PepsiCo is making significant progress on its long-term sustainability goals. To meet those goals, Pepsi has launched a number of projects over the past two years. Pepsi has committed to reducing water consumption by 20 percent by 2015. Additionally, it will cut electricity consumption by 20 percent and fuel consumption by 25 percent per unit of production, as compared to 2006 figures.

In order to get a head start on its water goal, Pepsi has been using new technology and employee education to save nearly 1.5 billion gallons in the last year. In particular, the company has created a proprietary air-rinse technology to clean new bottles, eliminating the need for water in that step of manufacturing.

Pepsi has also turned to alternative power sources for its facilities. A subsidiary, Frito-Lay, built a solar concentrator field earlier this year to power the manufacturing of SunChips. PepsiCo has also turned to landfill gas to operate two of its other U.S. manufacturing facilities as well as using biomass to operate several facilities in India. Pepsi has also taken additional steps to reduce electricity use, including converting freezer and refrigeration systems to less-energy intensive systems. When adopting the new system at the Tropicana facility in Bradenton, Florida, Pepsi found that the new system preserves the freshness of juices without needing to freeze the product.

Image — PepsiCo