The nature of capital: At green-focused companies, sustainability officers stay the course

Originally published on USA Today

DAVID ALLEN

PepsiCo Foods North America

Doritos are delicious. Quaker Oats are nutritious. And Funyuns are…well, fun. But can snacks be sustainable? To prove this is possible, in 2021 PepsiCo launched PepsiCo Positive, or pep+, a strategic initiative to put sustainability at the heart of its global operations.

The lead company at PepsiCo Foods North America – the $26 billion snack and convenience food company that also includes Frito-Lay North America and Quaker Foods North America – is Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer David Allen.

“It is our job as a large organization with a large reach to be a leader in this,” Allen explains.

An important focus of Pep+ is agriculture. In 2023, PepsiCo announced a seven-year partnership with Walmart to scale water- and soil-enhancing regenerative agriculture practices on 2 million hectares of farmland for nearly 4 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions reductions and removals by 2030. Ultimately, farmers will implement similar practices across the company’s agricultural footprint – about 7 million hectares, says Allen.

In its pursuit of net-zero emissions by 2040, PepsiCo is also working to decarbonize its fleet. Last year alone, it deployed more than 700 new electric vehicles. Meanwhile, it plans to make 100 percent of its packaging recyclable, compostable, biodegradable or reusable by 2025. Frito-Lay and Quaker even opened a new “Greenhouse Learning Center” last year that is entirely dedicated to the development of compostable packaging.

Given the size of PepsiCo (more than 300,000 people active in more than 200 countries), change will not be easy. But it will come, Allen promises.

“We have a clear view of the challenges, but I am very enthusiastic and very optimistic about the trajectory we are on,” he says, citing the role of civil society organizations as an important factor. “I consider myself a head coach of sustainability. … It’s about listening and learning from the diverse talents within the organization, and then putting all their ideas into practice so that we can arrive at the best solution and make as much progress as possible, so quickly as we can.”

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Frito-Lay North America

Frito-Lay North America

Frito-Lay North America is the $23 billion convenient foods division of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ: PEP), headquartered in Purchase, NY. Frito-Lay snacks include Lay’s® and Ruffles® potato chips, Doritos® and Tostitos® tortilla chips and branded dips, Cheetos snacks, Stacy’s® pita chips, PopCorners® puffed corn snack, SunChips® multigrain snacks and Fritos corn chips. The company operates more than 30 manufacturing facilities in the US and Canada, more than 200 distribution centers and serves 315,000 retail customers per week through its direct store delivery model. Learn more about Frito-Lay on the company website, www.fritolay.com, on Twitter (@fritolay), on Instagram (@fritolay) and on Facebook (Frito-Lay).

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