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Food and beverage giant, PepsiCo South Africa has partnered with key stakeholders to repair water leaks in several municipalities across the country. This is part of its PepsiCo Positive agenda – a strategic end-to-end transformation with sustainability at the centre of how the company will create growth and value by inspiring positive change for the planet and people.

The PepsiCo-funded project aims to reduce water losses at schools and municipal water networks in the Mangaung, Mogalakwena, Polokwane, Madibeng and Dawid Kruiper municipalities. The project involves identifying and repairing leaks, installing pressure management devices, and measurement devices to monitor the flows and savings in the target systems.

Work, which included refurbishing and repairing ablution facilities, was completed at seven schools in the Dawid Kruiper Municipality in Upington at the end of 2022, with 11 million litres water saving realised from October to December 2022. The projected water savings for this area for 2023 is 44 million litres if the water savings achieved at the end of 2022 can be sustained. Similar work will be carried out across the remaining four municipalities in 2023.

Commenting on the project, Nico Moloto, Corporate Affairs Director-Operations says, “As PepsiCo, we are acutely aware of the critical role water plays in the food system, and it is our vision that wherever in the world PepsiCo operates, water resources will be in a better state because of our presence. This initiative, is designed to enable long-term, sustainable water security for the business and local communities.”

“The target volume of annual water loss reduction through this project is equal to, or higher than the annual water usage of the PepsiCo facilities within the respective municipalities, so this project will help to offset the water use at our operations in these areas,” he adds.

PepsiCo is working towards its ambition to be Net Water Positive by 2030, by achieving best-in-class water use efficiency in 100 % of its manufacturing sites in high-water risk sites, replenishing back into local watersheds more than 100 % of the water it uses, and fully adopting the Alliance for Water Stewardship Standard. In 2022 PepsiCo South Africa achieved 37 percent reduction in operational water usage from a 2015 baseline.

“With respect to meeting our water goals, we collaborate with third parties, communities, NGOs, and government institutions to continue investing in action, innovation and partnerships that will enable us all to realise a more sustainable future,” Moloto concludes.

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PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated more than $86 billion in net revenue in 2022, driven by a complementary beverage and convenient foods portfolio that includes Lay's, Doritos, Cheetos, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, Quaker, and SodaStream. PepsiCo's product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including many iconic brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales.

 

Guiding PepsiCo is our vision to Be the Global Leader in Beverages and Convenient Foods by Winning with PepsiCo Positive, our strategic end-to-end transformation that puts sustainability and human capital at the center of how we will create value and growth by operating within planetary boundaries and inspiring positive change for planet and people. For more information, visit https://www.sa.pepsico.africa/, and follow on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn @PepsiCo.