14 DAY TRIAL // PepsiCo is one of the fortunate large corporations which managed to link their desire to increase profit margins to an eco-conscious attitude, which makes the company engage its efforts to preserving water resources and fighting global poverty.
Our planet is populated by 7 billion inhabitants. Out of this overwhelming number, 84 million people don't have access to drinking water.
PepsiCo, as any other company which operates in the beverage industry relies on water, since 6 out of 10 raw materials implied by the manufacturing process of Pepsi products are agriculturally based.
Agricultural practices leave the people almost dry in developing countries, after they use up to 90% of the water resources.
PepsiCo has developed an earth-friendly attitude due to the fact that it does not only take away resources. The company manages to bring back to people what he is borrowing, establishing a win-win situation.
The company came up with an innovative technique which, once implemented in most of the farms will be able to replace the traditional flood irrigation with a more efficient and economical way of using water.
"We invented an innovative piece of equipment that goes on the end of a tractor and automates a direct feeding. It allows farmers to direct seed on a lot more acreage and we're seeing 20 to 30 percent savings in water over traditional flood irrigation," affirmed Dan Bena, senior director of sustainability at PepsiCo.
The new equipment is also supposed to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emission by up to 70%, which has a significant impact upon the environment, as a main consequence of the agricultural activities.
"It's growing a staple food crop with farmers in developing countries, saving significant water, and reducing GHG emissions. It's like manna from heaven. More and more when they start to see the benefits, they want more," concluded Bena.