Pepsico India is serious about sustainability. The company signed the CII-Code for Ecologically Sustainable Business Growth recently, thereby committing to reduce the consumption of natural resources and promote ecologically sustainable growth in the group.
In fact, the company is already walking the talk. Ravindra Sewak, director, Sustainability, PepsiCo India, told FE, ?Over the last few years, PepsiCo has taken several sustainability initiatives.? He adds that the water conservation initiative has led to saving over 2.4 billion litres of water annually when compared to the base line year of 2005. It means the consumption is down by 40% since 2005. The effluent discharge has also got reduced by 60% in the mean time. Similarly, the company has reduced the generation of sludge in effluent treatment plants (with over 25% reduction in one year alone) through the use of bio-enzymes. At the community level, the waste to wealth initiative has established zero solid waste centres that benefit more than 2,00,000 community members all over the country. PricewaterhouseCoopers is auditing the company?s water usage and recharging initiatives.
Sewak emphasised, ?PepsiCo in India is committed to making tomorrow better than today under our programme called performance with purpose.? Signing the code is a reiteration of the company?s commitment to sustainability.
PepsiCo is not alone. The code had 23 other new signatories including Triveni Engineering & Industries, and Mawana Sugars. The total number of code signatories has gone up to 102 now.
The code has been formulated by the CII?s Mission on Sustainable Growth. Set up in 2006. Under the chairmanship of Jamshyd N Godrej, the mission aims to encourage companies to reduce consumption of natural resources and emission of greenhouse gases. The mission focuses on sectors like power plants , transport, buildings and construction, pulp and paper, metals, cement, chemicals, fertilisers, renewable energy, and automobiles.
?The CII-Code was developed with the aim to involve top management and seek voluntary commitments from member companies to reduce the consumption of natural resources without compromising business growth,? said Dhruv M Sawhney, CMD, Triveni Engineering & Industries Ltd, while explaining the purpose of the code, at the event.
Added Siddharth Shriram, chairman, Mawana Sugars, ?It is encouraging to see the importance attributed by CII in promoting ecologically sustainable business growth of Indian industry.? He added, ?The Mission on Sustainable Growth should be the right platform to spread the ecologically sustainable business movement in the industry.?