Land and Packaging

As a global food and beverage company, agriculture is perhaps the largest element of our eco-footprint, so we work hard to continually improve our agricultural processes. PepsiCo also invests in new knowledge and innovation in farming practices, which can improve the welfare of communities affected by our agricultural supply chain.

Our Goals and Commitments

• Apply proven sustainable agricultural practices on our farmed land.
• Provide funding, technical support and training to local farmers.
• Promote environmental education and best practices among our associates and business partners.
• Integrate our policies and actions on human health, agriculture and the environment to make sure that they support each other.

PepsiCo has implemented numerous initiatives at the regional and brand levels to support and drive our agricultural goals:

In 2009, through Tropicana in the U.S. and Red Sky chips in the UK, we introduced landmark sustainability initiatives jointly with our consumers and Cool Earth, a not-for-profit organization, to "rescue the rainforest." Working together, this initiative preserved more than 135 million square feet of threatened land.

Naked Juice became the first U.S.-based juice company to team up with the Rainforest Alliance, an international nonprofit organization working to protect wildlife and the environment. Naked Juice procures bananas, which are used in 80% of its products, only from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms. Certification from the Rainforest Alliance is earned by farms that meet strict social and environmental criteria.

In Mexico, our snacks food business, Sabritas, actively participates in a program that contributes to the overall development of low-income farming families in corn-producing communities. In 2009, the Sabritas/Fundar partnership, through its Educampo program, positively impacted the lives of 297 farmers in Mexico. It increased their yield of corn, increased their income by 165%, and provided 57,850 hours of education and training on good agricultural practices.

In China we're sharing water conservation techniques with our local farmers. These efforts have cut the water usage required to grow potatoes for Lay's potato chips in China by more than half.  And now, we're continuing to pioneer new methods to reduce agricultural water use in China and around the world by millions of liters.

During 2010, we will adapt current health and environmental impact assessment approaches to new business plans. For PepsiCo, these issues are critical for the long-term sustainability of our business and for the communities we serve. We are now strengthening our relationships with internal and external stakeholders to create a coherent and transparent strategy for achieving this goal.

Learn More:
The Promise of PepsiCo 
 Download our Sustainable Agriculture Policy (PDF, 44.4KB)

Every day, our consumers interact with our company and our brands through packaging. Our goal is to design and develop packaging systems that are environmentally responsible throughout their entire life cycle and to inspire consumers who are seeking ways to live more environmentally sustainable lives.

Our Goals and Commitments

• Continue to lead the industry by incorporating at least 10% recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) in our primary soft drink containers in the U.S., and broadly expand the use of rPET across key international markets.
• Create partnerships that promote the increase of U.S. beverage container recycling rates to 50% by 2018.
• Reduce packaging weight by 350 million pounds–avoiding the creation of one billion pounds of landfill waste by 2012.
• Work to eliminate all solid waste to landfills from our production facilities.

Across the world, we continue to make progress against our goals:

PepsiCo continues to be the industry leader in our use of rPET with 10% recycled content in carbonated soft drink bottles in the U.S. as recognized by organizations like As You Sow.

We are also one-third of the way to our 2012 goal of reducing packaging weight by 350 million pounds, avoiding one billion pounds of landfill waste over the three-year term of this goal.

In the U.S., we began a program to reduce the weight of the plastic cap and bottle threads to reduce material. Our efforts have reduced bottle waste by more than six million pounds so far, and we are to convert all U.S. beverage manufacturing facilities to the lighter-weight bottle/cap by the end of 2011. We have expanded this program to our China beverage business, where more than 85% of the beverage manufacturing facilities had been converted by 2009.

Today, every 10 ½ ounce size SunChips bag is made with renewable, plant based materials. This is just one of the steps Frito-Lay is taking to reduce the amount of non-renewable materials they use for packaging — in 2010, Frito-Lay's SunChips brand will introduce the first fully compostable snack chip bag made from plant-based materials.

In 2008, PepsiCo UK pledged to achieve zero landfill waste across its total supply chain within 10 years. By the end of 2009, all of its manufacturing facilities hit the target of no longer sending waste to landfill.

We continue to engage in partnerships that support efforts to decrease litter and increase recycling. PepsiCo has been the long time beverage sponsor of Keep America Beautiful's Great American Clean-Up, the largest volunteer clean-up program in the nation.  As a result:

• 64 million pounds of litter and debris were removed from public lands and rights-of-way, including 95,000 acres of parks and public lands, nearly 9,000 miles of rivers, lakes and shorelines, over 10,000 acres of wetlands, and 7,800 miles of hiking, biking and nature trails.
• 3,200 parks and community recreation areas were improved, restored or constructed;
• 4,750 illegal dumpsites were remediated.

Increasing awareness about the importance of recycling is part of the program. 

• More than 243 million plastic (PET) bottles were collected for recycling, many through school-based programs, which is nearly 30% more than were collected in 2008.
• The 6.9 million pounds of electronics collected for recycling represented a 30% increase over 2008
• Moreover, volunteers kept 14.5 million pounds of aluminum and steel out of landfills through their collection efforts, a 42% increase.
• 870,000 tires were collected for recycling.
• 36 million pounds of newspaper were collected for recycling.

Although beverage container litter has decreased by 74.4% since 1969, we know the job is not done.  That is why our commitment remains very strong to supporting efforts to reduce packaging waste. 

Learn more:
The Promise of PepsiCo 
 Download our Packaging Policy (PDF, 44.4KB)