Drink Up the Good News: Our Third Annual Corporate Responsibility Report
KDP’s broad portfolio of hot and cold beverages and nearly 27,000 employees give us many opportunities to be a catalyst for good.
With the publication of our third annual report within our Drink Well. Do Good. corporate responsibility program, we identify achievements and progress across our key areas of impact and share new commitments to drive an even greater positive impact.
We’re proud to share some of our most significant highlights from the publication, which can be explored in further detail in the full report.
Designing for Circularity
Our vision is a circular future in which all packaging is recycled and repurposed to remain in use and out of the environment. Achieving one of our longstanding sustainability commitments, 100% of K-Cup pods are now made from recyclable polypropylene plastic, the culmination of a multi-year journey including extensive product development and testing directly with material recovery facilities. Through this achievement and other efforts to design for circularity, we advanced our percentage of recyclable or compostable packaging to 90%, putting us on track to achieve 100% by 2025. Core Hydration, 16 oz. Snapple and 500 mL Aguafiel Natural bottles are also now made with 100% recycled plastic, helping us to reach 22% post-consumer recycled (PCR) content across our packaging portfolio and positioning us to achieve our goal of 30% PCR content in packaging by 2025.
Promoting Water Stewardship & Regenerative Agriculture
Water is the primary ingredient in most of our beverages, so we have a particular responsibility to be good stewards of water use. At the end of 2020, we replenished 79% of the water used to make our beverages in our highest water-risk manufacturing locations through projects that enhance watersheds, protect habitats and conserve water, on our path to replenishing 100% by 2025. And since approximately 96% of our water footprint comes from indirect water use consumed when growing agricultural raw materials, it is essential to protect water resources in our supply chain as well. We established a new goal earlier this year to support regenerative agriculture and conservation on 250,000 acres of land, representing 50% of the land used to grow the coffee, corn and apples we source, by 2030.
Expanding our Responsible Sourcing Commitment
We use our buying power for good, ensuring we source ethically and responsibly across our supply chain. In 2020, we successfully achieved our goal to responsibly source 100% of the coffee that we purchase. With this achievement, we now have traceability to the farmer group level for the majority of our purchases. Traceability improves our ability to understand and manage social and environmental risk, secure long-term supplies of high-quality raw materials and identify opportunities for supply chain investments to build farmer, worker and community resilience. As we build on the strength of this responsibly sourced coffee program, we remain committed to responsibly sourcing our brewers and are now expanding our scope to include cocoa, which will be 100% responsibly sourced by the end of 2021, and other priority ingredients, such as corn, apples and apple juice concentrate.
Focusing on Positive Hydration
We aim to deliver a broad product portfolio that meets a variety of consumer needs, ranging from an occasional treat or energy boost to beneficial nutrients, and empowers them to make informed choices. With this report, we are setting a new goal that 60% of our portfolio will be offerings that provide positive hydration by 2025. We define positive hydration as a product that provides a serving of fruits or vegetables OR is below 40 calories per serving with a functional attribute or a nutrient to encourage. This positive hydration goal was developed with input from external health and well-being advisors and in collaboration with The Partnership for a Healthier America.
Fostering a Diverse & Inclusive Culture
Just as each of our brands brings its own personality to our product portfolio, KDP employees bring their own unique backgrounds, experiences and perspectives to our business. We embrace those differences and, in 2020, we accelerated our diversity & inclusion journey. We launched a formalized initiative structure with executive sponsorship, strong governance processes and clear goals and milestones to measure progress and hold ourselves accountable. Through these efforts, we identified an initial goal to increase by 25% the representation of both women and people of color in Director and above roles by 2025. We are in the process of creating a strategic roadmap of additional actions across KDP in areas such as hiring, development, training and engagement.
The full 2020 Drink Well. Do Good. report and more detail on our corporate responsibility initiatives can be found here.