PepsiCo doubles regenerative farming footprint to over 1.8 million acres

PepsiCo has published its 2023 progress report on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) results. The 2023 ESG Reporting Suite includes the ESG Summary, ESG Topics A-Z and the ESG Data Hub, providing a detailed update on pep+, their global transformation program that seeks to drive long-term business performance and value.

In 2023, PepsiCo achieved some goals ahead of schedule, introduced new ones and made strong progress on others, while certain goals, including with respect to packaging, continue to present challenges.

According to PepsiCo, through a wide range of innovation, strategic investment, ground-breaking partnerships and the multitude of actions pursued by our 318,000 global associates, the company:

  • Reduced Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 13% and total Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 5% year over year;
  • Reduced our use of virgin plastic derived from non-renewable sources by 4% year over year;
  • Doubled our global regenerative farming footprint to more than 1.8 million acres;
  • Recorded a 25% improvement in water-use efficiency at high water-risk company-owned locations when compared to a 2015 baseline—reaching this goal two years ahead of schedule;
  • Helped more than 10 million people gain access to safe water, bringing the total to more than 91 million since 2006; and
  • Introduced two new goals to reduce sodium and deliver diverse ingredients—36% of our foods volume was at or below these new sodium targets and we delivered 75 billion portions of diverse ingredients.

Three years into our pep+ journey, it’s clear the focus we have driven throughout the business is working in many areas.  Our use of virgin plastics is down year-over-year and our total Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions are down compared to 2022, as well as versus our 2015 baseline.  This is all to be celebrated. However, the road ahead will continue to present challenges. We continue assessing where to devote time and resources to deliver meaningful impact and ensure we are focusing our efforts. Building strong and strategic partnerships with other scale players and adopting and scaling breakthrough technologies are central to our strategy.

Jim Andrew, Chief Sustainability Officer at PepsiCo

Please refer to PepsiCo’s complete ESG Reporting Suite assets for a full overview of PepsiCo’s 2023 pep+ results.

Downloads: This year’s digital summary and all associated downloadable assets are available here.