooner rather than later,” said Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, a nonprofit organisation mobilising business leadership on climate change and other global sustainability challenges. “We are happy that PepsiCo is continuing to move beyond its own operations and supply chain to urge further action from the private sector and government.”
PepsiCo reported a nearly 14% improvement in global energy efficiency in 2013 when compared with its 2006 baseline. This change represents progress towards PepsiCo’s goal of reducing energy intensity by 20% per unit of production by 2015 and is driven by resource conservation initiatives and conversion to renewable forms of energy. In 2013 alone, energy efficiency efforts delivered estimated cost savings of $75m.
To achieve its goal of sustainable business growth – what the company calls Performance with Purpose – PepsiCo has set specific goals that guide its strategy and operations. Progress on these goals is highlighted in PepsiCo’s new 2013 Corporate Sustainability Report and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) report, and includes:
These actions and broader company initiatives were recently recognised by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI). PepsiCo was named to the DJSI North America Index for the ninth consecutive year and by the DJSI World Index for the eighth consecutive year, with perfect scores in the areas of Code of Conduct/Compliance/Corruption & Bribery, Risk & Crisis Management, Packaging, Labor Practices and Human Rights and Raw Material Sourcing.
To coincide with the release of the Sustainability Report, PepsiCo launched an interactive Pinterest presence, which is a searchable, map-based repository for Performance with Purpose and global citizenship projects told through stories, photographs, videos and links to additional information.
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