Professional Documents
Culture Documents
sustainability and the natural environment. A myriad of factors appears towards driving firms
into investing in practices and organizational cultures that can be termed as corporate
sustainability management, this does include the scientific insights regarding the relationship of
human ecosystems and activities, the economic as well as social demands of the customers,
investors, employees as well activists as to how companies are supposed to approach the natural
environment. This does also entail the public policies which forbid or require business activities
towards ecosystems. The current practices of corporate sustainability management have actually
been infused with ethical dilemmas and questions. Understanding what sustainability entails
enables firms to frame the problems and solutions that will be faced by the individual firms
(Schuler et al., 2017). The focus of this paper will be to critique the sustainability policies and
practices of PepsiCo. More so, the paper will attempt to discuss the issues such as how the firm
is fairing with the eco-efficiency categories in the cradle to cradle as well as how effective the
Pepsi Company enrolled out a global sustainable agenda that was designed towards
fostering continued growth of business in manners that correspond to the changing societal and
consumer needs. The company did this by placing efforts towards the creation of a healthier
relationship among people and food and this did include specific 2025 goals that will continue
towards transforming the companys food and beverage products portfolio and hence contribute
towards a more sustainable global food system and thereafter make the local communities into
being more prosperous. The company in its annual report of 2009 made a firm promise of
protecting the natural resources of earth through innovation as well as having a more efficient
use of energy, land, water and packaging within the operations of the firm. The subsequent goals
that followed did set forth an improvement of their water use efficiency up to 20% per unit of
production by the year 2015 as well as improving their electricity usage efficiency by up to 20%
in the units of production by 2015. They also promised towards reducing the greenhouse gas
In its HBR 5 stages, the company has largely three sustainability projects. Human
the company continually transforming the products so as to meet the needs of the customers.
This they do so by applying several approaches. The first approach is product responsibility
whereby the company considers the wellness and safety of individuals by moving towards a
more nutritious end of spectrum of food products. The company does have quality and safety
programs which ensure that they are able to produce the safest and highest quality as well as best
tasting foods and beverages in all parts of the world. This they do by developing as well as
maintaining robust food programs that ensure safety in each and every package by following the
companys procedures that are designed to ensure the highest quality standards are met.
The position of the company in its eco-efficiency eco-effective category relative to its
environmental sustainability policies and practices entails a wide area of solutions that the
company has offered towards environmental sustainability. The company has done this by
focusing its environmental sustainability efforts towards energy, water as well as packaging and
solid waste areas. These areas are known to play a huge impact and focusing on them enable the
company to achieve its policies and practices in an effective manner. The key elements that are
ensuring its values of ensuring the world is safer, greener and healthy.
The has in order to ensure that it is eco-efficient and eco-effective in the products its
delivering decided to develop 100% green bottles that are made from bio-based raw materials
such as the corn husks, pine bark and switch grass. In doing so the company in its packaging has
ensured that is one that is sustainable for a longer term as well as it is able to minimize the waste
The company did additionally create the eco-challenge. This is an initiative that was
conceived towards finding the solutions of the challenges PepsiCo identified. They were
environmental education and access to safe water. The company has also identified that in order
to find solutions towards the complex challenges as well as opportunities that are there, there is
then the need of pre-determining the path of engagement that will be directed towards the youth.
By doing so, Pepsi was able to align these activities in accordance with its culture of
performance with purpose thus being able to create a sustained value and environment for the
young individuals.
Among the metrics Pepsi corporation have employed of developing new business models
include the reducing water consumption by 20%, electricity by 20% as well as fuel consumption
by 25% by 2015 were informed by their established protocols of energy and water measurement
in its 2005 report. This led into rolling out the metrics the year 2006. The company has since
then been undertaking yearly data reports that are compared against each other thereafter
implemented towards fitting the metrics in the diverse areas the companies wants to have
(ESLT), which entails senior executive offers from all the functions and they ensure that the
environmental impacts are actually considered in all the regions of the business. The ESLT is
assessing the strengths and gaps of performance relative to the aspirations as well as external
environmental sustainability performance of PepsiCo, advising and informing the CEO and
environmental sustainability. Thus, apart from the above listed functions of ESLT, it is also
mandated towards ensuring there is a uniform system wide metric practices, standards and
policies that have sensible environmental goals and that it is accurate in its reporting towards the
internal and the external shareholders (McNall et al., 2011). All divisions are held responsible
towards implementing their own environmental programs as well conducting activities such as
training associates, monitoring, tracking, improving and correcting the environmental aspects of
the company.
More so, the company in order to achieve the environmental sustainability has placed on
itself pressure towards ensuring the global food supply as well as the ecosystems by ensuring
that the nutritional demands as well as the health issues that face a growing number of the global
population are met. The company has also increased its regulatory and legislative activities in
regards to the critical topics such as climate change and water stewardship ("PepsiCo Global
Sustainable Agriculture Policy", 2014). By being able to tackle these issues, it has enabled them
towards creating new sets of opportunities and challenges in its business hence they have not
only been able to connect the livestock and crop products but as well as being able to support
their product portfolio which has a complex global supply of thousands of independent farmers
The company has been able to develop strategies that are able to balance the need of
adapting towards the dynamic agricultural environment by being able to respect as well as
preserve the environments and communities which support their supply chains and the health as
swell as nutrition of the global population that is steadily growing. The companys global
sustainable agriculture policy does complement its performance in regard to the vision and
purpose of the company. This policy plays an essential part in the broader and comprehensive
responsibilities of incorporating the applicable portions towards code of conduct of Pepsi, its
safety policy, land use policy and lastly the forestry stewardship policy ("PepsiCo Global
Sustainable Agriculture Policy", 2014). The company does aim into having a continued access
towards the key agricultural raw materials that will be necessary into supplying the growing
needs of consumers while being able to respect the communities and environment that are
involved towards producing the raw materials. This they do by recognizing that the challenge lies
in the need of making farming to be more productive while being able to take care of the farm
animals, preserve the natural resources as well as contribute towards the development of
In considering the 5 HBR stages of sustainability, the company has fared well in its 5
chains sustainable such as workplace, operations supply chains and returns, c) designing of
sustainable products and services, d) developing of new business models and lastly e) creating
next practice platforms. This is evidenced from the company being a member as well as partner
with other organizations that are concerned towards achieving global sustainability standards
(Kulkarni, 2017). The company reports annually regarding its overall sustainability through the
global reporting initiative, it being a member of the world economic forum and the world
business council on sustainable development ensures that it is committed towards improving the
The other facet where the company is striving towards ensuring there is sustainability is
in making value chains sustainable through its human sustainability and talent sustainability. In
ensuring there is talent sustainability, the company strives towards attracting the highest and best
caliber associates that will be able to assist them towards achieving the goals they strive by
2017). In order to achieve this, the company does have a strong commitment into having
strong safety and health programs including such as the HIV/AIDS program, the shareholder
program does provide stock options towards eligible associates all over the globe and does
rating, the company has a score of 4.5 since it is evident from the discussions above that PepsiCo
has been dedicated towards ensuring the firm is able to maintain and adhere towards
sustainability programs that cover a wide range. The company has exhibited its character of
employing diverse sustainability programs that are aimed towards ensuring it maintains sound
is sustainable through the tenets of energy, water and food products have been adhered to by the
company by harnessing its efficiency and effectiveness in using these resources so as to ensure
the natural resources and other resources are used in an effective and efficient manner.
References
PepsiCo Launches 2025 Sustainability Agenda Designed to Meet Changing Consumer and
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pepsico-launches-2025-sustainability-agenda-
designed-to-meet-changing-consumer-and-societal-needs-597279831.html
http://www.csrworld.net/pepsico%E2%80%93corporate-social-responsibility.asp
McNall, S. G., Hershauer, J. C., & Basile, G. (2011). The business of sustainability: Trends,
Schuler, D., Rasche, A., Etzion, D., & Newton, L. (2017, April). Guest Editors