BIER Member Spotlight: Karen Kennedy

Name: Karen Kennedy, Sustainability Senior Manager at PepsiCo

Company: PepsiCo

Connect with Karen on LinkedIn

Welcome to our series aimed at spotlighting the individual leaders within BIER member companies and stakeholder organizations. Learn how these practitioners and their companies are addressing pressing challenges around water, energy, agriculture, climate change, and what inspires each of them to advance environmental sustainability in the beverage sector and collectively, overall.

Briefly describe your role and responsibilities and how long you have worked with your company.

I’m a Sustainability Senior Manager in PepsiCo’s Office of Sustainability based in Cork, Ireland. I’ve been with PepsiCo for 10 years and I currently work on our Positive Water Impact Program. Specifically, I’m focused on optimizing our water footprint within our operations; integrating water risk into core business processes (such as capital investment, mergers and acquisitions due diligence); and adopting the Alliance for Water Stewardship Standard (AWS) across our high water risk operations.

How has the company’s sustainability program evolved over the years and what are your specific priorities for 2020?

The sustainability agenda at PepsiCo has matured over the last 15 years, from a focus in the early days, on what we can do inside our own operations, where we developed the experience and confidence with sustainability, to now extending across our full value chain with ever more ambitious goals. We recognize that by taking a leadership position, leveraging our scale, influence, and by collaborating with other like-minded organizations we can move at a faster, more impactful pace in delivering a more sustainable food system.

Our sustainability strategy focuses on the six priority areas where we believe we can have the most meaningful impact: agriculture, water, climate, packaging, products, and people.  Advocacy plays a significant role as well, and it is an area we have further aligned with our expanded sustainability goals. The Alliance for Water Stewardship Standard (AWS) adoption across PepsiCo’s high-water risk geographies is a good case in point.

Learn more about Karen Kennedy in this BIER Member Spotlight.