Pepsi Co.’s New Initiative
Pepsi Co.’s New Health Initiative
Corporate Social Responsibility is often only associated with environmental issues, “greening” existing brands, and advocating workplace rights. Health and wellness is an important field in which CSR has begun to take effect. I discovered this article about PepsiCo’s CSR efforts related to health and wellness, and my first reaction was surprise. I had never expected a soda manufacturer to think about portraying health and wellness issues and talk about them in such a candid way. Pepsi Co is the second largest food and drink manufacturer to focus on CSR issues related to health and wellness, and this is unquestionably a great step.
One of the most important goals in CSR is transparency: the public wants to know that a company realizes its flaws and attempts to fix them. It is evident that Pepsi Co. is taking the first step in this situation. Although the company manufactures soda, it is a good step to encourage healthiness in its consumers and begin to unveil issues that may actually be detrimental for its profit margins.
Pepsi’s initiative to improve health issues will set the standard for other food manufacturers. Companies should take charge and set standards for other companies, especially in a field such as CSR. Companies will follow examples, and this is the best way to collectively improve problems.
This statement in the article is the most interesting to me:
“Eliminate the direct sale of full-sugar soft drinks to primary and secondary schools around the globe by 2012”
Pepsi Co. will lose money from this plan, but is still looking to venture into this territory and attempt to encourage healthy living, especially with childhood obesity on the constant rise in the United States.
Pepsi Co. has started to take steps in a new area of CSR and will continue to have a prominent following for the future.
—Poornima
