Pepsi – Sustainability Committee

 

Whereas, with the deepening and expanding interest by consumers and investors in sustainability and consumption trends, the success of our company is increasingly impacted by responses to challenges in an extensive range of public policy and sustainability issues including environmental priorities and initiatives, human rights, nutritional standards, the use and labeling of genetically modified crops, and political engagement,

Whereas, in just the past two years, corporate management has increasingly adopted or amended many separate and ad-hoc policies, pledges, or statements on a plethora of issues including land and forest stewardship, bio-engineering and genetically modified products, product packaging, health and safety, health and wellness, sustainable agriculture, advertising to children and product placement in schools; the overall implementation of which, given the seemingly unlimited scope and variety of issues, may have strategic operational, financial, and reputational effects on our company’s performance,

Whereas, as fiduciaries, our Board of Directors has a responsibility for stewardship and oversight of our company’s strategic direction and corporate plan, but responsibility for sustainability oversight currently resides tangentially and vaguely with the Nominating and Governance Committee, which generally meets just four times per year, and requires only an annual “review” of key public policy issues and the company’s engagement with and responses to them, and this review is just one among 16 other duties of a committee whose primary purpose relates to the recruitment, election, duties, and succession planning for the Board members and corporate officers,

Resolved, the shareholders request the Board of Directors establish a new Committee on Sustainability to more appropriately oversee our company’s vision and responses to important matters of public policy and sustainability. Such committee could engage in ongoing review of corporate policies, above and beyond matters of legal compliance, to assess the Corporation’s response to changing conditions and knowledge of the natural environment, including but not limited to, waste creation and disposal, natural resource limitations, energy use, waste usage, and climate change.

Supporting Statement:

The proponent believes it is important for an independent committee to be created with focused fiduciary duties representing shareholders for oversight of company sustainability policies and practices, including related public policy initiatives. Issues related to sustainability might include, but are not limited to: global climate change, emerging concerns regarding toxicity of materials, resource shortages, biodiversity loss, and political instability due to changing environmental conditions.

Adoption of this resolution would enhance our reputation and reinforce our company’s position as an industry leader in these areas of increasing and long term concern to investors and policy makers.