When some large companies talk about doing right by the environment, it can sometimes be about as exciting as flat soda. But while large food industry entities unavoidably have substantial impact through their agricultural and transportation inputs, there’s some real sparkle and fizz to the PepsiCo sustainability story.
An integrated approach to the health of the planet and of people has witnessed the New York-based soft drink and foods giant rake in the accolades for its purposeful approach to doing business. We’ve certainly taken note here at Tonic of Pepsi’s outreach and innovations, from their recent development of a ultra high-efficiency soda machine to their $20 million Refresh Project, which the company implemented earlier this year to offer grants ranging from $5K to $250K to help turn community-focused ideas, determined to be great ones by community voting, into reality.
And Pepsi’s example serves to bolster the argument that doing right pays more than it costs. With more than $43 billion in revenues having net just shy of $6 billion in net income during 2009, this is clearly a very large enterprise. But they’re not one that is too big to fail to pay attention to the things that matter. PepsiCo was named one of the world’s most ethical companies by Ethisphere Magazine, who observe that companies that behave ethically outperform, on a financial basis, the broader S&P and the FTSE stock indices.
Here’s a quick rundown, courtesy of the PepsiCo’s expansive and substantial suite of statements that are presented under their Performance With Purpose initiative, of those factors that make PepsiCo stand a cut apart from the rest in terms of transcending traditional methods and modes of thought.
People
It may engender a snicker or eye roll to hear this coming from a maker of soda and chips, but PepsiCo is sincere in their focus on the linkage between nutrition and health. Their Human Sustainability initiative has laid forth the goal of increasing the amount of fruits, grains and nuts in its overall product portfolio as well as to reduce the per serving levels of added sodium, sugar and saturated fat.
Planet
As mentioned above, the sheer scale of the company’s operations necessitates significant energy and water usage, but PepsiCo’s environmental impacts receive top management attention and focus, and are by design treated as integrated components of their broader operations. PepsiCo has its eyes set on 2015, by which point it hopes to have improved its overall operational water efficiency by 20 percent, as well as to have helped 3,000,000 people in developing countries secure reliable access to safe, clean drinking water.
PepsiCo is also striving to minimize the impact of its packaging, and in addition partners with those in their supply chain to ensure that environmental performance goals are met collaboratively.
Profit
PepsiCo’s revenue and earnings statistics certainly involve a pretty long string of zeros. But with this substantial corporate wealth comes a very real sense of responsibility that PepsiCo has embraced to reinvest in and give back to the community. We’ve mentioned Project Refresh, and are even starting to see some of those early seeds beginning to sprout as the first wave of funding has been recently awarded.
The company’s philanthropic arm, PepsiCo Foundation, got their start in 1962 and since then has supported a variety of global initiatives in partnership with public, private, and non-governmental entities in a broad drive to improve the human condition around the world. In 2009 alone, PepsiCo Foundation made nearly $28 million in global philanthropic contributions.
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Photo courtesy of Lukas Stavek via Wikimedia Commons