10.02.2008 - 11:09am ET

(CSRwire) PURCHASE, N.Y., Oct. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) announced today that it has made significant progress toward its long-term environmental sustainability goals, which include reducing water consumption by 20 percent, electricity consumption by 20 percent and fuel consumption by 25 percent per unit of production by 2015 compared to 2006. These goals are part of PepsiCo's Performance with Purpose vision, the company’s commitment to delivering shareholder value while leaving a positive imprint on society.

"All of the credit for the progress we've made so far goes to the many talented people within PepsiCo who have found innovative ways to reduce our environmental footprint," said Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo's chairman and chief executive officer. "We still have much work to do, but these are important, positive steps in our long journey to constantly improve our stewardship of the environment."

In order to attain these goals PepsiCo has launched a number of activities:

• Water -- Reduce consumption by 20% -- Across the world, PepsiCo has saved nearly 1.5 billion gallons of water in 2007 compared to 2006. PepsiCo is taking to scale a combination of new technology, information sharing and employee initiatives that reduce water consumption and increase re-use. In the U.S., the company is using a proprietary air-rinse technology to clean newly manufactured bottles with air instead of water in all Gatorade and Propel manufacturing plants, saving almost 150 million gallons of water per year. Also, by instituting comprehensive "water mapping" at manufacturing facilities and increasing awareness of water conservation with associates, the Walkers crisps business in the United Kingdom reduced the amount of water used per kg of crisp by 42 percent between 2001 and 2007 and the India beverage business has conserved over a half-billion gallons of water in the last two years.
  
  
• Electricity -- Reduce consumption by 20% -- At the Tropicana facility in Bradenton, Fla., the orange juice storage system was converted from an ultra-low temperature freezer system to cool refrigeration that preserves the juice's freshness without freezing it. This transition not only improved the fresh taste of Tropicana juice, it saved the equivalent of electricity needed to power over 7,000 houses. At the Quaker facility in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the development of an innovative milling process saves almost three million kilowatt hours of electricity per year -- the same amount used by 250 typical American homes.
  
  
• Fuel -- Reduce consumption by 25% -- Alternative fuel sources are also a major focus for PepsiCo. This year, the Frito-Lay manufacturing facility in Modesto, Calif., inaugurated a solar concentrator field made up of large curved mirrors that move with the position of the sun, focusing the heat into tubes of glass filled with water. The water is converted into steam, which helps heat the cooking oil used to make SunChips. In addition, there are two U.S. PepsiCo manufacturing facilities that use landfill gas, thereby reducing their consumption of fossil source fuels. At several facilities in India, PepsiCo uses local biomass material to run plants more efficiently with less impact on the environment. Similarly, Frito-Lay is installing a new biomass boiler in its Topeka, Kan., facility that will use wood waste for fuel. In Mexico, the Sabritas business conserved enough fuel in one year to serve 3,400 homes.

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