PepsiCo Inc Suitability Focus

Introduction

Sustainability is emerging as a significant practice among companies and industries. In this context, the discussion will focus on PepsiCo sustainable focus that includes the biodegradable packaging of the beverages. . For business dissertation help, Based on this sustainable focus, the report touches on the methodology applied in searching for the academic literature, company overview, sustainability performance data, the critical evaluation of the PepsiCo performance and the recommendations.

Methodology

Theoretical and empirical findings from academic literature and other sources associated to sustainable practices linked PepsiCo Inc. attracted the inclusion and exclusion criterion. The search first established conditions to be met before an article could be reviewed. The search criterion first focused on the keywords used in the context for the purposes of attracting a specific line of the findings (Booth 2016). A pool of literature would be found through the search engines like Google or open source databases like Google scholar. Then the literature needs to be filtered based on the publishing dates, relevance to the content, language and the type of the document. Perhaps, more preference was placed on the journal articles than books due to specificity (Hart 2018). Any material that could not meet the criterion could be excluded from the systematic review. The systematic review would sample the theoretical frameworks, model, methods, and the findings related to more specific themes or keywords. Materials such annual reports for PepsiCo Inc. were given priority due to their direct or specific data related to the matter. Notable areas include sustainable practices related to either PepsiCo or its competitors.

Company Overview

PepsiCo Inc. is regarded as an American multinational snack, food as well as beverage corporation that has the main headquarters in Harrison, New York. It was formed in the year 1965 following a merger between Frito Lay Inc. and Pepsi-Cola Company. As of the year2012, the brand is said to have generated sales worth over $1 billion after the products fetched market in over 200 countries. The great history of PepsiCo is shared on the grounds of packaging and recycling, which has seen the company expressing concerns over evident environmental impacts due disposals of the bottled beverage products (Goulding et al. 2012). This has constantly been regarded as a bold undertaking in pursuit of sustainability.

Sustainability Performance Data

Below is a table showing the milestones covered in the company’s sustainable focus

Critical Evaluation of Company Performance

The sustainable focus for PepsiCo includes sustainable packaging and recycling, which has equally been mentioned before. This comes in the of an understanding that the company has noted an opportunity of changing the way products are produced, distributed, consumed as well as disposed as key players aid reduction of pollution. With this, PepsiCo believes in scaling, reaching, and comprehending the help of developing a sustainable foo system while bringing down the rates of pollution (Keating 2019). In this context, the evaluation narrows down to the expansion of the goals, what the company has done and the progress, the impact felt and what can be improved based on the efforts.

The evaluation first considers what PepsiCo would do to remain afloat in the industry. Attaining the sustainability goals like the one set by PepsiCo, which includes the packaging design, largely demands collaboration with the necessary partners as well as suppliers. The partners need to equally advocate for appropriate recycling infrastructure as well as comply with the regulatory reform (Keating 2019). Apparently, the company intends to ensure that no plastics can be turned into waste. The key side of this mission entails recycling the packaging material selection. PepsiCo has already commenced on engaging the 100% of the recycled PET plastic into significant packaging designs via the agreement it has with the Loop Industries. Further investment has seen the company focus on the Closed Loop Partners, which has shown more dedication towards the circular economy. Is there any progress? Based on the 2018 annual report, the company indicated that 51% of the materials are directly purchased from farmers thereby attracting the biodegradable packaging design.

Such efforts have seen the company striking more collaboration as seen with the World Economic Forums Global Action Partnership. The latter concentrates on the stakeholders identified at the coastal economies and their involvement in supporting communities, local governments and businesses in redesigning the waste management models (Purkayastha and Rao 2017). A significant partnership with Loop Industries sounds as an added effort of attaining the appropriate product packaging designs that would be realized in the year 2020. It is worth noting that Loop makes use of the chemical recycling technology which paves way for the low value plastics to essentially be recycled into almost new as well as virgin quality plastics (Gregory 2018).

Is PepsiCo the only company that is pursuing this sustainable focus? Notably, PepsiCo is not the only company that has set its foot into recycled plastic while fostering biodegradable packaging. Perhaps, titan Coca-Cola declared the vision of “World Without Waste” in the year 2018. The vision encompasses investment in the most enhanced recycling technologies, which fosters recovery as well as reuse of the PET plastic. Coca-Cola equally plans to partner with the same Loop Industries while focusing on incorporating 100% recycled plastic (Keating 2019). However, in the pursuit of this sustainable focus, it is worth noting that the company has also encountered a chain of challenges. First, PepsiCo has previously expressed concerns regarding the complex system of the actors which include range of the companies noted in the packaging value chain. This makes it hard for the company to evaluate the value of waste management and the subsequent impact following the inputs and the efforts. Secondly, sharing same partners with the competitors such as Coca-Cola ruins the chances for PepsiCo in sweeping a competitive edge from the efforts. Therefore, for proper realization of the sustainable focus, the company should focus on the recommended solutions that would help it to realize the value of waste management.

Recommendations for Improvement

First, PepsiCo Inc. should focus on investing in the recycling infrastructure to avoid sharing the recycling partners with the competitors and to manage its own value chain. The recycling plant would therefore promote a culture that would boost recommendable rates of recovery as well as recycling. Secondly, it is more recommendable to increase the application of the recycled plastic content across the company’s packaging materials. This should be accompanied by qualifying the new rPET technologies and suppliers. This effort is likely to tap into joint ventures that will bolster the 100% recycled materials before mid-2020. Lastly, PepsiCo should consider investing in significant consumer education that shall aid proper means of disposing of the waste and making it available to the responsible companies.

Conclusions

The report presents PepsiCo sustainable focus on recycling and packaging. The report, the evaluation has taken note of the fact that the company needs to collaborate with other companies to attain its goals. The progress established that the company has substantially succeeded in tapping into biodegradable materials and bolstered the recycling process. Some of the challenges the company has encountered include complex actors among others. The report has also cited failures in appropriately assessing the value chain. Recommendations noted of the fact that PepsiCo needs to invest in its own infrastructure.

Analysis of the social media data

Introduction

In an effort to go green or redesign the packaging process, the context had to equally focus on the social media data and media response. This context will consider the twitter platform and the tweets that focus on biodegradable packaging as linked to the sustainable focus of PepsiCo.

Search methodology

Companies have increasingly expressed concerns towards the green production practices accompanied with the sustainable business operations. In this context, social media campaigns on twitter were put into consideration. The prime focus was put on the hash tag campaigns with the first one been #goGREEN which is believed to have been supported by only 100 tweets. The related hash tags to the first one include #greenpdx and #greenlogistics (Montemurro et al. 2015). Another hash tag is that of #GREENproduction that may tap into sustainable production as viewed by the companies and other stakeholders. Perhaps, it was good to find the subtopics aligned to the main hah tags for the purposes of understanding the trending topics and to take note of the appropriate precautions.

Presentation of Results and critical analysis

The first findings were to take note of awareness on twitter regarding the effects of plastics and the need to reduce them through significant efforts. The following graph shows the outcome.

This became the most trending on twitter on 13th February at 2 pm with 29 tweets. Notably, retweets amounted to 44 in total with tweet taking note of the researchers who found 50 animals from the 10 species of fish and seals that were found dead at the Scotland coast. The tweet continues citing that micro-plastics were also found in all the species with at least 84% of them being a synthetic fibre, which are acrylic, polyester, and nylon. The rest of the findings noted fragments of plastic bottles and food packages. Perhaps, this is enough to justify the fact that plastic packaging carries with the most severe impact on species to an extent of leading to their death. Secondly, the research wanted to identify whether people take note of the need of biodegradable packaging and whether same awareness is enhanced on twitter or not. The graph below shows the twitter use at given points and the awareness regarding almonds.

The findings denote the fact that there was peak use of twitter by 12th February. As at 2pm, there are also twitter users, which denoted the fact that there was a worldwide use, and not just in the United Kingdom. Part of the subject included the organic Almonds that are packed in the new biodegradable bags. Perhaps, this is a marketing message that aids awareness of the bags (Gould et al. 2017). The analytical side of this tweet indicate that Almonds can be bought alongside the sustainable bags in Scotland. The bag remains key as long as it is sustainable and never interferes with the environment in a negative way. This is remarkable because after people realizing the impact of plastics and packaging bags, they would quickly switch to the biodegradable ones. Lastly, the research looked at how do users take note of the new developments and how do they use them. The graph below shares some insights.

This takes note of the biodegradable bags, which is part of the development but questions the use. The analysis points at a tiny market and what it can do in terms of the use and any necessary approach in this area. This attracts the idea of consumer education, further advertisements due to lack of knowledge and the essence of research and development.

Conclusion

This area has focused on social media data and how it can reflect on the dangers, level of awareness, and the gap areas in terms of marketing. The key platform involved in this context is twitter, which taps in both the tweets and the retweets. The first area is whether consumers are aware of the dangers of plastics. It could be established that people on twitter also took note of the progress of research on the impact of plastics. Same attention as treated to the awareness of biodegradable products and their use.

References

Booth, A., 2016. Searching for qualitative research for inclusion in systematic reviews: a structured methodological review. Systematic reviews, 5(1), p.74.

Gould, D.J., Grant Stevens, W. and Nazarian, S., 2017. A primer on social media for plastic surgeons: what do I need to know about social media and how can it help my practice?. Aesthetic surgery journal, 37(5), pp.614-619.

Goulding, C.R., Goulding, C.G. and Pariante, J., 2012. The Tax Aspects of the PepsiCo Sustainability Supply Chain. Corp. Bus. Tax'n Monthly, 14, p.15.

Gregory, J.R., 2018. Performance with purpose: ThePepsiCo challenge. Journal of Brand Strategy, 6(4), pp.328-355.

Hart, C., 2018. Doing a literature review: Releasing the research imagination. Sage.

Keating, K., 2019. PepsiCo Takes Strong Stance on Sustainable Packaging -- Will Other Brands Follow Suit? Available at https://www.pkgbranding.com/blog/sustainable-packaging

Montemurro, P., Porcnik, A., Hedén, P. and Otte, M., 2015. The influence of social media and easily accessible online information on the aesthetic plastic surgery practice: literature review and our own experience. Aesthetic plastic surgery, 39(2), pp.270-277.

Purkayastha, D. and Rao, A.S., 2017. Sustainable development at PepsiCo. In Case Studies in Sustainability Management (pp. 77-98). Routledge.

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