PepsiCo 2009 Annual Report

Every Drop Counts

We recognize water as a basic human right. It is essential to our food and beverage business. That's why our goal is to achieve positive water balance across all our businesses. For every liter of water we use, we intend to return one to the earth.

Our India beverage operations have already met the challenge. In a region where monsoon rains can provide a much-needed source of water, our manufacturing plants collect rainwater from their roofs and use it to rejuvenate surrounding aquifers so communities can access safe water and rural farmers can grow more crops. We're also partnering with nongovernment organizations in such water-stressed regions as India, China, Ghana and Brazil to help install irrigation systems, improve sanitation programs and construct community cisterns.

In addition, we're also employing a variety of water conservation techniques ourselves–and sharing others with local farmers and communities. In the United States, our conservation programs are saving billions of liters of water. We are cleaning Gatorade bottles with purified air rather than water. We are using advanced filtration systems to recycle and reuse approximately 80 percent of the processed water used in production at our Frito-Lay facility in Arizona. In the United Kingdom, our Walkers business is working to capture the water in potatoes and use it to make our facilities self-sufficient for water. And in China, we're pioneering new agricultural methods to reduce the water used to grow the potatoes for Lay's potato chips by more than half.

These efforts are no drop in the bucket. So far, we've saved billions of liters of water. But water will always be scarce, and we're determined to do more. Optimizing our efficient use of water is good for people, good for the planet and good for business.

1. STORY:
2. 1
3. 2
4. 3
5. 4
6. 5
7. 6