Approach

Renewable energy is an important part of our climate strategy. By 2030, we are working to reduce absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 50% against a 2022 baseline.¹ To help do this, we will need to procure or self-generate both renewable fuels and renewable electricity.

Additionally, supporting our suppliers in their transition to renewable energy remains a critical part of our efforts to meet our net-zero ambition by 2050,² as well as meeting our 2030 Scope 3 Energy and Industry emissions target.³ For more information about these goals, see Climate change. 

Renewable electricity

To meet our climate ambitions, we are working toward procuring 100% renewable electricity (including through the purchase of energy attribute certificates (EACs)) in our own operations by 2030. 

We have targeted a diversified portfolio of solutions to meet our renewable electricity ambition. Progress towards our climate and renewable electricity goals is being achieved in part by:

• Building on-site solar and wind installations at our plants and distribution centers, coordinated by local teams;
• Executing Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), which finance the development of new renewable electricity projects such as solar and wind farms;
• Purchasing unbundled EACs, including renewable energy credits (RECs). EACs from existing wind or solar farms are certified by independent third parties that support existing electricity generation from renewable sources before being included in our portfolio of renewable electricity. Unbundled EACs enable companies to support the renewable energy market and renewable energy generation, and their use is a common first step in the renewable electricity journey.

We anticipate transitioning to longer-term renewable electricity solutions such as PPAs and on-site generation over time. 

Renewable fuel

We use renewable fuel, in addition to renewable electricity, to help drive progress toward our climate ambitions, power some of our fleet, and meet our thermal requirements, such as heating and cooling needed for our production and facilities. As a convenient foods and drinks company, we’re in the unique position to be able to power our plants with some of the organic waste produced during the manufacturing process. In different plants around the world, we’re piloting using by-products of our convenient foods, like potato peels, to fuel anaerobic digesters or provide fuel by other means. These decomposition processes create biogas, which can be used to generate electricity and heat for the plants. Pilot programs help us explore new ways to use biodigestors — including by purifying this biogas into biomethane (or renewable natural gas) to supplement our need for natural gas.

Progress 

In 2023, we set new guiding principles for our operations, called Sustainable Operations from the Start, that provide a framework for manufacturing and distribution sites to be funded, scoped and activated with net-zero emissions and net water positive outcomes in mind. Practices from Sustainable Operations from the Start include designing new sites with renewable electricity and fuel in mind. 

Renewable electricity

In 2024, 89% (approximately 3,900 GWh) of the company’s direct global electricity needs were met with renewable electricity, including through use of PPAs and EACs.⁴ PepsiCo’s total electricity use in 2024 was approximately 4,400 GWh, of which approximately 98% was purchased through the grid, with the remainder self-generated. 

In 2024, 39 countries in PepsiCo’s operations consumed 100% renewable electricity, including the use of EACs. 

Having met our goal to source 100% renewable electricity in the U.S., including through use of RECs, in 2021, we were named as a top-ten corporate buyer of clean power in North America by the EPA Green Power Partnership's annual ranking of the top 100 buyers in 2022, and remain in that position as of 2024.

In 2023, we completed the installation of the largest solar panel project in Ireland at our Cork factory, coinciding with the 20^th anniversary of the facility's opening. More than 4,500 individual panels make up the installation. We anticipate that the solar panels will provide approximately 25% of the electricity required by the site, and up to 100% during the summer months during daytime. In 2024, our beverage plant in Álava, Spain installed new hot water pipelines and changed its electric transformers to assume the power demands to operate completely on electricity. In 2025, we are installing solar panels and an electric boiler to replace natural gas in the plant, combined with native tree-planting to reduce remaining emissions as certified by the Spanish government.

Renewable fuel

As of 2024, approximately half of our U.K. fleet miles are powered by biodiesel. A PepsiCo U.K. program utilizes used cooking oil to replace diesel for a small number of vehicles in our fleet, and we continue to explore avenues to use more renewable fuels in our fleet. For more information on our efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of our fleet, see Fleet decarbonization.

Beyond our fleet, we continue to explore options for renewable fuel sources for our factories and operations. We are developing plants with anaerobic digesters, which produce biogas that can be used to meet the thermal requirements of our operations. In 2024, we opened a biomethane production facility in Manisa, Turkiye. The project uses organic waste from our plant and reduces natural gas consumption by approximately 18% for PepsiCo's Manisa factory.

In 2024, we procured renewable natural gas for our plants in Chengdu and Shanghai, China, which helped reduce our use of non-renewable natural gas by 13% for our Chengdu plant and 48% for our Shanghai plant. We also procured renewable natural gas certificates in Brazil that covered our 2024 consumption and represented a 92% emissions reduction.

As we work to transition to renewable energy, energy storage continues to present a challenge. In 2023, we launched a pilot at a facility in the Netherlands to store renewable energy using thermal batteries, allowing us to buy energy at off-peak hours and balance renewable energy demand curves. The thermal batteries use wind to create heat, which is later used to power our plant instead of relying on fossil fuels.

Strategic collaboration

As we strive towards our renewable energy goal, we are proud to work with leading energy experts, including: 

• RE100: An initiative led by the Climate Group and the CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project), to bring together the world's most influential companies working towards 100% renewable electricity.
• CEBA (Clean Energy Buyers Association): A membership association for large-scale energy buyers seeking to procure renewable energy across the U.S.
• Corporate Renewable Energy Buyers Principles: An initiative facilitated by the World Resources Institute and the World Wildlife Fund.
• Renewable Thermal Collaborative: A coalition for organizations that are working to scale up renewable heating and cooling at their facilities and cut carbon emissions.

In addition to our collaborations with external energy experts, we work with other companies, both within and outside our value chain, to expand access to renewable electricity solutions. These programs include:

• The Clean Energy Procurement Academy: In 2023, we co-launched this initiative alongside Apple, Nike, the Clean Energy Buyers Association and other global firms with the mission to equip suppliers with the skills and knowledge required to access clean energy. This program is designed to speed up the integration of clean energy into global supply chains and aims to spur policy change in China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam and other Asia-Pacific countries where renewable power has historically been more challenging to source.
• pep+ REnew: We launched a renewable electricity educational program for our suppliers in 2022 in collaboration with Schneider Electric. It was designed with two ambitions: to educate PepsiCo's supply chain participants about their renewable electricity choices and to accelerate their transition to renewable electricity through aggregate power PPAs and other renewable electricity procurement options. In 2024, PepsiCo alongside the Donaldson Company joined a Virtual Power Purchase Agreement that will result in the creation of a solar energy project in Texas, expected to be completed by the end of 2025. 

What's next?

Working towards our net-zero goal and other pep+ (PepsiCo Positive) climate ambitions will require continued efforts to transition to renewable energy, including in our own facilities, by stakeholders in our value chain and through piloting innovative technologies.

• PepsiCo facilities:
  • We plan to continue to use our Sustainable Operations from the Start principles as the framework for growth.
  • We are continuing our work to expand renewable electricity sourcing in all markets that offer it.
  • We plan to continue to expand biofuel options for our operations, both on-site production and sourcing through distribution networks.
• Supply chain: 
  • Through pep+ REnew, we plan to continue to encourage our suppliers to adopt renewable electricity at their locations. 
  • Supported by the Renewable Thermal Collective, we have kicked off a program to help our value chain participants on the next step beyond renewable electricity into thermal decarbonization. 
• Technology:
  • We are continuing to explore and pilot new innovations and technologies to accelerate adoption of low carbon solutions at different points along our value chain.

¹Goal tracks Scope 1 and 2 emissions consistent with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. See Calculation Methodology for details

²Refer to our Climate Transition Plan for more information

³Goal tracks energy- and industry-related Scope 3 emissions consistent with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol's Scope 3 Standard and the Science Based Target Initiative’s Corporate Net-Zero Standard V1.2. See Calculation Methodology for details on how these emissions are calculated and categories included in scope of this goal

⁴Former ambition became a pep+ goal in 2025. 2024 performance calculated retroactively. For more information, see Calculation Methodology