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PepsiCo, which holds 23 food and beverage brands, announced Tuesday that it hopes to become “net water positive” by 2030.
The company, which has more than 1,000 company-owned and third-party facilities in high-risk watersheds, announced in a release that it hopes to reduce its water usage by 50% and avoid using more than 11 billion liters, or 2.9 billion gallons, a year.
The company also plans to adopt the Alliance for Water Stewardship Standard by 2025 in areas with high water risks.
“Water scarcity is directly linked to the climate crisis, and at PepsiCo we believe a global effort to be 'net water positive' is essential,” said Jim Andrew, the chief sustainability officer at PepsiCo. “We're focused not only on making sure people around the world have access to this vital resource, but ensuring that we are also prioritizing water stewardship in our operations everywhere."
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The overarching goal of the initiative is to reduce overall water use and allow more than 100% of the water used at PepsiCo sites to be returned to the local watersheds it came from. Through the “Net Water Positive” initiative, PepsiCo hopes to improve safe water access for 100 million people by 2030.
According to the release, the company has also announced a new investment with WaterAid — an organization focused on providing people around the globe with access to clean water, toilets and good hygiene — to improve water infrastructure and sanitation facilities in sub-Saharan Africa. It will also try to promote hygiene education in that region.
“We're proud of our continued partnership with WaterAid to bring this program to the region and are excited to be investing in the water-scarce areas that need this resource most,” said C.D. Glin, the vice president and global head of philanthropy at PepsiCo.
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