At Frito-Lay, Every Drop Counts!
As Earth Month comes to a close, we at Frito-Lay and PepsiCo continue to work towards our vision that water resources in the communities where we live, and work are left in a better state because of our presence.
Just last month, PepsiCo announced that it reached its 2025 global goal of a 25% improvement in operational water-use efficiency in high water-risk areas, two years ahead of schedule. In addition, the company was recognized by CDP, the global environmental non-profit, on the 2023 CDP A List for leadership in corporate transparency and performance on water security – putting PepsiCo in the top 0.5% of all 21,000 companies CDP scored.
As part of pep+ (PepsiCo Positive) – the company's strategic end-to-end transformation – PepsiCo will continue working towards additional water stewardship ambitions, including aiming to be net water positive by 2030.
Here are several ways in which PepsiCo is working to continue to improve its water-use efficiency and the future of our planet:
- Scaling a new approach to how we wash corn when making food products such as Tostitos, Fritos and Doritos to more than 100 global manufacturing lines within a year, with potential to save more than 640 million liters of water annually.
- Implementing membrane bioreactor technology at 21 manufacturing sites globally, including 14 in high water-risk areas, to purify process water to drinking-level standards for reuse in operations, allowing a site to reduce its freshwater demand by an average of 70%.
- Taking the water that's naturally found in potatoes and using it to help run food manufacturing facilities. Implemented at sites in India, Mexico, Poland and Thailand, this innovative technology developed by PepsiCo Research & Development teams captures and treats vapor that is released by potatoes when they are cooked for products such as Lay's and converts it to drinkable water that is used to help run manufacturing facilities. This process can save a single site up to 60 million liters of water per year.
