PepsiCo has committed to net zero emissions by 2040 – ten years ahead of the Paris agreement – and to a science-based target of a 40% absolute emissions reduction across its entire value chain by 2030.
PepsiCo’s Positive Agriculture strategy is anchored by a goal to spread regenerative farming practices across 7 million acres globally by 2030, approximately equal to its entire agricultural footprint. The company estimates the effort will eliminate at least 3 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by the end of the decade.
To support its Positive Agriculture vision in Europe, PepsiCo is rolling out a technology to produce low emission fertiliser made from potato waste from its Walkers and Lay’s factories.
It has already made significant progress in reducing emissions in the company’s own operations by achieving reductions of 23% globally in 2020. In Europe, 13 of its markets now use 100% renewable electricity. PepsiCo’s new plant in Swiete, Poland, will be its most sustainable foods manufacturing plant in Europe. As well as being powered using renewable electricity, including from an onsite solar facility, its heating, cooling and water will be reused.
Packaging is a significant contributor to carbon emissions, so PepsiCo is working to help build a circular economy in which less of its packaging becomes waste and its carbon intensity is reduced. For example, PepsiCo is aggressively increasing the amount of recycled PET that it uses in its plastic bottles, with a commitment to move Pepsi in eleven European markets into 100% recycle plastic (rPET) bottles by 2022.
PepsiCo is also putting sustainability at the heart of its product innovation process. Its Sustainable from the Start program enables all PepsiCo teams involved in product development, from concept to launch, to consider the environmental impacts of their decisions.
Further information about PepsiCo’s approach to greenhouse gas reduction can be found here.
