Pepsi Loses its Bottle
And good for PepsiCo! The beverage firm, now big-time into the water business, is swapping plastic water bottles for aluminum cans. PepsiCo’s commitment to saving our oceans epitomizes an encouraging trend, and it hasn’t held its stock back either.
Pepsi soda isn’t the only PepsiCo drink you’ll find in a vending machine today. The competitive landscape has changed dramatically with more bottles of refreshing water actually being sold than cans of pop. CEO Ramon Laguarta made it a priority to buy LIFEWTR and Aquilina a few years ago, diversifying his beverage cabinet. Now, it’s his priority that those brands go eco. “I take this challenge personally,” says Mr. Laguarta, as he follows in the footsteps of Anheuser-Busch, which has already canned it.
Despite the bottled water industry throwing climate counter statistics at PepsiCo, consumers continue to demand hard answers to hard questions from both business people and politicians. Not allowing any firm to duck this, consumers are putting their money where their mouth is, too. Organic, natural, and environmentally responsible products are cool right now. So just like that, the markets have a financial incentive. Pay attention, because millions of dollars could be made by companies bailing out our ecosystems and cashing in on this trend.
For investors, this plays into the increasingly popular approach of impact investing. Investors have long questioned how they can do their part for our planet and invest responsibly for the planet, without sacrificing returns. As companies like PepsiCo set an example, they do so with millions of shareholders behind them. So, as the world’s plastic problems wash up on our shores, what are your stocks doing about it?
