PepsiCo has expanded its regenerative agriculture goal, with the food and beverage giant now seeking to drive the adoption of regenerative, restorative, or protective practices across 10 million acres by 2030.
This is up from a previous goal of 7 million acres by 2030, with the group seeking to ‘reduce agricultural emissions, enhance biodiversity and watershed health, and help raise the standard of living for farmers and farming communities’, as well as promote healthier soil, it said in a statement.
As of the end of 2024, PepsiCo had already implemented regenerative practices on 3.5 million acres of farmland. It recently announced a project to scale up regenerative agriculture in Argentina.
Change of approach
At the same time, however, PepsiCo is reining back some of its commitments related to packaging, with its target to have 100% of its packaging recyclable, compostable, biodegradable or reusable by 2025 updated to a target of 97% by 2030, in ‘primary and secondary packaging in our key packaging markets’.
It has also dropped its commitment to cut virgin plastic from non-renewable sources per serving across its global beverages and convenient foods portfolio by 50% by 2030 – replacing this with a 2% year-on-year reduction template – as well as ‘sunsetting’ its commitment to deliver 20% of all beverage servings it sells through reusable models by 2030.
On water usage, PepsiCo is also ending its goal of achieving ‘world-class water-use efficiency’ in all PepsiCo and third-party manufacturing facilities by 2030 to focus on high water-risk areas. It remains committed to its goal of being ‘net water positive by 2030’, however.
In a statement, PepsiCo said that its revised climate goals reflect the company’s ‘understanding of where it can accelerate impact – striving for greater return on its investments – and where progress will take more time’, due to infrastructure challenges and, notably, ‘changing government approaches’.
‘Important to be transparent’
“We know it’s important that we continue to be transparent about our progress – both our successes and the challenges – and the dynamic realities that our company and the broader industry face today,” commented Jim Andrew, PepsiCo executive vice president and chief sustainability officer.
“Our sustainability journey will not always be linear, but we are focused on doing the work that can both strengthen our business resilience and support a positive impact for the planet. All while remaining agile in our approach, applying learnings across our operations, and sharing them with others to help create a more sustainable food system. We will continue to embed sustainability into our company in ways that aim to enhance the strength, adaptability, and future growth of our business.” Read more here.
