CDP Climate A List (view our 2020 CDP response).

Bonsucro Inspire Award, which honors changemakers in sustainable sugar cane.

Rabobank Excellence in Food and Agriculture Leadership Award.

Field to Market Collaboration of the Year for U.S.-based Precision Conservation Management Innovation Project along with the Illinois Corn Growers Association and the Sustainable Food Lab.

Corporate Secretary Best ESG Reporting and Corporate Governance Team of the Year (Large Cap) at the annual Corporate Governance Awards.

CR Magazine’s “100 Best Corporate Citizens.”

PepsiCo invests heavily in renewable electricity sources, including wind, solar, anaerobic digestion, as well as in cleaner transport and distribution technologies for our fleet. In 2020, we joined RE100, an initiative led by The Climate Group in partnership with CDP to bring together the world’s most influential companies committed to 100% renewable electricity. In early 2021, on the heels of signing the RE100 pledge, we launched our ambitious new goal to transition to renewable electricity globally by 2040. Specifically, we plan to

source 100% renewable electricity across all company-owned and controlled operations globally by 2030, and across our entire franchise and third-party operations by 2040.

To achieve 100% renewable electricity globally, PepsiCo will employ a diversified portfolio of solutions, including Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) that will support the development of new projects such as solar and wind farms around the world, as well as through purchased energy certificates that will enable the near-term transition to renewable sources in many geographies.

As of 2020, we are well on our way, meeting nearly 60% of our current global needs from renewable sources. Twelve European markets are already using 100% renewable electricity, and we have renewable energy sources such as wind turbines, solar, photovoltaic panels or biomass generators installed on-site at 13 facilities in the region. In 2020, we achieved 100% renewable electricity for our U.S. direct operations – PepsiCo’s largest market. By the end of 2021, 15 countries in our direct operations are expected to be fully sourcing renewable electricity.

PepsiCo’s Walkers brand is converting leftover organic waste, including potato peelings, into energy with anaerobic digestors at our crisp (potato chip) manufacturing site in the U.K. The anaerobic process produces a biogas, consisting of methane, carbon dioxide and traces of other gases. This biogas can be used directly as fuel, in a combined heat and power unit to generate renewable electricity. The process byproduct then becomes a fertilizer.

This “circular potato” effort improves soil health by using low-carbon and nutrient-rich fertilizer from the potato peelings and is expected to reduce Walkers’ carbon emissions from growing potatoes by 70%, against a 2019 baseline.

Turning Waste Heat Into Energy

We’ve embarked on an innovative project in Mexico and Guatemala to capture waste heat from plant chimneys to pre-heat oil and air, heat water and generate steam, cold water or air conditioning. This system reduces the need for fuel and electricity in boilers, heat exchangers and chillers, leading to reductions in energy use per plant by up to 10%. We have installed several of these systems in Mexico and across Latin America and will extend this proven technology to other sites to further reduce our emissions.

One of the key ways we can move toward cleaner logistics is by moving our products in a way that has a lower carbon impact. In Latin America, PepsiCo has begun moving toward a fleet that’s driving a significant reduction in emissions.

Across Mexico, our more than 300 hybrid trucks are 40% more efficient (per truck) than conventional diesel trucks.

In Mexico and Brazil, our nearly 30 compressed natural gas (CNG) trucks helped us decrease CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions by more than 30% and NOx (nitrogen oxide) emissions by 98% per truck.
In 2021, we expect to acquire more CNG trucks for our Latin
American sites.

Frito-Lay has made significant progress in the transformation of its Modesto, California manufacturing site. The 500,000-square-foot Modesto facility’s implementation of zero and near-zero emissions freight technologies in 2020 has led to sustainable impact – reducing the Modesto site fleet’s absolute GHG emissions by more than half (53%), or 2,790 metric tons of absolute GHG emissions, as well as lowering fleet diesel usage by 78%. The site has also achieved 100% renewable electricity for direct operations through a combination of on-site generation and renewable electricity certificates.

Route Optimization in Russia

Throughout Europe, PepsiCo is expanding our use of AI technology to enable better logistics planning and reduce emissions in distribution. In Russia, where the program has rolled out, we used analytics technology to map and model a more efficient manufacturing footprint for our snacks business, which led to locating a new snacks factory in Siberia. This decision is expected to help to avoid an estimated 10.5% GHG emissions in our snacks transport by 2025.

Vending Machines and Coolers

We have a goal to reduce absolute Scope 3 GHG emissions by at least 20% by 2030. One project helping to reduce our Scope 3 emissions is rolling out improvements in vending and cooler equipment in retail, in which we reduced GHG emissions by 50% in 2020, compared to 2015, by offering more energy-efficient models as replacements. Transitioning to hydrofluorocarbon (HFC)-free equipment has been a major focus for PepsiCo. All of our company-owned units in Europe and North America are now HFC-free, and we have set a goal of transitioning all units globally by 2025.

In particular, we collaborate with farmers to use low-emissions fertilizer, precision agriculture technology and cover crops that improve soil health, to reduce GHGs and capture carbon in the soil. Across our global network of Demonstration Farms, including in Mexico, Brazil, Pakistan, Thailand, India and Vietnam, we’re using sustainable practices to reduce carbon

emissions while increasing yields and farmer livelihoods. To improve the carbon footprint of our packaging, we are working toward an ambitious reduction target in our use of virgin plastic by light-weighting, finding new ways to use recycled plastic (rPET) and using low-carbon, renewable materials in our packaging.

Supplier Engagement

In April 2020, we joined with Guidehouse, Mars, Incorporated and McCormick & Company to form the Supplier Leadership on Climate Transition consortium (Supplier LoCT), to engage and assist suppliers in climate action and solutions. This initiative provides suppliers with the resources, tools and knowledge they need to progress toward and achieve their climate goals. The collaborators mentor and train suppliers in GHG emissions reduction strategies and recognize suppliers for their progress, and in so doing help the Supplier LoCT members meet their own science-based climate targets.

Internal Carbon Pricing

We are implementing innovative processes that enable GHG emissions mitigation, including two internal carbon pricing programs. The first seeks to eliminate the carbon impact of employee air travel, while the second is aimed at building carbon impact into carrier selection for third-party logistics in North America. These efforts will help to reinforce climate considerations in our business decisions and we will continue to roll out additional programs that enable GHG emissions mitigation.

We’re working to cut carbon emissions across our value chain by more than 40% by 2030 – more than doubling our previous climate objective. Our goal is to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040, one full decade earlier than called for in the Paris Agreement.

Sustainable from the Start

We’re working to put sustainable thinking at the center of product design. Created in 2017, our Sustainable from the Start program empowers product developers to consider the environment at each stage of the product life cycle, from design, manufacturing and packaging to transportation and end of life. It provides tools to estimate carbon and water footprints of products in development that can then be compared against category or product average benchmarks. The tools also help determine the recyclability of packaging formats chosen.

Transparent Environmental Labeling

We encourage consumers to make better choices for the planet through transparent environmental labeling. In 2020, we created guidelines for PepsiCo brands that serve as a best practices toolkit for on-pack sustainability communications, highlighting product sustainability attributes and encouraging proper packaging disposal. Created in partnership with the PepsiCo Design Center, the toolkit includes a set of icons intended to help our brands that seek to put elective environmental claims on-pack.