Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG) is the largest manufacturer, seller, and distributor of Pepsi-Cola. The $14 billion company needed to respond to inquiries about its sustainability practices from customers like Wal-Mart and Target, and saw the opportunity to launch a major communications effort that would speak to customers, investors, employees and potential employees alike.
Eric J. Foss, president and CEO for PBG, explains why the time was right for the company to work with BrandLogic on a corporate sustainability report: “As customers, consumers, recruits and shareholders become more educated about sustainability, they are increasingly conscious of a company’s track record when making their purchase, employment and investment decisions. Simply stated, communicating a company’s sustainability record matters. Therefore, it’s important for PBG to be a visible participant in this ongoing dialogue and to more regularly report back on our progress.”
The report focuses on PBG’s efforts in three main areas: the environment, employee health and well-being, and our families and communities.
The report is entitled: Act! Our Commitment to Making a Difference. It touches on all of PBG’s eco-friendly practices, environmental initiatives, and impacts in local communities. Articles spotlight positive activities such as a stunning 83 percent of the PBG waste stream is recycled.
The company had been pursuing these efforts for years, but had not previously publicized their good citizenship. “This corporate responsibility report is a first at PBG,” Paula Davis, vice president of corporate communications explains. “We've been incorporating sustainable principles into our business for many years … We just realized last year, it's not enough to do it – we have to communicate it, too.”
The company also realized that it wasn’t enough to communicate sustainability accomplishments to the normal stakeholders. Knowing that ecological awareness is ingrained in the curriculum for today’s schoolchildren, PBG took an unprecedented step in the report, including “Green Fun” pages for employee’s children. The puzzles on these pages help kids to better understand that their parents or guardians who work at PBG are working for an eco-friendly and socially responsible company.
PBG turned to BrandLogic for help, and together the companies developed an innovative corporate sustainability report in an attractive, highly readable magazine format. The report covers all of the major communication issues for each of its audiences, and is available in print, as a PDF download or on a dedicated Web site at www.pbgact.com.
Going forward, the company aims to educate and publicize the findings and its practices to employees, investors, customers and other stakeholders. After working closely with BrandLogic to determine the key sustainability messages included in the report, PBG will leverage that initial effort and incorporate these messages into brand communications used in sales presentations and recruitment materials.