Food and beverage giant PepsiCo announced today the completion of a new green bond offering, raising $1.25 billion, with proceeds aimed at funding projects supporting the company’s agriculture and value chain-focused sustainability initiatives.

The announcement marks PepsiCo’s second green bond offering, following its inaugural $1 billion issuance in 2019. PepsiCo stated that it has allocated over 85% of the proceeds from the prior issue, supporting projects in areas including sustainable plastics and packaging, supply chain and operations decarbonization, and water sustainability.

Jim Andrew, Chief Sustainability Officer, PepsiCo, said:

“We were one of the first food and beverage corporations to issue a Green Bond and that initial funding has played a critical role in our sustainable transformation so far.”

PepsiCo’s latest green bond offering follows the launch last year of its wide-ranging sustainability agenda, pep+, encompassing the company’s ESG initiatives across agriculture practices, climate, water and packaging sustainability, and consumer health. The new green bond will target initiatives under two of pep+’s three key pillars, namely “Positive Agriculture,” and “Positive Value Chain” (the third pillar is “Positive Choices.”).

Under the company’s recently released updated green bond framework, eligible investment areas for green bond proceeds include Regenerative Agriculture, encompassing initiatives such as farmer training, reducing fertilizer use and watershed reduction; Net Positive Water Impact, including water recycling and reuse projects, efficiency improvements, watershed replenishment and wetlands rehabilitation; Circular Economy and Virgin Plastic Waste Reduction, such as projects to strengthen recycling infrastructure and increase recycling rates, and; Decarbonization and Climate Resilience, targeting both the company’s operations and supply chain through projects to add renewable energy, invest in green buildings, enhance energy efficiency, upgrade vending and cooling equipment, or invest in electric vehicles.

Since launching pep+, PepsiCo has unveiled several projects supporting these goals, including recent initiatives to help small businesses in the supply chain to access renewable energy, help farmers save water through new irrigation technologies, increase the use of recycled or renewable plastic in packaging, and invest in community recycling infrastructure.

Andrew added:

“While tackling the climate crisis requires a collaborative effort, it is clear that the private sector must play a leadership role.  Our new Green Bond will be pivotal to channeling investment into the critical areas required to build a more sustainable and resilient food system.”