Protecting the safety, health, and well-being of our associates around the world is one of PepsiCo’s top priorities. Employees are the backbone of our business, and without them, we can’t operate. Not only do we want our employees to come to work and leave as safely as they arrived, PepsiCo also aims to create a positive-impact-culture. Having a large number of employees means that our footprint touches hundreds of communities around the world.
We are working in many ways to promote health and safety as a core value at PepsiCo and to drive continual improvement of our culture and performance. We aligned our Global Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS) function behind a single strategy, aiming to achieve the following vision:
BEYOND ZERO – PURSUE POSITIVE
Zero harm to our people and the environment today—
Pursue a positive impact culture for our future
Our EHS strategy provides the framework for our vision of ‘Beyond Zero’ whereby we strive to achieve an injury-free work environment, as well as working to create a culture of positive impact on the health and well-being of our employees and the environment.
GOVERNANCE
There are inherent risks in all business operations. At PepsiCo, we believe that formal structures and systems of risk management help prevent environmental incidents and occupational injuries/illnesses. Our EHS Policy formally establishes our focus on environmental protection and occupational health and safety at every level.
A key component of the overall risk management strategy is the implementation of a robust Global EHS Management System (GEHSMS), a thorough compilation of management and technical standards for key risk areas across our business.
In addition to our internal program, 72% of our sites are certified in ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems and OHSAS 18001:2007 Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems. We are transitioning from OSHAS 18001 to ISO 45001 by 2021
PERFORMANCE
HEALTH AND SAFETY
We aim to achieve world-class health and safety performance. In 2019, PepsiCo had 10 percent fewer lost time incidents (LTI) across the business, compared to 2018, reducing our lost time incident rate (LTIR) to 2.28 per million hours worked.
We continue to invest in emerging technologies in our primary risk areas to reduce our risk and protect our employees from injuries. We are leveraging fleet telematics and distracted driving technology to reduce our fleet safety risk, resulting in reductions in road traffic accidents. PepsiCo also continues to collaborate with industry leading multi-national corporations to align private sector goals with the United Nations’ Decade of Action for Road Safety to improve road safety through our membership with Together for Safer Roads (TSR) Coalition. For machine safety, we have been leveraging virtual design reviews and augmented reality to conduct technical risk assessments and centerline our equipment. We have also invested in ergonomic wearables to address posture behaviors and reduce our ergonomic risk. Additionally, we are leveraging hands-free remote collaboration tools to conduct virtual audits and inspections. All of these new technologies are helping to provide new insights into the risks and allow our teams to respond in an agile manner.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
PepsiCo proactively monitors current and emerging environmental protection legislation and other areas of concerns across our value chain. We follow an established risk-based approach leveraging our GEHSMS and focusing on the following key areas:
- Prevention and control of spills
- Elimination and management of waste
- Reduction and control of air emissions
- Minimization, control, and reuse of wastewater discharges
- Access to safe sanitation and hygiene (WASH)
- Safe chemical use, storage, and disposal
- Environmental life cycle impact management
- Understanding and managing emerging environmental legislation and aspects
Examples of our efforts to mitigate risks associated with wastewater and WASH are highlighted below.
WASTEWATER IN DIRECT OPERATIONS
Responsible wastewater discharge from our manufacturing operations is a critical element of achieving positive water impact. For PepsiCo, adhering to this goal is vital to the continuity of our manufacturing operations, as it helps ensure that we maintain our license to operate in local communities.
Among PepsiCo's GEHSMS, one technical standard is the Discharge of Process Wastewater Standard, which is aligned with the World Bank’s International Finance Council and Business for Social Responsibility’s (BSR) Sustainable Water Group. Our global wastewater standard formalizes the expectation that wastewater discharged from facilities will:
- Meet applicable regulatory requirements;
- Be conducted in an efficient, safe and responsible manner; and
- Maintain an effluent quality that does not cause degradation of water quality of the local environment.
In 2019, nearly 99 percent of wastewater from our operations met PepsiCo's high standards for protection of the environment, up from 98 percent in 2018.
WASH IN DIRECT OPERATIONS
Our business depends on the thousands of dedicated employees in our manufacturing sites who ensure the safety and quality of our products, and we in turn, are committed to ensuring safe conditions for them. Critical to this is the provision of employees’ access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) for our employees.
We are committed to providing appropriate access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene to our manufacturing employees. This is aligned with our participation in the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s (WBCSD) WASH in the workplace pledge, the premier global standard related to WASH in the workplace, which PepsiCo signed in 2015. By the end of 2019, our manufacturing facilities' WASH conformance was at 97 percent, up from 92 percent in 2018.
LOOKING AHEAD
As the Coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread throughout the world, we are taking proactive steps grounded in science to protect the safety of our products, care for more than 260,000 associates and their families, and support our communities around the world.
We are practicing social distancing at all our facilities around the world and have asked all PepsiCo associates who have the option, to work from home, and those who do not are adhering to social distancing guidelines from local and federal governments.
Global health agencies have made clear the most effective thing we can do to fight COVID-19 is to practice good hygiene, and we are taking this advice very seriously. We have increased cleaning frequency at all facilities globally and re-emphasized the importance of proper handwashing. Additionally, we are expanding the availability of hand sanitizer in our facilities, separating workstations, and providing masks for all of our frontline employees. For more on our pandemic response, see PepsiCo’s dedicated COVID-19 page, here.