2Sustain

This past Sunday, March 22, marked the 17th anniversary of World Water Day, an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The theme for this year’s event was “Transboundary waters: sharing water, sharing opportunities,” and over the past few weeks, it has been great to see global corporations stepping forward to recognize World Water Day, as they reaffirm their commitment to responsible water stewardship.

Case in point: PepsiCo. On Friday, PepsiCo positioned itself as an international water stewardship leader by announcing an ambitious agenda of global initiatives. Essentially, the company is pursuing a two-pronged approach. First, PepsiCo is improving water efficiencies within its own operations. Second, the company is committed to working with communities and other organizations to increase access to clean water around the world.

Here are a few of PepsiCo’s water stewardship initiatives:

• PepsiCo plans to reduce water consumption per unit of production by 20% by 2015 (as compared to 2006 consumption). In 2007, PepsiCo saved nearly 1.5 billion gallons of water, compared to consumption in 2006.

• The company says it will use new technology, information sharing, and employee initiatives to reduce water consumption and increase water re-use. For instance, comprehensive "water mapping" at manufacturing facilities has helped pinpoint areas for manufacturing process innovation, and in the U.K., PepsiCo's Walkers unit has reduced the amount of water used per kilogram of crisps by 42% between 2001 and 2007.

• PepsiCo is also working to support individuals' rights to access sufficient clean water in the communities where PepsiCo operates. The corporation is also advocating for these rights right more broadly through strategic approaches across the enterprise.

• The PepsiCo Foundation has committed to investing nearly $16 million to bring safe water to those in need in India and other emerging markets.

• PepsiCo, along with other industry leaders, supports policy initiatives, such as the United Nations CEO Water Mandate, that advocate for stronger action on global water issues. In fact, earlier this month, PepsiCo signed the Declaration on U.S. Policy and the Global Challenge of Water, which calls for stronger efforts to address water as one of the most important strategic challenges of our time.

"Water is critical to life, and essential to our business," says PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi. "We recognize the impact of our business on each community in which we operate, and likewise the impact of our communities on our business. We mark World Water Day, mindful of our collective responsibility to find even more ways to protect and ensure this limited resource."

In other news from the PepsiCo sustainability platform, GreenBiz.com reported yesterday that PepsiCo’s Quaker, Gatorade, and Tropicana businesses will soon be shipping all their products on plastic, rather than wood, pallets. These new pallets from Intelligent Global Pooling Systems  are 30% lighter than wood, which means less weight to ship. They also contain embedded RFID tags that allow tracking and tracing loads throughout the supply chain.

FYI: Coca-Cola’s commitment to water sustainability is impressive, as well. Details are available in this article, by Sanjay Guha, President of Coca-Cola Great Britain.