Cuando lo estaba aceptando, pensé en lo afortunado que soy al recibir reconocimiento por hacer las cosas en que realmente creo y que me gusta hacer.

A lo largo de estos últimos cuatro años, desde que comenzamos la alianza con la OEA / YABT para el Eco-Reto, hemos tenido un increíble progreso. Lo que comenzó como una tímida y pequeña iniciativa es actualmente un exitoso programa, y estamos ampliando nuestra cooperación a otras áreas.

Estoy convencido que el sector privado debe asumir un papel más activo en las cuestiones críticas que enfrentamos como sociedad. Yo soy un creyente de que el desarrollo sostenible no puede lograrse hasta que los sectores público y privado y la sociedad civil se mueven a la misma velocidad y con la misma energía, para resolver los problemas que limitan nuestro progreso.

Nuestra responsabilidad como líderes no está en buscar lo que podemos desarrollar individualmente, sino en fomentar un ambiente de equipo que de paso al progreso, de identificar y promover las alianzas y la cooperación. Se trata de dejar atrás el enfoque individual y tener una visión holística.

Nuestro continente Latinoamericano es un continente de contrastes. Es hogar de la persona más rica de la lista Forbes, pero también tiene un gran número de personas que viven con menos de 2 dólares al día. Tiene  una penetración de teléfonos celulares que está llegando a casi uno por persona, pero también enfrenta retos como la falta de agua potable en zonas rurales y urbanas.

Es nuestra responsabilidad como líderes el ayudar a abordar estas cuestiones. En nuestro caso, pensamos que tratando de empatar el ingenio, la creatividad y el emprendedurismo de la Juventud de las Américas y ayudarlos a centrarse en resolver, de una manera económicamente viable, los desafíos ambientales que enfrentamos, podría ser un excelente punto de partida. Y así es como nació el Eco-Reto.

Este año, en su tercera edición, el Eco-Reto se convirtió en la principal categoría de competencia TIC Américas con más de 1.000 equipos participantes. Y este proyecto que se inició en el continente Americano, tiene ahora el potencial de convertirse en una iniciativa global.

Esta experiencia me ha confirmado, que es con nuestra juventud con quien tenemos que trabajar. Son los jóvenes quienes tienen la energía y la pasión para hacer realidad el cambio. Solo necesitamos motivar y fomentar esta energía para lograr una transformación increíble.

Y para demostrar que creemos en el poder de la juventud, hemos desarrollado otra iniciativa dirigida a educar a nuestra población mas joven, tratando de formar sus mentes y corazones a una edad más temprana, para que cuando lleguen a los maravillosos años de juventud, se convierten en los agentes transformacionales que las Américas necesitamos.

Durante la celebración tuve el placer de anunciar esta nueva iniciativa de PepsiCo – Aprendizaje Verde, desarrollada en alianza con con el Tecnológico de Monterrey, el Young Americas Business Trust, la Organización de Estados Americanos y Televisa para proporcionar educación virtual dirigido a capacitar a maestros de primaria y pre-primaria, sobre cómo educar a sus estudiantes en conservación del medio ambiente.

Nuestro objetivo es proporcionar educación ambiental gratuita para los profesores de toda la región y ofrecerles herramientas divertidas y sencillas que puedan utilizar en sus aulas para enseñar a los niños sobre el cambio climático, la conservación del agua, gestión de residuos, reciclaje, etc. Los invito a que visiten el sitio en: www.aprendizajeverde.net

Imaginen la energía y el poder de transformación que podemos crear, si tenemos una nueva generación de ciudadanos que entienden los problemas ambientales desde su niñez. Siempre he pensado que yo era demasiado grande cuando empecé a desarrollar conciencia de los problemas ambientales que afectan nuestra vida diaria, y que de alguna manera esto creo la pasión en mí para abordar esta cuestión desde la infancia.

Since we started the partnership with the OAS/YABT for the Eco-Challenge four years ago, we have had an incredible journey. What started as a small initiative is now becoming a broader and bigger idea and we are expanding our collaboration further.

I truly believe that the private sector needs to take a more active role in addressing the critical issues we face as society. I am a believer that sustainable development cannot be achieved until the public and private sectors and civil society move at the same speed and with the same energy to address the issues that slow down our progress.

Our responsibility as leaders is not looking into what we alone can develop. It is about fostering the environment for ourteams to flourish. It is about identifying and promoting partnerships. It is about letting go of the individual focus and having a holistic view.

Our Latin-American a region of contrasts; From having the richest individual on the Forbes list to people living on less than $2 a day; and from having a penetration of cell phones that is reaching one per head to a lack of safe water in rural and urban areas.

It is indeed our responsibility as leaders, to help address these issues. In our case we thought that trying to tie the ingenuity, creativity and resourcefulness of the Youth of the Americas and focusing them on addressing, in an economically viable way, the environmental challenges we face could be an excellent starting point. This is how the Eco-Challenge was born.

This year, in its third edition, the Eco-Challenge became the largest award category of the TIC Americas with more than 1,000 teams participating. This project that started in the Americas has now the potential of becoming a worldwide initiative.

This experience has confirmed for me that we must work with our youth. They carry the energy and the passion to make change happen, and if we properly motivate and nurture it, we can achieve amazing transformation.

It is because we believe in the power of youth, that we have developed another initiative aimed at educating our very young population, trying to shape their minds and hearts at a younger age so that when they reach the wonderful years of youth, they become the transformational that the Americas so badly need.

During the celebration I announced this new initiative – Aprendizaje Verde (Green Learning). It was developed by PepsiCo in partnership with the Tecnologico de Monterrey, the Young Americas Business Trust, the Organization of American States and Televisa to provide state of the art, virtual education, to train elementary school teachers on how to educate their students on Environmental conservation.

Our aim is to provide free environmental education for teachers across the region and offer them fun and simple tools that they can use in their classrooms to teach children about climate change, water conservation, waste management, recycling, etc. I encourage you to visit it at: www.aprendizajeverde.net

Imagine the energy and transformational power we can create, if we have a new generation of citizens that begin to understand environmental issues during their childhood. I have always thought that I may have been too old when I started to develop awareness of environmental issues impacting our daily life, and that somehow ignited the passion in me to address this issue since childhood.

It has been an amazing and humbling experience to watch groups of our youth, of that future of the Americas, working creatively to develop solutions that aim at achieving sustainable development. It has been really encouraging to see that we can find solutions that allow for environmentally sustainable, economic and social growth.

I am deeply honored by the recognition that YABT and OAS gave me, but believe me, the best recognition possible comes from seeing the smiles and progress achieved from those who we have touched and helped during these years.

This is the Spirit that we want to continue fostering in the Americas.

For more information please visit: http://www.myybiz.net/yabt/main/NEWS/dc042712

Sunday, April 22, is Earth Day and marks the two-year anniversary of the PepsiCo Dream Machine recycling initiative—and what a tremendous two years it has been. We’re commemorating this milestone with the release of a progress report that shares the program’s cumulative results and successes since its launch on Earth Day 2010.

With the Dream Machine recycling initiative, it’s our goal to provide the public with access to convenient and rewarding recycling solutions so that we can help increase the national beverage container recycling rate to 50 percent by 2018, and establish a closed-loop system to capture more recycled plastic to use in manufacturing new bottles. Currently at 40 percent, the national rate is rising and is up six percentage points since 2007.

In the past two years, we’ve made a great deal of progress. The program has a presence in 40 states, with 4,000 Dream Machine bins and kiosks deployed. More than 150 universities, municipalities and businesses have signed on to host Dream Machines. Approximately 400,000 students at more than 900 K-12 U.S. schools are participating in the Dream Machine Recycle Rally. These efforts, and recycling efforts at PepsiCo industrial locations, have resulted in the diversion of nearly 94 million plastic bottles and aluminum cans from landfills.

We are eager to roll out additional placements this year and add to the growing and impressive roster of Dream Machine host partners—partners like the multiple 7-Eleven franchises currently hosting Dream Machine kiosks; the DowntownDC Business Improvement District with more than 350 Dream Machine bins; and major grocery chains like Weis Markets, Reasor’s Foods and Safeway, which recently launched a Dream Machine pilot program in Southern California that helps support the Los Angeles Conservation Corps.

On top of the tremendous strides the program has made toward helping increase the national beverage container recycling rate, over the past two years, PepsiCo has donated a cumulative $1 million to the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV), an organization that provides free education and entrepreneurship training to post-9/11 U.S. veterans with disabilities. PepsiCo will make a third-$500,000 donation this year and the more bottles and cans recycled in Dream Machines, the more support PepsiCo will provide to the EBV.

Additionally, recyclers across the U.S. have earned rewards points by recycling in Dream Machine kiosks and through the Dream Machine Recycle Rally program. These points can be redeemed for discounts on entertainment, dining and travel, and participating Dream Machine Recycle Rally schools have had the opportunity to compete for numerous contest prizes.

We are proud of the progress made over the past two years since the launch of the program, but we know the job has only just begun. It takes all of us working together to make a difference. Thank you for your continued support of the Dream Machine recycling initiative—and don’t forget to recycle in your nearest Dream Machine!

One such charity is FIND (Families in Need) run by Maureen Reynel MBE.  They are a small charity operating in Ipswich helping families that have fallen on hard times: they deliver food parcels, give clothes, find & fund emergency housing and all on very limited donated resources.  Boxford initially got some porridge down from Quaker in Cupar and gave that along with a first small cheque.  However a couple of months later we gave a second cheque to them for £840 and we received the following letter!

As a result of seeking to reduce our scrap, increasing our determination to recycle in the right way and investing in our local community we’ve managed to support a charity that is making a massive difference who now acknowledges the benefit that PepsiCo is having on the communities it operates in; now that’s Performance with Purpose!

Therefore I want to encourage young people into technical careers and open up manufacturing so they understand what goes on inside the big grey miscellaneous boxes which are the factories they regularly pass.  To this end I am a STEMnet ambassador which is a national scheme to try and get young people into Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths related courses and ultimately careers.  It’s a useful scheme as local schools and colleges get in touch with a co-ordinator who then emails around the ambassadors to let us know the opportunities to go and help, and also cover things like CRB checks and insurance.

Some of the things I’ve done recently are: give first interviews to a year 11 group, attended careers evenings, work experience, group tours, and speak about my own career and what qualifications and experiences I’ve needed to get to my current role.  It’s especially interesting to talk about what functions we require in factories – people are astonished when I talk about Boxford having chartered engineers, accountants, degree qualified microbiologists, safety specialists even a Geologist (although as Site Leader I’m not sure the Rock Hammer comes out that regularly – only in my PDR sessions!).

The other benefit for us as PepsiCo is that it gives us exposure: firstly to attract some great potential into schemes such as Engineering Apprentices which we’re currently working on for 2012, secondly it gives us some great local credibility – in talking to some parents at a careers evening they asked “why are you here – is it to give out juice” my answer “we are giving out juice, but we’re also interested in your son’s career” – the following conversation concluded around the parent asking for him to be added to our potential apprentices list and congratulating us for being one of only three companies (out of about 25 stands) to be encouraging local young people into employment!

STEMnet is national – I’d really encourage you to join up and get involved.

Our brands are part of everyday life for millions of Chinese consumers. In fact, this  video developed by the PepsiCo China team as part of an integrated PepsiCo “Power of One” campaign for Chinese New Year has received more than 700 million views, making it one of the most viewed online videos of all time.

Last week we finalized a strategic alliance with Tingyi-Asahi Beverages (TAB), a move that will enhance our business in what is expected to become the world’s largest beverage market by 2015. We expect this alliance to drive long-term growth in China’s thriving beverage sector. Together, the PepsiCo-Tingyi beverage system will offer Chinese consumers some of the country’s most popular beverages, including:

·         China’s #1 cola, Pepsi

·         China’s #1 flavored soft drink, Mirinda

·         China’s top-selling tea and water brands, sold under TAB’s Master Kong brand name

·         One of China’s top-selling sports drinks, Gatorade

·         China’s second-largest juice portfolio through the licensing and co-branding of Tropicana

All totaled, the PepsiCo-Tingyi system will be the largest player in China’s growing beverage sector. In fact, our new alliance in China will be the third-largest single-country beverage system anywhere in the world.

We couldn’t be more excited about the future of our business in China. In addition to our strength in beverages, we also have a very successful food business that’s a leader in the snacks and cereals categories. Our powerhouse Lay’s brand ranges from natural potato chips to Lay’s Stax, and includes recent Stax innovations in Rice and Wheat Chips. Our Quaker brand includes both our core Quaker Oats as well as product developed specifically for Chinese consumers such as oats for rice and oats congee. And of course all of our great food and beverage offerings are made possible by a very strong team of dedicated PepsiCo China employees who go above and beyond every day.

When you put all this together, you see a very bright future for PepsiCo in China….and we look forward to continuing to invest in and grow our business in China for years to come.

Read the press release for details about the PepsiCo-Tingyi strategic alliance.

Just a couple of weeks ago, the United Nations shared the great news that the world has met the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Water Target of halving the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water, well in advance of the MDG 2015 deadline!  This means that between 1990 and 2010, over two billion people gained access to improved drinking water sources, such as piped supplies and protected wells.  No small feat, and cause for careful celebration.

I say “careful celebration” because even though the MDG was met (it is the first of the MDGs to be reached), at least 11% of the world’s population – 783 million people – are still without access to safe drinking water, and billions lack sanitation facilities.  Clearly, we have a way to go.

But, I am optimistic. I have personally witnessed a significant change that began a few years ago, but really seems to have picked up momentum this past year.  More and more people, companies, and organizations are realizing that water stewardship—at least the way we approach it at PepsiCo—is not purely about philanthropy.  It is about assuring the foundation for the business and society to allow BOTH to flourish long term.

Water stewardship as a concept and practice in the food and beverage industry has evolved significantly; most notably, water stewardship is now recognized more explicitly as “part of” the core business—not something which sits “apart from” it.

We know that water impacts things such as water security, food security, climate security, global health, education, gender equity and even national and international security, so how can one possibly argue against the fact that any programs to address these are directly supportive of the business?

The casualties of water-related illness are the consumers of tomorrow.  They are our future employees and the customers, partners, suppliers, and shareholders that companies will need to thrive. Investment in access to safe water is an investment in the future of all our stakeholders, and therefore the business.  To be without safe water is to be without business, without governments, without communities, without life.

Water scarcity already affects every continent.  Businesses, like people, need water to survive and flourish.  Around 1.2 billion people, or almost one-fifth of the world’s population, live in areas of physical water scarcity.  We are all obligated —companies, governments, non-governmental organizations, and individuals—to use water responsibly.

Consider the link between water and food.  Obviously, we need water to grow food… and we need a lot of it… one estimate suggests as much as 200 million liters per second to grow the food currently on the planet.

What about the other way around?  Do we think about how what we eat affects the amount of water we need?   And why should a company care?  As a food and beverage company, these global realities inform our strategic planning: which products to develop and market; where to site new plants; and how best to support the communities where we operate. These realities also impact our associates.  PepsiCo wants to attract and retain the best employees long term, and this includes enabling their healthy and sustainable lifestyles, both in the workplace and at home.

To be successful in solving the water crisis, collaboration is crucial.  No single entity and no single sector can solve a challenge of this magnitude alone.  It is only through rethinking the importance of water to business, and collective efforts in sharing of good practices, that genuine progress will continue to be made… and PepsiCo is at the forefront of this progress.

I am excited to see what the year holds for all of us, and am looking forward to providing an update on World Water Day 2013!

Prime Minister David Cameron (center) learns about the oat production process.

This marvellous investment is funding a new high-speed production line for our Oats So Simple range, following its successful 44% growth over last two years*. I can say with great excitement
that the new line is already in the early stages of construction and once finished, will create 30 jobs within our local community.

During his visit, the Prime Minister praised the Quaker business and talked about the historic connection of the Quaker and Scott’s Porridge Oats brands in the UK. He also honoured PepsiCo investment, highlighting it as a brilliant example of its continued commitment to Cupar and to Britain.

Richard Evans, president - PepsiCo U.K., Ireland and South Africa (second from left) shows the Prime Minister (second from right) and government officials expansion plans for the site.

It makes me so proud to be able to witness such an important global figure congratulate the skills expertise and hard work that has gone into the Quaker site over the past few years. The entire team was delighted that Mr. Cameron has had the chance to see our wonderful business and we hope that he can visit us again when the development is complete.

* Quaker Oat So Simple Sachets have grown in value terms by +43.8% over the last two years => +29.0% and +11.5% in 2010 and 2011 respectively. (Source: Nielsen).

PepsiCo’s Jeremy Cage attends the New York Stock Exchange Closing Bell Ceremony with members of the EBV. Source: NYSE Euronext / Alyssa Ringler

On Monday, on behalf of the PepsiCo Dream Machine recycling initiative, I had the opportunity to join members from the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV) for the New York Stock Exchange closing bell ceremony. At 4 p.m. sharp, EBV graduate Elizabeth Perez-Halperin, president and founder of GC Green, a post-9/11 service-disabled veteran-owned green build general contracting and consulting firm, rang The Closing Bell^SM and banged the gavel to officially close trading for the day.

The EBV provides free education and entrepreneurship training to post-9/11 U.S. veterans with disabilities. Since 2010 (the launch year for the Dream Machine program), the EBV has increased its capacity by 50 percent and added three new universities to its consortium. Currently, there are nearly 4,000 Dream Machine kiosks and bins in 37 states across the U.S., and the more plastic bottles and aluminum cans that people recycle in Dream Machines, the more PepsiCo will be able to contribute to the EBV.

As we begin 2012, we have some very exciting opportunities ahead for the Dream Machine program, and we are proud to continue to support such an important cause through this initiative.

To view the NYSE closing bell ceremony, click here: https://exchanges.nyx.com/en/new-york-stock-exchange/entrepreneurship-bootcamp-veterans-disabilities

In a brief interview post-conference I talked with Edelman’s Keith Hodges about the intersection of employee recruitment and purpose – the idea that many job seekers are drawn to mission-driven organizations where through their work they can also make a difference. Expectations of employers are now much higher when it comes to values and citizenship, so a CSR program or strategy needs to be firmly embedded into how a company is run.

At PepsiCo, Performance with Purpose is not just a motto but provides the foundation for business decisions and has become wholly part of the culture; as proof, globally 94% of our associates are aware of Performance with Purpose, and 91% agree that PWP is the right direction for PepsiCo.

Whether on the job, volunteering, or active in our employee resource groups, associates have endless Possibilities to cultivate their passions and live Performance with Purpose. Take, someone like Meagan Smith, who through working on our employee Green team transitioned from marketing to leading PepsiCo’s Dream Machine recycling initiative.

Or PepsiCorps, in which employees from around the globe use their diverse skills and expertise to take on a critical societal challenge; hear from the volunteers who recently returned from their one-month trip to Ghana leading clean water and eco-tourism projects – a unique market immersion experience providing mutual benefit to PepsiCo, our talent and the communities served –a PWP assignment at the core.

Or our Food for Good teams in Dallas and Chicago – made up of over 700 employee volunteers – who this summer delivered over 525,000 meals to underserved kids in community locations, and have found a way to break even. Food for Good was started in 2009 when employees in the Frito-Lay division, inspired by Performance with Purpose, wanted to create a sustainable business model that increased access to nutritious food and would make a meaningful impact in urban communities. Watch a video about Food for Good below.

As a company we firmly believe that what is good for society is good for business. Now consider the experiences, competencies and perspectives our people gain while pursuing a Purpose agenda that may help them to develop and advance. Surely, it’s good for careers too.