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Olivia Crozier

November 20, 2014


Deborah Leipziger
Business and Human Rights
Company Report

PepsiCo

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Background: PepsiCo is a food and beverage company that was created

in 1965 when Pepsi-Cola and Frito-Lay merged. They are an extremely


successful company that brought in net revenue of $66 billion in 2013 and
employ approximately 274,000 employees. PepsiCos mix of net revenue in that
same year included 52% food and 48% beverages. The companys portfolio
includes 22 different brands that each generated more than $1 billion in retail
sales in 2013. Their products are sold in more than 200 countries worldwide. The
company practices Performance with Purpose which reflects their goal to deliver
top notch financial performance while creating sustainable value for all
stakeholders. Essentially, Performance with Purpose is providing a range of
foods and beverages and finding ways to minimize their impact on the
environment, reduce operating costs, provide a safe and inclusive workplace for
all of their employees, and respecting, supporting, and investing in the local
communities in which they operate. In order for PepsiCo to practice this they
have three main focus areas; human, environmental, and talent sustainability. In
order to report on goals and progress in their 2013 Sustainability Report the
company conducted a formal assessment to identify the key matters most
important socially, environmentally, and economically for the business and for its
stakeholders. After conducting this assessment the company came out with 175
possible ideas. They then prioritized and chose 10 goals to establish in the past
year. Their goals focused mostly on changing their products for the better,
reducing water usage, and creating a workplace that respects human rights.

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Code of Conduct: PepsiCo has their own Global Code of Conduct that

was recently revised in October of 2012. Their code of conduct focuses on


Doing business the right way by having their employees follow four main
principles including showing respect in the workplace, acting with integrity in the
marketplace, ensuring ethics in their business activities, and performing work
responsibly for shareholders. According to PepsiCos sustainability report and
their GRI report it is clear that they do a good job implementing their code of
conduct.
Signatory: PepsiCo endorses the United Nations Millennium
Developmental Goals. The main goal is to end poverty, but there are many
others goals including to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, to achieve
universal primary educations, to promote gender equality and empower women,
to reduce child mortality, to improve maternal health, to combat HIV/AIDS,
Malaria, and other diseases, to ensure environmental sustainability, and to form
global partnerships for development. PepsiCo also has also signed on with
Global Reporting Initiative. GRI reports for PepsiCo began in 2011 and come out
annually.
Reporting on Human Rights: The company reports on human rights
issues using the GRI report and their sustainability report. Issues relating to
gender are addressed in both of these reports. One point that PepsiCo talks
about in last years sustainability report is the fact that they would like to grow the
number of women leaders in the company by recruiting and developing initiatives

around the world. PepsiCo endorses the United Nations Womens Empowerment
Principles. The topics that they discuss include leadership promoting gender
equality, equal opportunity, inclusion and nondiscrimination, health, safety and
freedom from violence, education and training, enterprise development, supply
chain and marketing practices, community leadership and engagement, and
transparency, measuring and reporting. Also, PepsiCos Pinnacle Group was
launched in 2011 in the United States as a way to increase the retention of the
companys female sales talent as well as strengthen and diversify their future
leadership. Because of PepsiCos partnership with Aspabel, which is a local farm
cooperative, women have been able to have meaningful and relevant jobs at the
companys plantain supplier in Belen de Umbria. According to the 2013 United
States diversity and inclusion statistics in PepsiCos GRI report only 19% of all
associated were female. This statistic shows that PepsiCo has a lot more work to
do to create a more diverse workplace with more women in it.
Recommendation 1: One recommendation that I have for PepsiCo is that
they should put more vitamins into their products to promote better health for
their consumers. For example, the vitamins that people are most commonly
deficient in include vitamin D, vitamin B12, magnesium, and iron. The majority of
PepsiCo products are not healthy for the consumer and contain many sugars that
are bad for peoples health. If PepsiCo began to implement some of these
vitamins into their products then they could potentially have a positive affect on
the health of their consumers. Also, if they focused on putting specific vitamins

into products around different parts of the world where theyre needed they could
take steps forward in helping the UN Millennium Developmental Goals to achieve
their goal to eradicate extreme hunger and poverty. If they chose to start
implementing vitamins into many of their products then they could potentially
provide more jobs for people. By making the vitamins their own sector and having
new employees operate that part of the company they are opening up new
opportunities for company growth.
Recommendation 2: My next recommendation involves the LGBTQ
community. As time passes more people are feeling comfortable in their own skin
and comfortable sharing that with the world. The LGBTQ community is growing
and many companies have problems with discrimination when it comes to that
community. PepsiCo doesnt talk about the presence of the LGBTQ community in
their workplace in their sustainability report nor do they in their GRI report.
Because of the absence of this topic it implies that they do not have much to
report on the success of their company with the inclusion of this community of
people. It is important that PepsiCo stay up with the times and be inclusive of all
people in their work environment as they stated in their sustainability report.
There was an article published in the Huffington Post in November of 2011 about
PepsiCo and their steps toward become more diverse especially with the LGBTQ
community. However, this article was based in North America and not worldwide.
As PepsiCo likes to announce how present they are globally, so should the
LGBTQ environment in their workplace. It is important for them to focus on not

only women and people of color, but also the LGBTQ community. If theres no
information to report on how well they are doing in this category then it means
they are not doing well enough to report anything. It is also important in the future
that they start to report on this statistics in their sustainability report and their GRI
report. Not having the information given to the reader causes the reader to
search for it. When they have to search for it and can barely find anything, it
makes it hard to understand how the company could be doing anything about this
topic. The company should make it a goal in next years sustainability report to
diversify their community with the LGBTQ community and report on their
progress in the years to come. Its important for people to have access to that
information if you are in support of that community or part of it.
Recommendation 3: PepsiCo should sign on with the Gender Equality
Principles which is an initiative launched in 2008. These principles urge
companies to identify their strengths and weaknesses and then recognize how
gender equality could help the business as a whole. The seven principles of the
Gender Equality Principles include employment and compensation, work-life
balance and career development, health, safety, and freedom from violence,
management and governance, business, supply chain and marketing practices,
civic and community engagement, and leadership, transparency, and
accountability. Out of these seven principles PepsiCo could particularly benefit
from taking after the principle that includes work-life balance and career
development. Nowhere in the companys sustainability report do they talk about

the importance of work-life balance and what they do to accommodate


employees who also have families to care for or single parents working for the
company.
Recommendation 4: PepsiCo also needs to work on their general
diversity in the workplace regarding women and people of color. As I stated
earlier, only 19% of the company is made up of women. According to that same
2013 GRI report only 34% of the company is made up of people of color. One of
PepsiCos 10 goals highlighted in the sustainability report is to create a safe,
healthy, diverse, and inclusive workplace that reflects the communities in which
we operate. PepsiCo states that they are present in over 200 countries around
the world. It seems impossible that with only 34% of their company being made
up of people with color that they could be reflecting the communities in which
they operate. If they begin to hire more people familiar with the communities in
which they operate then they will be more educated about the consumers and
resources in that area. They could also raise their percentage of people of color
in the company by doing this. If they dont begin to do this soon then it will be
noticed by their company and stakeholders that they are not following through
with their goal of creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. PepsiCo would only
be helping themselves if they began to hire people native of the communities in
which they are operating.
Recommendation 5: According to The United Nations human rights, all
people have the right to safe, sufficient, acceptable, physically accessible and

affordable water. One of PepsiCos 10 goals in their sustainability report includes


to help protect and conserve global water supplies, especially in water stressed
areas, and partner to provide access to safe water. Through PepsiCos already
existing partnerships they have helped approximately 3 million people gain
access to safe water since setting that goal in 2007. These partnerships include
the Columbia Water Center at the Earth Institute of Columbia University, the Safe
Water Network, the Inter-American Development Bank, the China Womens
Development Foundation, Water,org, and the 2030 Water Resources Group. In
their sustainability report they announce that they have decided to up their goal to
helping 6 million people gain access to safe water by the end of 2015. Coca Cola
has similar goals to providing access to safe water. One of their goals includes
by 2020 to safely return to communities the amount of water that is used in their
finished beverages and production. Coca Cola and PepsiCo have talked about
possibly creating a partnership to work together towards the goal of providing
access to clean water. However, it has not happened yet and they provide no
evidence stating that they plan to in the near future. If PepsiCo and Coca Cola
partnered to work on this goal they could make a huge impact globally. Both of
these large companies have the money and the resources to make an impact in
their own way, if they worked together the impact could be unimaginable.
Recommendation 6: PepsiCo should sign on with the United Nations
Global Compact. The UN Global Compact has 10 principles, two of which involve
human rights and one of which involved anti-corruption. The human rights

principles state that businesses should support and respect the protection of
internationally proclaimed human rights and to make sure that they are not
complicit in human rights abuses. The one principle about anticorruption states
that businesses should work against corruption in all forms, including extortion
and bribery. These are all principles that line up with PepsiCos goals and
existing principles. They would benefit from signing on with them. They should
also make their anticorruption standards more visible. They do not talk about
their anticorruption standards in their sustainability report. It is important for the
public to be able to read about PepsiCos feelings on anticorruption and the steps
that they are taking to prevent it in the company. According to their GRI report the
company prohibits unethical business practice which includes corruption and
bribery. However, they do not speak of it at all in their sustainability report. They
should report more on their stance towards anticorruption and also make sure
that all of their employees are educated on the topic and PepsiCos goals
surrounding it. If the employees are not educated about the topic then they wont
be able to know if theyre following the companys policies surrounding it.
Competition: Coca-Cola is PepsiCos biggest competitor. Some of CocaColas goals in their 2013/2014 sustainability report include helping to get people
moving by supporting physical activity programs in every country where they do
business, to enable economic empowerment of 5 million women across their
global value chain by 2020, to give back at least one percent of their operating
income annually, to safely return to communities the amount of water equal to

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what they use in their finished beverages and their production, to assess the
vulnerabilities of the quantity of water sources for each of their systems bottling
plants and develop a locally relevant source water protection plan, and more.
Coca-Cola has 22 goals in their sustainability report compared to PepsiCos 10.
Also, 43% of Coca-Colas employees are of color and 39% of the total elected
company officers are women. Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are alike and have many
similar goals, but Coca-Cola seems to be more successful in achieving them.
When reading through the goals on Coca-Colas sustainability report they
seemed to be much more specific and thought out. The detail in which they map
out their goals most likely helps the company to achieve them more successfully
and efficiently. If PepsiCo wants to keep up with Coca-Cola then they should start
to choose more than just 10 goals to focus on in their sustainability report. They
should try to double that number and vocalize 20 goals that they will be working
towards. They should also be more specific in their goals, they should use
specific numbers and specific areas so that the company knows exactly what
they are trying to accomplish. Clarity often leads to more success. PepsiCo also
needs to work much harder to keep up with the success that Coca-Cola has in
the diversity in their workplace.
Conclusion: In conclusion, PepsiCo has a lot to work on in the next few
years. They should focus mainly on the diversity of the workplace because that is
something thats important to their image, to their consumers, and to human
rights. They should try to partner with Coca-Cola to provide access to safe water


worldwide. They should also try to adopt some goals similar to those of CocaColas in the aspect of water. They should also attempt t implement more
vitamins needed by their consumers into their products.

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References

Background. (n.d.). Retrieved November 19, 2014, from UN Millenium


Development Goals website: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/bkgd.shtml

Balch, O. (2014, October 24). Why rivals like PepsiCo, Coca Cola, Unilever and
P&G are joining forces. Retrieved November 19, 2014, from The Guardian
website: http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/oct/23/pepsicococa-cola-unilever-proctor-gamble-partner-business

Coca-Cola 2012/2013 GRI report. (2013). Retrieved November 19, 2014, from
Coca-Cola website: http://assets.cocacolacompany.com/44/d4/e4eb8b6f4682804bdf6ba2ca89b8/2012-2013-grireport.pdf

Coca-Cola 2013/2014 sustainability report. (2014). Retrieved November 19,


2014, from Coca-Cola website: http://assets.cocacolacompany.com/0a/b5/ece07f0142ce9ccc4504e28f1805/2013-2014-coca-colasustainability-report-pdf.pdf

Global code of conduct. (n.d.). Retrieved November 19, 2014, from PepsiCo
website: http://www.pepsico.com/Company/Global-Code-Of-Conduct

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Human rights. (n.d.). Retrieved November 19, 2014, from UN Global Compact
website:https://www.unglobalcompact.org/AboutTheGC/TheTenPrinciples/human
Rights.html

McCarty, M. (2013, November 11). PepsiCos commitment to diversity has its


LGBT employees singing its praises. Retrieved November 19, 2014, from Human
Rights Campaign website: http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/pepsicos-commitmentto-diversity-has-its-lgbt-employees-singing-its-praises

Our history. (n.d.). Retrieved November 19, 2014, from PepsiCo website:
http://www.pepsico.com/Company/Our-History

Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved November 19, 2014, from Women's Empowerment


Principles website: http://weprinciples.org/Site/PrincipleOverview/

PepsiCo performance with purpose: Sustainability report 2013. (2013). Retrieved


November 19, 2014, from PepsiCo website:
http://www.pepsico.com/Assets/Download/PEP_2013_Sustainability_Report.pdf

PepsiCo 2013 GRI report. (2013). Retrieved November 19, 2014, from PepsiCo
website: http://www.pepsico.com/Assets/Download/PepsiCo_2013_GRI.pdf


Who we are. (n.d.). Retrieved November 19, 2014, from PepsiCo website:
http://www.pepsico.com/Company

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