PepsiCo Latin America and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in Latin America announced ‘Water for the Planet’, a collaboration that will work to replenish five different watersheds for the urban areas of Mexico City, Monterrey, São Paulo, Guatemala City and Bogota in the next seven years.
The US$3 million joint commitment toward the program aims to enable long-term, sustainable water security in the watersheds located near where PepsiCo works and includes cross-sector collaboration with suppliers and business partners.
By supporting a watershed conservation initiative with large-scale results in four countries (five watersheds) in Latin America, the positive impact on water and people can have an amplified, long-lasting effect.
With the announcement signed at the PepsiCo office by PepsiCo Latin America CEO Laxman Narasimhan, TNC President and CEO Mark Tercek and TNC Latin America Managing Director Aurelio Ramos, PepsiCo, TNC and its bottlers in Latin America seek to be a model of positive, collective impact.
“All across PepsiCo, we continue to find innovative ways to grow our business while using fewer natural resources,” said PepsiCo Latin America CEO Laxman Narasimhan.
“We met or exceeded all of our water goals set for 2015, including maximizing water efficiency per unit of production by 25.8% since 2006, while saving approximately US$80 million in costs over five years.”
“We have also successfully partnered to provide safe water access to more than nine million people globally since 2006, significantly exceeding our goal of six million people by 2015.”
According to TNC, 80% of the Latin American population lives in urban areas today, and this proportion is expected to increase to 90% by 2050.
This scenario urges the implementation of efficient investments in solutions to secure clean water for growing populations, industries and food production in general.
TNC aims to improve water security by working in the watersheds that supply water to almost 40 urban areas throughout the Latin American region.
With PepsiCo, TNC will implement activities designed to reduce water risks, such as investing in tailored upstream nature restoration activities, for each watershed located near urban centers where PepsiCo works.
