PepsiCo/Society of Women Engineers
Student Engineering Challenge
“We are in the business of discovery, but discovery is not about what you discover in the lab. Discovery is
about wherever the idea comes from; embrace it! That is discovery. Look inside, outside, in developing
markets or emerging markets.” – Dr. Mehmood Khan, Chief Scientific Officer at PepsiCo, speaking at a PEP
Talk on Disruptive Innovation
Who We Are
PepsiCo is one of the world's leading food and beverage companies with over $66 billion in net revenue in
2014 and a global portfolio of diverse and beloved brands. PepsiCo’s diverse portfolio includes 22 brands that
in 2014 each generated more than $1 billion in estimated annual retail sales.
One of the most important guiding principals at PepsiCo is “Performance with Purpose” [1]. PepsiCo is
committed to leaving a positive impact on society. Performance with Purpose is built on three pillars: Human
Sustainability, Environmental Sustainability, and Talent Sustainability. Through those pillars, PepsiCo strives
to provide a wide range of foods and beverages, from treats to healthy eats; find innovative ways to
minimize our impact on the environment and lower our costs through energy and water conservation, as
well as reduced use of packaging material; providing a safe and inclusive workplace for our employees
globally; and respecting, supporting and investing in the local communities in which we operate.
At PepsiCo, we anticipated the need to take environmental stewardship to a whole new level at the start of
the new millennium, recognizing that environmental sustainability was becoming a core component of
sustainable success. We began to put in place the systems, processes and metrics needed to drive continuous
improvement in energy and water conservation as well as packaging and waste reduction. We continue to
strive to find innovative ways to cut costs and minimize our impact on the environment through energy and
water conservation as well as reduced use of packaging material.
Challenge Statement
PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers 1 billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories
around the world, and PepsiCo is always looking to expand its reach. Due to limited access to certain natural
resources (such as: clean water, energy, reliable agriculture sources) PepsiCo must find innovative ways to
connect with and help consumers in emerging markets as well as domestic markets. PepsiCo must also
strategically find ways to make advances in areas of sustainability.
PepsiCo is looking to leverage young engineers to identify disruptive innovations – innovation that impact us
across every function and country to address unmet needs and improve the way in which we make, move
and sell our products in a way that furthers PepsiCo’s commitment to environmental sustainability as well as
its impact on society [2].
The challenge can be approached from any angle but must be innovative, and the solutions should explore
any of the following functions:
Challenge Categories
Packaging
•Packaging materials, package format, and ease of package
manufacturing
•Examples include: portion control, biodegradable packaging,
and reduced material packaging solutions
Product and
Ingredient
Processing
•Reduction of water usage, energy consumption and GHG
production; maximize ingredient usage
•Examples include: eliminating solid waste to landfills from our
production facilities and supporting sustainable agriculture
Equipment Design
•Systems for product delivery
•Examples include: cooling, vending, and fountain dispensing
[3], finished product delivery
Challenge Requirements:

Identify a resource or challenge that PepsiCo faces in a domestic or emerging market and develop a
disruptive innovation that will address that challenge.

Present your technical solution and demonstrate how PepsiCo can implement it to further its
commitment to environmental sustainability and how it impacts the human population. Provide
details around how feasibly your solution can be executed in terms of the following but not limited
to:

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Environmental impact
Human impact
Cost of implementation
Scale (size of impact)
Time required to implement the technology
Resources required

Provide details on the projected outcome or impact that your disruptive innovation has on the
business and/or customer & consumer (i.e improves the quality of life for the people of that market
and provides them with access to PepsiCo Products)

Upon submission of your challenge solution, please identify one of the following categories that best
encompasses your solution:
 Packaging
 Equipment Design
 Product and Ingredient Processing
 Full terms and conditions for submissions are contained in the Terms and Conditions available at
http://www.PepsicoStudentChallenge.swe.org
References:
1. http://www.pepsico.com/Purpose/Performance-with-Purpose
2. OPEN Atlanta Conference – 2014 Keynote Speech by Dr. Mehmood Khan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otFTsSpeP9o
3. http://www.pepsico.com/live/content/query/?q=live%20spire