PepsiCo’s New ESG Summary Offers First Look at Progress Toward Industry-Leading PepsiCo Positive Goals

Kathmandu:  PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) today published its first Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Summary since the launch of PepsiCo Positive (pep+), a strategic end-to-end business transformation with sustainability and human capital at the center of how the company will create growth and value. The 2021 ESG Summary – an evolution from PepsiCo’s prior Sustainability Reports – highlights how the company is leveraging its brands, people and scale to chart a new course to drive positive action for the planet and people. It also highlights progress made on industry-leading commitments.

pep+ is embedded in every part of PepsiCo’s business and the 2021 ESG Summary details initial progress and real-world examples across three pillars – Positive Agriculture, Positive Value Chain and Positive Choices. Highlights include:

Positive Agriculture

o Helped to spread the adoption of regenerative agriculture practices across more than 345,000 acres – progress toward its goal of seven million acres, the approximate equivalent of PepsiCo’s agricultural footprint, by 2030.

o Supported the livelihoods of female farmers and rural communities via initiatives such as the $20 million USAID partnership to develop women-led enterprises and the $2 million Next Generation Agriculture Fund with the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), to demonstrate the impact of gender-smart solutions along our agricultural supply chains in Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Guatemala. These programs mark initial action towards a new pep+ goal to improve the livelihoods of more than 250,000 people in PepsiCo’s agricultural supply chain and communities, including by economically empowering women.

o In 28 demonstration farms in India, we saw average yield improvements of almost 7% and reduced GHG emissions by more than 7%, resulting in farmer income increase of $55 per acre on average yielded value for farmers, the environment and the business (percent increases observed in a control plot vs a demonstration plot).

o PepsiCo is working with USAID in West Bengal to empower women farmers and expand their horizons by educating them on sustainable farming practices, best irrigation, and crop rotation techniques, financial literacy, entrepreneurship, etc. through training programs.

o In partnership with USAID, PepsiCo in India has trained more than 1000 women in potato agronomy and sustainable farming practices since 2019 with a goal of reaching 500 additional women farmers in 2022

Positive Value Chain

o Reduced Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 25 percent from a 2015 baseline, with more than 70 percent of global electricity needs in direct operations now met by renewable sources. In 2021, Scope 3 emissions – which account for 93 percent of the company’s emissions – increased by 5 percent[1] from a 2015 baseline, due largely to unprecedented business growth.

o Improved operational water-use efficiency by 18 percent in high water-risk areas from a 2015 baseline, against a target of 25 percent by 2025[2] and replenished 34 percent of water used in operations to local watersheds[3] in 2021– more than 6.1 billion liters of water. In addition, PepsiCo continued to advance safe water access globally to more than 68 million people since 2006 (Of this, over 27 million beneficiaries are from India.), putting the company more than halfway to its 2030 goal of 100 million people.

o PepsiCo has implemented N-Drip’s technology with farmers in India and saw improved crop yields, reduced fertilizer usage, with an average reduction of 39 percent water consumption compared to flood irrigation in states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Rajasthan.

Positive Choices

o Four years ahead of schedule in 2021, PepsiCo attained its saturated fat reduction goal of 75%2 of its convenient foods portfolio[4] not exceeding 1.1 grams of saturated fat per 100 Calories. In addition, 53% of PepsiCo’s beverage portfolio volume now has less than 100 Calories from added sugars per 12oz. serving[5] and 66% of its convenient foods portfolio volume does not exceed 1.3 milligrams of sodium per Calorie[6].

o PepsiCo in India has been working to improve the nutritional status of pregnant & lactating women and children in the age group 0-6 years in Sangrur, Punjab in partnership with Smile Foundation.

o Launched ‘Bowl of Hope’ initiative in India in 2021 with its brand Quaker in partnership with Smile Foundation, to provide over 1 lakh nutritious bowls of whole grains to underserved communities across the country.

“PepsiCo’s commitment and action to create a more sustainable and resilient food system is unwavering and we are proud of the progress that we have made in 2021 toward our new and updated pep+ goals,” said Jim Andrew, Chief Sustainability Officer, PepsiCo. “Our aim is to decouple so our business can grow sustainably, while decreasing environmental impacts. There is still much more work to be done and we cannot do it alone, so we – in partnership with our value chain partners, communities, NGOs and government leaders – will continue investing in action, innovation and partnerships that enable us all to realize a more sustainable future.”

The digital 2021 ESG Summary was designed to link seamlessly with PepsiCo’s ESG Topics A-Z, an evergreen deep-dive on PepsiCo’s approach and progress for roughly 50 sustainability-related topics. In addition to ongoing transparency in reporting, PepsiCo will continue to publish its ESG Summary annually.