Video source: YouTube, PepsiCo

PepsiCo plans to reduce absolute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across its value chain by more than 40% over the next decade and is aiming to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040.

While the food and beverage giant previously aimed for net-zero emissions by 2050, the growing impact of global warming prompted executives to double down on its goal, the company said in a statement on Thursday.

Now, the Purchase, NY-based corporation seeks to reach net-zero emissions a decade earlier than called for in the Paris Agreement by putting a comprehensive emissions reduction plan into effect. 

PepsiCo chairman Ramon Laguarta said, “The severe impacts from climate change are worsening and we must accelerate the urgent systematic changes needed to address it. Moving up the company’s timeline is crucial, considering the dire consequences for waiting. “There is simply no other option but immediate and aggressive action.”

The revised plan targets priority areas across PepsiCo’s global markets, including packaging, distribution, agriculture and operations.

By 2030, PepsiCo plans to cut emissions under its direct control – such as its factories, offices and deliveries – by 75% and to reduce emissions in its indirect supply chain by 40%.

In 2019, PepsiCo – whose brands include Pepsi, Gatorade, Lay’s and Quaker Oats, employing 260,000 workers in over 200 countries – generated about 57 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions globally.  

Over the next nine years, it hopes to trim those emissions by about half, which, the company noted, is the equivalent of taking more than five million cars off the road for a full year.

PepsiCo is among a growing number of major companies that have pledged to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions a decade ahead of scientists’ guidance.

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Source: Equities News