PepsiCo Refines Sustainability Goals to Position Business for the Long-Term

Rhea-AI Summary

PepsiCo (PEP) has announced refined sustainability goals under its PepsiCo Positive (pep+) strategy. Key updates include: expanding regenerative agriculture targets to 10 million acres by 2030 (up from 7 million), with 3.5 million acres already achieved through 2024; revising climate goals to align with 1.5°C trajectory, targeting net zero emissions by 2050; focusing packaging initiatives on key markets where impact can be maximized; and maintaining the 2030 net water positive goal with emphasis on high-risk areas. The company cites external challenges like infrastructure limitations and varying government regulations as factors in these adjustments. PepsiCo's Positive Choices goals for reducing saturated fat, sugar, and sodium remain unchanged. These refinements reflect the company's commitment to transparency while adapting to market realities and business growth needs.

Positive

• Expansion of regenerative agriculture goal from 7 to 10 million acres by 2030, with 3.5 million acres already achieved
• Updated climate targets aligned with 1.5°C trajectory and Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi) guidance
• Maintained commitment to become net water positive by 2030
• On track with Positive Choices goals for reducing saturated fat, sugar, and sodium content

Negative

• Extended timeline for net zero emissions goal from 2040 to 2050
• Removal of specific reuse targets from packaging goals
• Progress limited by external factors such as infrastructure gaps and varying government regulations
• Scope 3 target alignment changed from 'well-below 2°C by 2030' to a longer-term 2050 goal

By refining its pep+ (PepsiCo Positive) climate, packaging, agriculture, and water goals, PepsiCo is further aligning resources with core business priorities, building on learnings and progress, and helping its sustainability ambitions remain actionable and achievable

• Regenerative agriculture goal expanded, aiming for 10 million acres by 2030
• Success in delivering 3.5 million acres of regenerative agriculture through the end of 2024 and water stewardship informs new goals
• New goals account for external realities and business growth and position the company for long-term sustainable growth
• Newly published PepsiCo Climate Transition Plan details updated Scope 1, 2, and 3 targets to align to 1.5°C, reflecting Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi) sectoral guidance on FLAG and E&I emissions and related shift to net zero emissions goal by 2050
• Packaging goals to focus on driving scale in key packaging markets
• 2030 net water positive goal retained, with refined focus on high-risk areas

PURCHASE, N.Y., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, PepsiCo announced refined climate, packaging, agriculture, and water goals to continue to build a stronger, more resilient business that aims to drive scalable positive impact. The updated goals build on nearly four years of progress and learnings since the launch of the PepsiCo Positive (pep+) business strategy, which embeds sustainability into the company's core to deliver long-term success.

Since launching pep+ in September 2021, PepsiCo has made significant progress on regenerative agriculture and water stewardship and positive strides on sustainable packaging and climate change, while accounting for external realities and business growth.

"As circumstances evolve, PepsiCo continually adapts how we source ingredients; make, move, and sell our products; and inspire people through our brands," said PepsiCo Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ramon Laguarta. "This journey is underpinned by pep+, which is an investment in building a stronger and more resilient business – today and in the future – and guides our actions to help create a more resilient, more sustainable food system. Our goals must evolve with us to keep our ambition and to deliver on our long-term vision."

In refining its sustainability goals, PepsiCo is strengthening the resilience of its business and honing its focus to where it believes it can have the most positive impact. The company is remaining ambitious with its sustainability targets (and in the case of regenerative agriculture, setting an even more ambitious target), evolving with the latest science, and being pragmatic about where efforts have been limited by external factors and systemic barriers, such as lagging infrastructure and the growth of the business.

PepsiCo's Positive Choices goals, which aim to lower saturated fat, sugar, and sodium content and deliver more diverse ingredients, remain unchanged. The company is on track to deliver these goals, while continuing to evolve the product portfolio to meet consumer and commercial demands.

The revised goals on climate, packaging, agriculture and water also reflect PepsiCo's understanding of where it can accelerate impact—striving for greater return on its investments—and where progress will take more time, based on the realities of key global enablers such as recycling and reuse infrastructure, electric grid modernization, electric vehicle charging infrastructure and cost-competitive vehicle availability, and varying and changing government approaches. These refined goals reflect transparency about challenges, while reinforcing a commitment to rigorous progress-tracking to pursue the company's long-term sustainability vision.

"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," said 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."

The updated goals include:

Agriculture: Healthier soil has the potential to drive better yields for farmers and to grow better ingredients in the long-term. Regenerative agriculture can be a powerful tool to promote healthier soil, as well as to reduce agricultural emissions, enhance biodiversity and watershed health, and help raise the standard of living for farmers and farming communities. PepsiCo has now increased its regenerative agriculture goal, aiming to drive the adoption of regenerative, restorative, or protective practices across 10 million acres by 2030. This is an expansion of the original 7-million-acre regenerative agriculture goal and expands the ambition both in scale and depth, as it includes specific objectives for nature within the goal. As of 2024, against the newly released goal, PepsiCo has already delivered approximately 3.5 million acres.

Climate: As detailed in the newly-published PepsiCo Climate Transition Plan, the company has updated its Scope 1, 2, and 3 targets and fully aligned them to a 1.5°C trajectory by 2050, reflecting SBTi sectoral guidance on Forests, Land, and Agriculture (FLAG) and Energy and Industry (E&I) emissions, and now aims to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. PepsiCo's revised climate goals, validated by SBTi, were shaped by its own learnings and the latest science. PepsiCo's previous Scope 3 target was aligned to well-below 2°C by 2030, and its net zero ambition was aligned to 2040.

Packaging: PepsiCo is updating its packaging goals to focus on key markets where it believes its efforts can make the most positive impact and to better account for external factors outside of the company's control. By prioritizing efforts in key packaging markets, continuing work to reduce its use of virgin plastic and improve the design of its packaging, PepsiCo plans to focus on investments that aim to improve the packaging lifecycle. The company is also sunsetting its reuse target, while continuing various efforts on reuse as part of its goal around designing packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable. The refined packaging goals remain ambitious and will continue to require investment, innovation, and cross-sector collaboration to drive systemic change and support the business. At the same time, challenges remain. For example, India only passed laws allowing rPET for beverage packaging in 2023, with food packaging added this year, while China does not allow rPET inclusion in food-grade packaging.

Water: After meeting the goal of a 25% improvement in operational water-use efficiency in high-risk watersheds and exceeding the goal of 15% improvement in agricultural water-use efficiency two years early, PepsiCo has refreshed its water goals based on progress and learnings to date. The company is also refining its focus on high-risk areas and maintaining its goal to become net water positive by 2030.

Communicating with transparency remains at the heart of the company's pep+ reporting approach, and PepsiCo will continue to offer a transparent view of performance and provide detailed reporting on progress in the 2024 ESG Summary, available later this year. For more information on the goal changes, please see the appendix below or visit https://www.pepsico.com/docs/default-source/sustainability-and-esg-topics/pepsico-positive-goal-evolution-graphic.pdf. For more details on PepsiCo's methodology for measuring and reporting progress against its pep+ goals, please visit https://www.pepsico.com/docs/default-source/sustainability-and-esg-topics/pepsico-2024-calculation-methodology.pdf.

About PepsiCo
PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated nearly $92 billion in net revenue in 2024, driven by a complementary beverage and convenient foods portfolio that includes Lay's, Doritos, Cheetos, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, Quaker, and SodaStream. PepsiCo's product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including many iconic brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales.

Guiding PepsiCo is our vision to Be the Global Leader in Beverages and Convenient Foods by Winning with pep+ (PepsiCo Positive). pep+ is our strategic end-to-end transformation that puts sustainability and human capital at the center of how we will create value and growth by operating within planetary boundaries and inspiring positive change for planet and people. For more information, visit www.pepsico.com, and follow on X (Twitter), Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn @PepsiCo.

Cautionary Statement
Statements in this communication that are "forward-looking statements" are based on currently available information, operating plans and projections about future events and trends. Terminology such as "aim," "anticipate," "believe," "drive," "estimate," "expect," "expressed confidence," "forecast," "future," "goal," "guidance," "intend," "may," "objective," "outlook," "plan," "position," "potential," "project," "seek," "should," "strategy," "target," "will" or similar statements or variations of such words and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such terms. Forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted in such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: future demand for PepsiCo's products; damage to PepsiCo's reputation or brand image; product recalls or other issues or concerns with respect to product quality and safety; PepsiCo's ability to compete effectively; PepsiCo's ability to attract, develop and maintain a highly skilled workforce or effectively manage changes in our workforce; water scarcity; changes in the retail landscape or in sales to any key customer; disruption of PepsiCo's manufacturing operations or supply chain, including increased commodity, packaging, transportation, labor and other input costs; political, social or geopolitical conditions in the markets where PepsiCo's products are made, manufactured, distributed or sold; PepsiCo's ability to grow its business in developing and emerging markets; changes in economic conditions in the countries in which PepsiCo operates; changes in tariffs and global trade relations; future cyber incidents and other disruptions to our information systems; failure to successfully complete or manage strategic transactions; PepsiCo's reliance on third-party service providers and enterprise-wide systems; climate change or measures to address climate change and other sustainability matters; strikes or work stoppages; failure to realize benefits from PepsiCo's productivity initiatives or organizational restructurings; deterioration in estimates and underlying assumptions regarding future performance of our business or investments that can result in impairment charges; fluctuations or other changes in exchange rates; any downgrade or potential downgrade of PepsiCo's credit ratings; imposition or proposed imposition of new or increased taxes aimed at PepsiCo's products; imposition of limitations on the marketing or sale of PepsiCo's products; changes in laws and regulations related to the use or disposal of plastics or other packaging materials; failure to comply with personal data protection and privacy laws; increase in income tax rates, changes in income tax laws or disagreements with tax authorities; failure to adequately protect PepsiCo's intellectual property rights or infringement on intellectual property rights of others; failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations; and potential liabilities and costs from litigation, claims, legal or regulatory proceedings, inquiries or investigations.

For additional information on these and other factors that could cause PepsiCo's actual results to materially differ from those set forth herein, please see PepsiCo's filings with the SEC, including its most recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent reports on Forms 10-Q and 8-K. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

APPENDIX

Pillar		Goal	Prior Goal	Evolved Goal	What Changed
Agriculture		Regenerative Agriculture	Spread the adoption of regenerative agriculture practices across 7 million acres of land used around the world to grow our crops and ingredients for our products by 2030 Footnote: PepsiCo considers an acre as delivering regenerative impact when the adoption of regenerative agriculture practices results in quantified improvements across at least two of the environmental outcome areas, with a strong preference for removing or reducing GHG emissions to be one impact area. Refer to PepsiCo's Regenerative Agriculture Practice Bank for a comprehensive listing of practices directly or indirectly linked to the five impact areas. Regenerative acres reported represent the annual count in each year presented based on actions undertaken since 2021	Spread the adoption of regenerative agriculture, restorative, or protective practices across 10 million acres of land supporting the growth of our key crops and ingredients by 2030 Footnote: See PepsiCo's Regenerative Agriculture Guidelines for additional information, including details on key crops and regeneration, restoration and protection criteria. Results represent the annual count in each year	Expanded to 10 million acres, including regenerative acres (already planned) and incremental protect and restore acres Expanded to include specific objectives for nature in goal
Agriculture		Sustainably Sourced Ingredients	Sustainably source 100% of our key ingredients, expanding to include not only our grower-sourced crops (potatoes, whole corn and oats), but also key crops from third parties, such as vegetable oils and grains by 2030 Footnote: For grower-sourced crops, sustainable sourcing refers to meeting the independently verified environmental, social and economic principles of PepsiCo's Sustainable Farming Program (SFP). For supplier-sourced crops, sustainable sourcing is achieved through a third-party standard that has been benchmarked as equivalent to the SFP or, in limited regions, a continuous improvement program addressing the main environmental and social risks with growing the relevant crop. Sustainably sourced volumes are verified by third parties, including Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) - certified palm oil and Bonsucro-certified (or equivalent) cane sugar. Certain legal and systemic barriers will challenge us as we strive toward our goal of sustainably sourcing 100% of our key ingredients. For example, certain jurisdictions prohibit farmers from holding legal rights to the land they farm (a component of our sustainable sourcing definition). Our Sustainable Sourcing goal applies to areas where PepsiCo has purchasing control and excludes joint ventures, franchises, contract manufacturers and co-packers and other third parties over which we do not hold purchasing control. Key ingredients are listed in the 2023 Calculation Methodology	Sustainably source 90% of our key ingredients and progress volumes (10% or less) that face systemic barriers towards being sustainably sourced in accordance with our guidelines, by 2030 Footnote: Sustainably sourced refers to in-scope ingredient volumes that meet the established criteria outlined in PepsiCo's Sustainable Sourcing Guidelines. Sustainable Sourcing practices can help manage risks, but challenges like deforestation or social issues can persist in some regions	Changed quantified target to what we have confidence we can achieve, while retaining aspiration to make progress on 100% of our key ingredients Updated key ingredients and PepsiCo's Sustainable Sourcing Guidelines
Agriculture		Deforestation-Free Sourcing	Realize deforestation-free sourcing in our company-owned and -operated activities and global supply chains by 2025 Footnote: Getting to deforestation-free supply chains requires tackling systemic issues in specific geographies and commodities. This requires working in-depth with a wide range of stakeholders to identify and tackle those issues, which can take time. Key challenges include our ability to trace supply to individual farms, lack of availability of public sector initiatives to incentivize conservation of forests and other natural ecosystems, impediments to identifying areas at high-risk of deforestation and conversion to prioritize action, root causes of deforestation and conversion such as poverty, lack of credibly-certified commodities in certain markets and lack of universally accepted definitions and protocols resulting in varying certifications	Continue to strive toward deforestation-free sourcing by 2025 and deforestation- and conversion-free sourcing by 2030 for high-risk commodities in our company-owned and -operated activities Footnote: PepsiCo set this ambition in its Stewardship of Forests and Natural Ecosystems Policy. High-risk commodities include ingredients and materials at high risk of deforestation and conversion as defined in our Calculation Methodology. Systemic challenges continue to be an industry-wide barrier to reaching fully deforestation-free sourcing, but we continue striving toward this ambition and expect to reach more than 90% by the end of 2025	Combined deforestation- and conversion-free goals into one goal
Agriculture		Conversion-Free Sourcing	Realize conversion-free sourcing in our company-owned and -operated activities and global supply chains by 2030		Wrapped into Deforestation-Free Sourcing goal (above)
Climate		Scope 1 & 2	Reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 75% by 2030 (vs 2015 baseline)	Achieve a 50% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030 (vs 2022 baseline) Footnote: Goal tracks Scope 1 and 2 emissions consistent with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. See Calculation Methodology for details	Changed to 50% target Remains SBTi 1.5°C aligned Shifted baseline year to 2022
Climate		Scope 3 E&I	Reduce Scope 3 emissions by 40% by 2030 (vs 2015 baseline)	Achieve a 42% reduction in Scope 3 Energy & Industry (E&I) emissions by 2030 (vs 2022 baseline) Footnote: Goal tracks energy- and industry-related Scope 3 emissions consistent with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol's Scope 3 Standard and the Science Based Target Initiative's Corporate Net-Zero Standard V1.2. See Calculation Methodology for details on how these emissions are calculated and categories included in scope of this goal	Split Scope 3: E&I Changed to 42% target SBTi 1.5°C aligned Shifted baseline year to 2022
Climate		Scope 3 FLAG	Reduce Scope 3 emissions by 40% by 2030 (vs 2015 baseline)	Achieve a 30% reduction in Scope 3 Forest, Land and Agriculture (FLAG) emissions by 2030 (vs 2022 baseline) Footnote: Goal tracks Scope 3 emissions based on purchased goods emissions consistent with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol's draft Land Sector and Removals Guidance and Standard and the Science Based Target Initiative's Forest, Land and Agriculture (FLAG) Guidance. See Calculation Methodology for details on how these emissions are calculated and categories included in scope of this goal	Split Scope 3: FLAG Changed to 30% target SBTi 1.5°C aligned Shifted baseline year to 2022
Climate		Total Emissions (Scope 1, 2 & 3)	Reduce total Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by more than 40% by 2030 (vs 2015 baseline)	None	Sunset prior goal as we focus on evolved near-term targets
Climate		Net-zero Ambition	Achieve net-zero emissions by 2040 (vs 2015 baseline)	Achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 or sooner Footnote: Refer to our Climate Transition Plan for more information	Updated to 2050 or sooner timeline SBTi 1.5°C aligned
Packaging		Virgin Plastic Reduction (tonnage)	Reduce our absolute tonnage of virgin plastic derived from non-renewable sources by 20% by 2030 (vs 2020 baseline)	For our primary plastic packaging in key packaging markets, achieve an average of 2% year-over-year reduction in our absolute tonnage of virgin plastics through 2030 Footnote: Goal tracks primary plastic packaging in PepsiCo's key packaging markets. This scope represents more than 80% of PepsiCo's 2024 global plastic packaging footprint (by weight)	Sunset baseline, changed to 2% year-over-year reduction Changed scope (Key packaging markets, primary plastic packaging)
Packaging		Recycled Content	Achieve our goal of using 50% recycled content in our plastic packaging by 2030	For our primary plastic packaging in key packaging markets, use 40% or greater recycled content in our plastic packaging by 2035 or sooner Footnote: Goal tracks primary plastic packaging in PepsiCo's key packaging markets. This scope represents more than 80% of PepsiCo's 2024 global plastic packaging footprint (by weight)	Changed to 40% or greater ambition Updated to 2035 or sooner timeline Changed scope (Key packaging markets, primary plastic packaging)
Packaging		RCBR/RRC	Design 100% of packaging to be recyclable, compostable, biodegradable, or reusable (RCBR) by 2025 Footnote: PepsiCo considers packaging to be recyclable, compostable, biodegradable or reusable if certain end-of-life waste management criteria is achieved. See 2023 Calculation Methodology for an explanation of how we calculate the percentage of our packaging that is RCBR	Achieve 97% or greater reusable, recyclable, or compostable (RRC) packaging by design by 2030 in our primary and secondary packaging in our key packaging markets Footnote: Goal tracks primary and secondary packaging in PepsiCo's key packaging markets. This scope represents more than 85% of PepsiCo's 2024 global packaging footprint (by weight). Reusable packaging must also be designed to be recyclable or compostable	Focused goal on 'by design', excluding end of life Updated to 97% or greater (vs 100% prior) Updated to 2030 timeline Removed biodegradable from scope Changed scope (key packaging markets, primary & secondary packaging)
Packaging		Virgin Plastic Reduction (servings)	Cut virgin plastic from non-renewable sources per serving across our global beverages and convenient foods portfolio by 50% by 2030 (vs 2020 baseline)	None	Sunset goal as we focus on absolute tonnage virgin plastic reduction
Packaging		Reuse	Scaling new business models that avoid or minimize single-use packaging materials (e.g., models that reuse, refill, prepare at home, utilize concentrates like powders, drops, etc.), with the aim of delivering 20% of all beverage servings we sell through reusable models by 2030 Footnote: Our total beverage servings account for all beverage sales volume. Reuse models may include, but are not limited to, SodaStream, fountain beverages delivered in reusable containers, returnable glass and plastic bottles, and concentrates and powders sold to consumers	None	Sunset goal while continuing to track reusability in our refined RRC goal
Water		Water-Use Efficiency High Water Risk (HWR)	Reach best-in-class water-use efficiency in 100% of high water-risk PepsiCo and third-party manufacturing facilities by 2030 Footnote: Best-in-class water-use efficiency for beverage facilities is defined as 1.2 liters of water (or less) per liter of beverage production. Best-in-class water-use efficiency for convenient foods facilities is defined as 0.4 liters of water (or less) per kilogram of convenient foods production. We do not currently capture data from third-party manufacturers and are evaluating how to obtain and include information from our top third-party manufacturers in future calculations. World Resource Institute's Aqueduct water stress assessment tool is used to reconfirm high water-risk areas every three years	Reach average water-use efficiency ratios of 1.4 liters/liter of production in beverages sites and 1.7 liters/kilogram of production in convenient foods sites for 100% of high water-risk PepsiCo and franchise bottler manufacturing facilities by 2030 Footnote: Contract manufacturers and co-packers are excluded. Our progress toward this goal relies in part on water-use efficiency at high water-risk franchise bottler manufacturing facilities. We are working to integrate their data into future calculations	Changed ambition for beverages to 1.4 l/l Changed ambition for foods to 1.7 l/kg Changed scope (company-owned and franchise bottler manufacturing facilities)
Water		Water-Use Efficiency Non-HWR	Reach world-class water-use efficiency in all other PepsiCo and third-party manufacturing facilities by 2030 Footnote: World-class water-use efficiency for beverage facilities is defined as 1.4 liters of water (or less) per liter of beverage production. World-class water-use efficiency for convenient foods facilities is defined as 4.4 liters of water (or less) per kilogram of convenient foods production. We do not currently capture data from third-party manufacturers and are evaluating how to obtain and include information from our top third-party manufacturers in future calculations. World Resource Institute's Aqueduct water stress assessment tool is used to reconfirm high water-risk areas every three years	None	Sunset goal as we focus on high water-risk sites
Water		Net Water Positive	Achieve net water positive by 2030	Achieve net water positive by 2030	No change

 

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SOURCE PepsiCo, Inc.

FAQ

What are the main changes to PepsiCo's (PEP) sustainability goals in 2025?

PepsiCo expanded its regenerative agriculture goal to 10 million acres by 2030, revised climate goals to align with 1.5°C trajectory by 2050, refined packaging goals to focus on key markets, and maintained its 2030 net water positive goal with focus on high-risk areas.

How many acres of regenerative agriculture has PepsiCo achieved through 2024?

PepsiCo has achieved approximately 3.5 million acres of regenerative agriculture through the end of 2024.

Why did PepsiCo extend its net zero emissions timeline from 2040 to 2050?

The extension reflects alignment with SBTi sectoral guidance on Forests, Land, and Agriculture (FLAG) and Energy and Industry (E&I) emissions, as well as adaptation to external realities and business growth challenges.

What happened to PepsiCo's packaging reuse targets?

PepsiCo has discontinued its specific reuse target, though reuse efforts continue as part of their goal to design packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable.

Are PepsiCo's Positive Choices goals for reducing sugar and sodium changing?

No, PepsiCo's Positive Choices goals for reducing saturated fat, sugar, and sodium content remain unchanged, and the company reports being on track to deliver these goals.