One of the biggest trends in product packaging in recent years has been sustainability. Making your packaging sustainable reduces your impact on the planet and helps you attract customers who want to do the same.
Recently, PepsiCo announced aggressive sustainability goals for its product packaging. Take a closer look at these goals and how your company can use them for inspiration.
Introducing pep+
Pep + (pep Positive) is the name behind the new sustainability goals from PepsiCo. It is a series of goals that involve making changes to become more sustainable. It includes actions that the company directly takes as well as leveraging consumer connections to help people make the right decisions.
The Pillars of pep+
PepsiCo divided its pep+ project into three pillars.
Positive Agriculture
This pillar has PepsiCo using regenerative agricultural practices to restore the planet across the full agricultural footprint of the company. For reference, the company’s agricultural footprint is 7 million acres or so.
Positive Value Chain
This pillar focuses on the supply chain and packaging. The packaging-specific goals include cutting the amount of virgin plastic used per serving in half.
This pillar also includes the goal of net water positivity and having net-zero emissions by 2040.
Positive Choices
This pillar focuses on getting others around the world to make sustainable choices as well, thanks to the brand’s leverage and recognition.
It also includes expanding its portfolio to include more eco-friendly products, such as whole grains, nuts and seeds, and plant-based protein.
It also involves expanding the SodaStream brand of PepsiCo. Current predictions estimate that by 2030, SodaStream will prevent the use of 200 billion plastic bottles.
A Closer Look at Packaging Sustainability With Pep+
Importantly, pep+ looks at more than just product packaging, but that is still a key component of the plan. We already mentioned the goal of halving the use of virgin plastic per serving. Instead, beverage bottles will rely on recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET).
The already-mentioned push of SodaStream is another example, as it helps reduce the use of single-use plastics.
Pep+ also plans to incorporate more compostable packaging. One example of this comes from Off The Eaten Path, which has new packaging.
What Your Business Can Do
The changes PepsiCo plans have the potential to make a significant impact just because of the size of the company. However, even much smaller businesses can make a difference with similar small changes.
Companies can look for ways to incorporate similar ideas into their product packaging.
For example, take an example from the use of rPET instead of PET and try to choose packaging made from recycled materials.
Or opt for packaging that is reusable. If it doesn’t make sense to have customers reuse your packaging for your product over and over, such as with SodaStream, encourage them to reuse it for other things. For example, advertise the ability to use your bottles as a vase.
Another option is to get inspiration from the compostable packaging PepsiCo will introduce. See if you can swap your current packaging materials for something that is compostable yet still offers enough protection for your product.
PepsiCo’s new environmentally friendly initiative is changing the packaging game, so work to get your company on board with sustainable packaging, too.
