LAS VEGAS—Dan Bena, who spearheads international sustainability efforts for food and beverage giant PepsiCo, will be the opening keynote speaker for the WaterSmart Innovations Conference and Exposition, October 7 to 9, 2009, in Las Vegas. Bena, PepsiCo’s director of sustainability, health, safety, and environment, will address the conference’s opening session on October 7.
PepsiCo’s “Performance with Purpose” operating model has environmental sustainability as a cornerstone and includes minimizing environmental impacts of operations, and extending across supply chains and communities.
In 2007, PepsiCo adopted rigorous enterprise-wide global metrics to track its environmental footprint, and was one of the first companies of its size to publicly commit to quantitative resource conservation goals. Using 2006 as a baseline, the company is pursuing 20 percent reductions of water and electricity and a 25 percent reduction in fuel use. This target year coincides with the target year of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which PepsiCo firmly supports, and which forms the backdrop for many of their community initiatives.
Water as Human Right
Water stewardship is a core focus of the company. In the initiative’s first year, PepsiCo’s beverage businesses reduced water consumption by 9 percent, electricity by 8 percent and fuels by 7 percent on a per unit of production basis. The corporation’s foods businesses reduced water consumption by 6 percent, electricity by 3 percent and fuels by 3 percent. All are on track to achieve their 2015 targets. Earlier this year, PepsiCo became the first company in its league to formally recognize water as a human right, and commit to preserving this right.
“You cannot de-couple the many elements of the water crises with which the world is faced,” Bena said. “Water sits squarely at the intersection of agriculture and food security, global health, and even education and gender empowerment in developing economies. We need to solve the problems comprehensively, and conservation is one very important part of the solution.”
Bena speaks with authority on the topic, serving as chairman of American Beverage Association’s Water Resources Committee, chairman of the International Society of Beverage Technologists Emerging Scientific Interests Subcommittee, and Subcommittee for Sustainable Development. He serves on the Public Health Committee of the Safe Water Network, a not-for-profit organization for which PepsiCo was a founding member that facilitates access to safe drinking water in developing countries. Bena is also a member of the Water Core Working Group of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), and the World Economic Forum’s Water Planning Board.
PepsiCo believes collaboration is vital, as evidenced by their endorsement of the United Nations CEO Water Mandate—companies across multiple sectors banding together with the common objective of helping to solve the worldwide water crisis. Bena added, “The water crisis is real, and is not just a problem for developing countries. It’s a problem in our own backyard. A child dies every 15 seconds globally from a water-related illness, and that is a problem that needs to be solved; there is no debate.”
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