Approach

Our reporting is the primary way we inform key stakeholders about our sustainability ambitions and progress. Our stakeholders include investors, potential and current employees, customers and consumers, suppliers, NGOs, regulators and others.

Understanding that each group’s needs differ, we publish a suite of reporting elements targeted at various sets of stakeholders. We combine disclosure of strategy, policy, data and case studies, according to our understanding of public interest and guided by key sustainability and reporting frameworks. Unless otherwise noted, our sustainability data reflects progress made during the calendar year (ending December 31), whereas our financial reporting corresponds with our fiscal year, which ends on the last Saturday of December. Our reporting suite comprises:

• Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Summary: A high-level overview of our pep+ agenda and annual progress. It aims to reflect the integration between ESG and our business and is designed to link seamlessly with ESG Topics A-Z for more detail and the latest updates. Readers can also download a PDF of the report.
• ESG Performance Metrics: Time-series data¹ for our key sustainability goals, intended to support ESG analysis primarily for investors, ESG raters and NGOs.
• ESG Data Hub: a visual representation of our key ESG performance metrics through interactive charts and downloadable tables. It includes metrics addressed by our pep+ ambitions and beyond.
• Indices and framework responses and other topic-specific disclosures: These map our reporting to specific metrics established by key reporting frameworks including SASB, TCFD and CDP (climate, water and forest). It also includes specialized reporting, such as our annual Green Bond Report.
• ESG Topics A-Z: An evergreen, encyclopedia-style deep-dive on more than 50 topics that aims to provide accessible, consistent information for those looking for greater depth on PepsiCo’s ESG strategy, management, policies, progress and partnerships.

Delivering PepsiCo’s sustainability reporting suite is generally managed and executed by the Sustainability Office's Reporting team, with significant partnership from Communications, Corporate Affairs and the various subject matter experts (SMEs) of the topics covered in reporting. Validation of publicly-reported data is managed by the Sustainability Office’s Data Governance team, in partnership with Legal and Control functions, sector teams and SMEs.

As a general matter, recent organizational changes (e.g., acquisitions and divestitures) are reflected in our reporting as soon as practical. Unless otherwise noted, goals and progress reflect the impact of our acquisitions of Hangzhou Haomusi Food Co., Ltd. (Be & Cheery), Pioneer Food Group Ltd. (Pioneer Foods), and SodaStream International Ltd. and our divestiture of Tropicana, Naked and other select juice brands (Tropicana). Organizational changes (e.g., acquisitions, mergers, and divestitures) are evaluated to determine if they have a significant impact on our sustainability performance and, as data becomes available, all reported years for metrics impacted by an organizational change are recast to consistently reflect the impact of the organizational change. Targets apply to PepsiCo’s operations as well as our value chain (e.g., franchise bottlers, joint ventures where PepsiCo has operational control, co-manufacturers, etc.) unless otherwise noted.

Frameworks

Where possible, we aim to report in a consistent way that allows comparison over time of our own performance and between companies. To this end, we align with prominent ESG reporting frameworks often preferred by investors. We also take into account the information needs of NGOs, customers and ESG raters.

As new frameworks arise, our Reporting team, together with key internal partners, evaluates their utility and feasibility when deciding whether to adopt them. Factors considered include the intended audience, our ability to compile quantitative data to a requisite level of governance, risk associated with disclosure and relevance to the business. As a result of these assessments, we aligned our reporting with the Task Force for Climate-Related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) in 2020 and the relevant Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Food and Beverage Sector Standards in 2021.

ESG reporting is undergoing significant and rapid transformation as jurisdictions around the world begin to institute mandatory reporting regulations. Cross-functional teams across PepsiCo are collaborating on compliance preparations, building on the company’s strong foundation of voluntary reporting.

In addition to the disclosure prescribed by external frameworks, PepsiCo uses its own metrics to gauge and communicate progress. For time-series data on these, see our 2023 ESG Performance Metrics.

Assurance

Stakeholders expect sustainability disclosures to be accurate and complete. To ensure this credibility, we have robust data governance in place and have been engaging third-party assurers on select sustainability metrics for 17 years while expanding our assured metrics over time. For 2023 data, limited independent assurance was obtained for the following metrics (to date):

Apex Companies, LLC:
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions

• Direct Scope 1 GHG emissions associated with manufacturing and warehouse operations, fleet operations, offices and distribution centers
  • Natural gas, propane, diesel fuel, gasoline, biofuels, other direct combustion fuels and fugitive refrigerant emissions
• Indirect Scope 2 GHG emissions (location-based reflecting average grid emissions and market-based reflecting Energy Attribute Certificates) associated with manufacturing and warehouse operations, offices and distribution centers
  • Electricity and purchased steam
• Scope 1 and 2 reduction of absolute GHG emissions measured versus a 2015 baseline
• Value chain Scope 3 GHG emissions (select categories)
  • Category 1 — Purchased goods and services
  • Category 2 — Capital goods
  • Category 3 — Fuel and energy-related activities
  • Category 4 — Upstream transportation and distribution
  • Category 9 — Downstream transportation and distribution
  • Category 12 — End-of-life treatment of sold products

Energy

• Global energy usage associated with manufacturing and warehouse operations, fleet operations, offices and distribution centers
  • Total fuel usage
  • Total site electricity usage
  • Total renewable electricity (usage and purchased)
  • Total U.S. electricity (usage and purchased)
• Total renewable electricity percentage associated with manufacturing and warehouse operations, fleet operations, offices and distribution centers (usage and purchased)
• Total Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) allocated to PepsiCo and U.S. sourced electricity usage covered by RECs

Water

• Water withdrawal associated with manufacturing operations
• Global water-use efficiency rate improvement in high water-risk areas toward 2025 goal measured versus a 2015 baseline
• Global water-use efficiency progress toward 2030 goal
• Sites in process of and completed adoption of the Alliance for Water Stewardship standard
• Global water replenishment in liters and progress toward 2025 and 2030 goals

Production

• Total net production (beverages and convenient foods)

Waste 

• Waste generation associated with manufacturing and warehouse operations, fleet operations, offices and distribution centers 

Packaging 

• Cut virgin plastic from non-renewable sources per serving across global beverages and convenient foods portfolio versus a 2020 baseline
• Reduction of absolute tonnage of virgin plastic derived from non-renewable sources versus a 2020 baseline
• Achieve goal of using 50% recycled content in plastic packaging
• Design 100% of packaging to be recyclable, compostable, biodegradable or reusable
• 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 sold through reusable models

Environment, health and safety

• Lost Time Incident Rate

Product

• Added sugars reduction
• Saturated fat reduction
• Sodium reduction progress toward 2025 and 2030 goals
• Portions of diverse ingredients delivered in our global convenient foods portfolio

The assurance statements are available for download on relevant ESG Topics A-Z pages. The environment assurance statement is linked directly here and the nutrition assurance statement is linked directly here.

Progress

We continue to evolve and improve our reporting suite as we aspire to meet increasing stakeholder demands for transparency and utility.

With the launch of pep+, we introduced a series of new goals and are in the process of incorporating progress against these into our reporting. For some goals, all or certain portions of data is not yet available. When this is the case, we provide qualitative updates to demonstrate progress underway. We regularly review our pep+ goals and consider whether any changes are warranted. 

Our reporting continues to be recognized for excellence externally. In 2024, PepsiCo was nominated in the Reuters Sustainability Awards under the Reporting and Transparency category. Also in 2024 — for the fifth consecutive year — we were nominated by Governance Intelligence for Best ESG Reporting among large-cap companies.

What's next?

We are seeing increased calls for enhanced reporting, including in the U.S., the EU and beyond. We continue to monitor the regulatory environment and aim to deliver transparent and stakeholder-centric reporting as we work towards achieving our pep+ ambitions. As part of this ambition, we continually strive to enhance our systems, processes and controls.