PepsiCo on its way to becoming fossil fuel-free by 2023
PepsiCo is well on its way to becoming one of the world’s most sustainable companies. About a couple of years after it launched its Path to Zero program, the company has released an update on the progress it has made in respect of its environmental targets and its pursuit to become a fossil fuel-free operation by 2023.
The company intends to make all its product packaging renewable, recyclable or bio-degradable. To-wards this end, it introduced Walkers crisp packets last year. Since 2008, the company has reduced energy consumption by 7.3%, landfill waste by 88% and water use by 14.6%. The overall carbon foot-print shrank by 3.7% although business grew by 15% plus over the past two years. The company intends to target agriculture too – it will work with farmers to reduce the carbon and water impacts of their crops by 50% in five years. It believes that it is its responsibility to keep its suppliers and other businesses apprised of the benefits of eliminating carbon from the economy.
Sustainability and the Role of Policymakers
According to the company’s President, building sustainability into the corporate DNA creates longer-term strategic advantage. Sustainable businesses can cut costs, drive innovation, reduce risk, and motivate employees. Policymakers should ensure that environmentally beneficial activities are simple and cheap enough for companies of any size to implement. For instance, his company developed a biomass-combined heat and power boiler which ran on oat husks to power its Quaker factory in Cupar. But the boiler could not be commissioned since the current UK policy had rendered it unviable. A simplified policy framework can help SMEs. There is no incentive to choose renewables. Hence the government should allow businesses to fully benefit from investing in additional off-site renewable energy.
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