PepsiCo launches new sustainability platform

PepsiCo, the American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in New York, has announced the launch of a new platform that delivers sustainable solutions to its customers. The platform called pep+ Partners for Tomorrow aims to support PepsiCo customers in meeting their sustainability objectives. This initiative underscores the importance of a robust sustainability strategy in today’s business landscape, enabling companies to align their operations with environmental and social goals.

With the launch of the platform, PepsiCo will be able to help customers as they search for bespoke solutions to enhance their sustainability efforts. They claim the platform will offer customer sustainability offerings under a single platform, to deliver solutions most needed by their partners, and they will work closely with them to implement the practices.

These programmes align with pep+ (PepsiCo Positive), a strategic end-to-end business transition created to drive long-term sustainable business performance and value, with human capital and sustainability at the centre. It will initially launch with US customers in mind, but PepsiCo has plans to expand the programme to crucial worldwide markets by 2024.  

PepsiCo believes its retail customers are its true partners, especially when it comes to tackling worldwide challenges like the impacts of climate change. Through the launch of the platform and its strong portfolio of solutions, PepsiCo is taking a vital step forward in how they collaborate with its customers to drive progress toward key sustainability goals, drive commercial value together, and meet consumer demands. 

What do the Partners for Tomorrow programmes include?

PepsiCo has numerous initiatives that strive to reduce the company’s environmental footprint. One of these includes CIRQU, which is the latest evolution of the PBNA-led programme primarily known as BottleLoop. It includes the on-demand collection of recyclable beverage containers for retail and food service customers, which will be processed and reclaimed by Pepsi to be turned into recycled PET packaging. 

They have partnered with Replenysh to make the process not only seamless but also free for its customers to ensure that glass, aluminium, and plastic containers are collected and recycled and that the recycled materials are reused by being integrated into the supply chain. According to the manufacturer, Replenysh, the CIRQU initiative will now serve five times as many communities in 2022 as it did in 2021. 

Now, there are more than 250 host locations that are actively collecting material across 58 communities and 10 different states. To achieve its goal of having 20% of all beverage servings it sells delivered via reusable models by 2030, PepsiCo is also exploring a number of reusable cup solutions with partners in various regions. These solutions complement the CIRQU initiative. PepsiCo is also launching a regenerative agriculture programme under the new sustainability platform. 

The sow+ Agriculture (Sow Positive Agriculture) programme was developed to give PFNA and PBNA customers the opportunity to invest directly in initiatives to convert agricultural land into regeneratively farmed acreage and to help PepsiCo and its suppliers advance towards regenerative agriculture goals. These investments will directly help farmers through grants and loans. The aim is to convert their land to new, more sustainable practices, which help reduce erosion, improve water quality, and enhance soil health.

This initiative provides a forum for bringing together key players in the industry to talk about regenerative farming‘s trends, ideas, dangers, and opportunities. Additionally, PepsiCo will host its annual North American Customer Sustainability Summit, which will provide consumers with information on how to advance in their sustainability journeys. Attendees will hear from a range of external and internal thought leaders who have managed to successfully collaborate to boost progress toward sustainability goals. Finally, there is the pep+REnew collaboration which launched in 2022. 

The plan improves access to renewable energy for value chain partners as part of the company’s objectives to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040. PepsiCo recognises that many SMEs face difficulties when trying to participate in the renewable electricity market. With this in mind, the pep+REnew programme has been created with two primary goals in mind – to educate PepsiCo’s value chain partners about renewable energy and to speed up the transition to renewable energy via aggregate power purchase agreements (PPAs) and renewable electricity procurement options.