Following its longstanding investments in Saudi Arabia, PepsiCo is committed to an accelerated, sustainable growth agenda in the kingdom in line with its Vision 2030, shared Eugene Willemsen, CEO, Africa, Middle East, South Asia at PepsiCo, in an interview with Arabian Business.
“We have been operating in the kingdom for 65 years, directly and through partners, so we have significant operations for our food business and collectively have built one of the leading food and beverage companies in Saudi,” he said.
“Recently, we launched our net positive strategy which is an end-to-end transformation of the total value chain with some very specific and very ambitious objectives. We aim to become by the year 2040 a net-zero company, and we also aim to become a net water positive company by 2030,” he added.
Central to its sustainability agenda and its contribution to the kingdom’s circular economy, PepsiCo remains focused on safeguarding the environment by increasing the efficiency of waste management and establishing comprehensive recycling projects and investments.
The F&B giant aims to accomplish this through its threefold approach, consisting of positive agriculture, positive value chain, and positive choices, explained Willemsen.
“PepsiCo has a huge agricultural footprint so we work with about 100,000 farmers globally and have committed ourselves to converting the land that we’re using to grow our crops for regenerative agricultural practices and in order to protect soil health and improve livelihoods of the farming communities in which we operate,” he said.
“Our positive value chain touches on how we make move and sell our products, while our positive choices element focuses on both what we do within our four walls as well as what we do with partners, from reducing the water that we use for our production processes to also replenishing in more water than we consume back into the watersheds.”
In terms of water efficiency and reducing water consumption, Willemsen shared: “PepsiCo is a huge agricultural company, growing more than 25 different crops in 60 countries globally…through artificial intelligence and with the use of satellite imaging and smartphones, we now can actually help farmers focus just on those areas that need water and have growth precision versus spraying entire fields of land.”
PepsiCo is also working on reducing its packaging footprint to facilitate its move to a fully circular economy by ensuring that packaging material never has to become waste.
Last year, PepsiCo installed 15 smart, solar-powered sorting machines to collect and sort empty plastic bottles in Makkah, placed 80 recycling stations at the race start in Jeddah of the Dakar Rally, and in 2021 Aquafina was the official hydration partner of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship in Diriyah, installing several recycling stations on-site to encourage visitors to recycle.
Within PepsiCo’s focus on circularity, cross-sector partnership plays a key role in delivering on sustainability goals.
“Collaboration is essential…In terms of moving to a circular economy, that requires many different stakeholders to work together and also requires the government to put in place the right legislative framework as well as the right infrastructure to enable it. Ultimately, all stakeholders need to work together in order to deliver against that objective,” he explained.
Equal opportunities
Alongside its sustainability efforts, PepsiCo is championing inclusivity and diversity through its Saudi arm, providing equal opportunities for Saudi locals and women.
“There’s a lot of work that we’re doing across many different vectors from women empowerment, driving Saudi as a nation, being a positive contributor to the economy in the kingdom, and evolving our portfolio,” said Willemsen.
“As it relates to vision 2030 and our contribution to the economic growth of the kingdom, we have specific programs that we have had in place for some time that drive the empowerment of both local Saudi nationals in general and female Saudis,” he explained.
Through its dedicated platform ‘Tamakani’, PepsiCo is supporting and inspiring generations of women in Saudi Arabia by providing guidance and mentorship, creating opportunities, and scaling up innovative initiatives.
“This initiative is both about providing funds, as well as skills transfer, with the ultimate objective of creating successful female entrepreneurs in the kingdom,” he said.
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