PepsiCo Pursues a World Where Packaging Isn’t Waste

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For the last few years, PepsiCo has made its ultimate sustainability goals clear. As a company that has products consumed more than a billion times a day in more than two hundred countries around the world, the powerhouse brand believes one of its responsibilities is to create a world where packaging never becomes waste.

It is a vision that’s especially critical, considering the company’s robust packing value chain and its potential impacts on human health and human rights. That’s why PepsiCo has showed its commitment to sustainable packaging through three (of many) of initiatives and strategies.

“Sustainable from the Start” and Designing for Sustainability

The “Sustainable from the Start” program sees the company evaluate the environmental footprint of its products during the design stage. It analyzes emissions, water usage, and packaging materials to inform its product development processes. As a result, the company encourages the use of lower-carbon materials wherever it can, including the use of resources like post-consumer recycled content, renewable biomass as feedstock, and reusable packaging.

The company leans on sustainable design standards specific to plastic packaging. As a signatory to the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, PepsiCo has committed to eliminate plastic items it doesn’t need; to innovate so all plastic it uses is design to be safely reused, recycled and composted; and to circulate everything it uses to keep it in the economy and out of the environment.

Sustainable Sourcing of Fiber and Other Bio-Based Materials

One of PepsiCo’s ambitious goals has been to realize zero deforestation in company-owned and operated activities and in global supply chains, including fiber supply chains. From direct supplier to source of production, the company seeks to source wood fibers for packaging that originate from certified forests. For other bio-based packaging materials, the company aligns with globally accepted standards and gets certifications from credible third parties.

As procurement director of paperboard and corrugate packaging in North America, Patricia Diaz spends a lot of time working with colleagues to bolster the company’s efforts on these fronts. She oversees initiatives related to all fiber-based packaging materials in North America, including cups, cartons, and anything in cardboard.

Like many other leaders in the company driving its sustainability strategy, she works to source materials, look at cutting-edge innovation, develops supplier partnerships, and implements strategies that reduce the use of materials.

Packaging Partnerships and Engagement

To pursue its sustainability goals, PepsiCo has also leveraged a wide variety of partnerships. It’s an investor in the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, a nonprofit organization partnering with business, government, and civil society to create and scale innovative solutions to end plastic waste around the world with a focus on communities vulnerable to the risk of plastic leakage.

It’s a member of the Business Coalition for a Global Treaty on Plastic Pollution, which brings together businesses and financial institutions committed to developing an ambitious and legally binding UN Treaty to end plastic pollution.

The company also is a founding investor in Circulate Capital’s Ocean Fund, which invests in solutions to reduce ocean plastic pollution in South and Southeast Asia.