Innovations and initiatives that gave PepsiCo an edge
STOCKHOLM (AlertNet) - PepsiCo, the maker of Diet Pepsi, Gatorade, Frito-Lay snacks and Tropicana orange juice, won the prestigious Stockholm Industry Water Award at the World Water Week conference in Sweden's capital city for increasing water efficiency in its own production facilities and working to defeat water problems on a larger scale.
The company said partnerships with Water.org, the Columbia Water Center, Safe Water Network, China Women's Development Foundation and the Inter-American Development Bank all contributed to winning the award.
Other key contributing factors include:
- Improving global water use efficiency by more than 20 percent per unit of production to achieve a water target four years ahead of schedule
- Conserving nearly 16 billion litres of water in 2011, from a 2006 baseline, by using water-saving equipment and technologies, creative recycling and re-use, and deploying a water management system throughout manufacturing facilities.
- Reducing water- and energy-related costs by more than $45 million in 2011, compared to 2006.
- Deploying innovative agricultural practices and technologies around the world designed to reduce water use in farming through new irrigation techniques, and tools that help farmers deliver fertilizer and water to their crops at the most efficient time.
- Providing access to safe water for more than 1 million people with the PepsiCo Foundation and other partners
Reducing water use in the company's agricultural supply chain was a key element to PepsiCo reaching its water reduction goal four years.
Some of the initiatives that helped PepsiCo win the award included:
- "i-crop", a 'precision-farming' technology, and web-based tool – developed by PepsiCo in conjunction with Britain's Cambridge University – enabling PepsiCo's farmers to monitor, manage and reduce their water use and carbon emissions, while maximising potential yield and quality
- Direct seeding, an agronomic practice in India paddy cultivation. Direct seeding allows seeds to be planted directly into the ground, bypassing the nursery stage, removing the need for flood irrigation and reducing water use by as much as 30 percent
- ReCon, a tool named for Resource Conservation that allows manufacturing facilities to self-audit their water management practices, and identify and respond to water conservation improvements. The company is planning to extend ReCon into the agriculture area and can apply many of the same principles to understand water risk in the supply chain
- A plant, built in Casa Grande, Arizona, that achieved a "near net zero" vision -- transforming an existing facility to be as far "off the grid" as possible and run primarily on renewable energy sources and recycled water (up to 75 percent of water is recycled), while sending zero landfill waste
(Editing by Lisa Anderson)
Related story: Stockholm award honours PepsiCo efforts to solve water problems
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Guest contributions
- Setting our sights high at World Water Week - John Sauer
- VIDEO - The River Runs Back - Winner of WASH TV Media Award
- Aid transparency: a call to action - Water for People, World Bank
- Basic water and sanitation essential for food security - WaterAid
- Why we need integrated thinking on water and food security - SIWI
Reuters
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