PepsiCo Turkey to use 100% renewable energy by 2021
WITH ITS ONGOING RESEARCH INTO SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE, ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY PRODUCTION AND SOCIAL BENEFITS, PEPSICO TURKEY HAS SET ITS SIGHTS ON A BETTER FUTURE FOR ALL. “COMPANIES THAT ONLY ACT ON THE PROFIT MOTIVE AND DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SURVIVE IN THE NEW WORLD,” SAYS PEPSICO TURKEY CEO ECE AKSEL.
challenges brought on by the C•VID -19 THE pandemic have underlined more than ever how important it is for the private sector to take more responsibility for economic, social and environmental sustainability. PepsiCo, the world’s second largest food and beverage company, is also today one of the world’s largest agricultural businesses. In a push to make the entire agricultural ecosystem sustainable, PepsiCo has prioritized developing a more resilient food system in all its activities.
“Companies that only act on the profit motive and do not care about the environment will not be able to survive in the new world,” says PepsiCo Turkey CE• Ece Aksel, adding that their goal is to find common solutions to the common problems our world faces. In this regard, she notes, PepsiCo Turkey conducts studies in three main areas, including sustainable agriculture, environmentally-friendly production and social benefits.
Aksel notes that Turkey is the fastest growing country in e-commerce within the PepsiCo Europe region. “As a company that has been investing heavily in digitalization for a long time, we have seen the serious advantages of these investments in this process,” says Aksel. A commercial customer program called ‘Dukkan Senin,’ developed for grocery
stores and markets, PepsiCo’s customers in the traditional channel, has become the model application for the Europe region. The project, created in Turkey, will be implemented exactly in the same way in five other countries in the near future. E-commerce, on the other hand, is a strategic focus for the company, says Aksel. “We are 400% ahead in e-commerce in the first half of 2020 compared to last year. Turkey is the fastest growing country within the PepsiCo Europe region.”
The biggest risk in the agricultural sector is the climate crisis and its consequences. As one of the largest agricultural businesses in the world, PepsiCo places a great deal of emphasis on good agriculture practices, Aksel says. PepsiCo is engaged in farming over 10,000 hectares of land in Turkey, producing 60% of the country’s chipping potatoes through contracted agriculture practices with hundreds of farmers on 4,000 hectares of land in 20 cities. “Technology and efficient use of resources are critical in agriculture,” Aksel says. “Today, we are able to reduce the per unit use of water in agriculture by 50% in Turkey.”
PepsiCo Turkey has reached a water efficiency of 5% to 10% in trial (test) areas with ’iCrop’, which the company developed jointly with Cambridge University, and can provide irrigation optimization and early warning by obtaining moisture information via sensors.
SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
Another priority for the company is to feed the soil while protecting it. At this point, PepsiCo Turkey produces its own biogas with the organic waste collected in food factories as well as organic mineral fertilizer produced by enriching the pulp generated. The name of this project and the fertilizer is Naturalis. Aksel says that they reduce the chemical levels in their potato fields by more than 40% through this method. “We export good examples like this to our companies in different countries, especially in England. We provide training and consultancy in the Agro Academy to share these practices with all our farmers.”
PepsiCo Turkey has reduced water consumed per unit by 50% in agriculture, 18% in food factories; and by 24% in beverages, its CE• says. Six factories in Turkey have been turned into zero-waste facilities. “Although plastic is a very common packaging material, only 14% of it is collected and recycled globally,” Aksel says, adding that their goal is not wasting any plastic and packaging material and utilizing it instead for economic benefit. The company uses nearly 20% recycled PET in many of their products in Turkey.
“We aim to increase the use of renewable energy in our operations in order to reduce carbon emissions. In line with our recent decisions, we have begun providing electricity for all operations through renewable sources and plan to go 100%. renewable in 2021. •ur other targets include supplying 100% of our raw materials from Turkey and switching to electric vehicles in our fleet.”
The third area on which PepsiCo Turkey is carrying out sustainability studies, and one of the most important, Aksel adds, is projects for social benefit. The company aims to invest USD 100m in initiatives that will benefit at least 12.5 million women and girls by 2025. The ‘GAP-Cheetos Child Development Centers’ project, launched in cooperation with the South East Anatolian Project (GAP) Regional Development Administration, works to reduce the differences between regions in terms of equal opportunity in education.