Pepsi's New Labels Hit Shelves, Raise New Concerns
Corporation urged to report water quality at annual meeting
Published on May 7, 2008 - 9:39:24 AM

By: Corporate Accountability International

PLANO, TX, May 7, 2008 -- Today, at Pepsi's annual shareholders' meeting, North America's leading bottled water brand is coming under new scrutiny. Corporate Accountability International and its allies are calling on the corporation to publicly report water quality information as is required of public water systems.

Last year, these organizations pressured Pepsi to print "Public Water Source" on its Aquafina labels in the interest of disclosure and transparency. Though bottled water marketing depends largely on distinguishing bottled water from the tap, up to 40 percent of bottled water, in fact, comes from the same source.

"Pepsi took an important first step by responding to our Think Outside the Bottle demand that they adequately label the source of their water," said Gigi Kellett, national director of Corporate Accountability International's Think Outside the Bottle campaign. "But now they are using their new labels to cast doubt on the quality of tap water, by promoting Aquafina water as somehow more pure."

New Aquafina bottles have just begun hitting shelves, and while their labels spell out "Public Water Source," they also tout the brand's filtration routine.

Despite the marketing to distinguish Aquafina from its source, Pepsi has yet to begin reporting water quality information in the same way as public water systems do. Public tap water is more highly regulated than bottled water, undergoing as many as 90,000 water quality tests in a year.

A shareholders' resolution was introduced calling on Pepsi to recognize the human right to water, including the importance of water quality. The resolution highlights the growing global water crisis, in which one in five people currently lack access to enough clean drinking water.

"Let's face it: water is the next oil, and both resources are running out," said Julie Goodridge of NorthStar Asset Management and author of the resolution. "The only difference is that we can't live without water."

Organizations supportive of the resolution and Think Outside the Bottle consider recent Pepsi initiatives, such as the CEO Water Mandate, an effort to greenwash the deleterious effect of water bottling on universal access to water.

"Like its main competitor Coca-Cola, PepsiCo is an expert at covering up the environmental impact of its beverage operations", says Tony Clarke, executive director of the Polaris Institute. "In 2007 CEO Indra Nooyi signed the UN Global Compact's CEO Water Mandate, a thinly veiled public relations effort by for-profit corporations to gain greater control over water resources and services around the world. This is a classic example of how PepsiCo greenwashes its image."

Still, organizations are optimistic that Pepsi will in time be more responsive to public opinion of its products and practices than its principal competitors.

"By adopting a human right to water policy, PepsiCo can take a step forward in showing that it respects its customers and the communities in which it operates," said Rebecca Brown of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.

For more information on Think Outside the Bottle, community struggles, and for facts about bottled water, visit http://www.stopcorporateabuse.org/cms/page1624.cfm

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