Jim Andrew serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer at PepsiCo, where he oversees the company’s pep+ (PepsiCo Positive) strategy.
I recently caught up with Jim to gather his thoughts on navigating 2026 as a CSO, what it takes to be effective in the role, the critical role of transparency in sustainability, and why embedding sustainability into a company’s business infrastructure is essential for long-term growth and impact.
1. We’ve seen a wave of backsliding, budget cuts, and political pushback on ESG. What does the path forward look like in 2026, and how can companies and sustainability professionals sustain momentum in this climate?
At PepsiCo, we believe sustainability isn’t a trend, but important for long-term growth. The ESG landscape has grown more complex, and our response has been to hone our focus to where we believe we can have the most positive impact and strengthen the resilience of our business. In May 2025, we updated our pep+ goals to ensure they remain actionable and achievable, align with the latest science, and account for external headwinds such as fragmented policy and underdeveloped infrastructure.
Embedding sustainability into a company’s core helps deliver long-term success and helps sustain momentum. For companies like PepsiCo, sustainability is central to our business because our future is directly tied to the health of the food system, from farmers having improved crop yields and livelihoods to resilient ecosystems that allow us to reliably make, move, and sell our products for generations to come.
That said, our sustainability journey will not always be linear, but we are focused on doing the work that we believe can both strengthen business resilience and support a positive impact for the planet. Staying agile without compromising ambition is key. That means adapting strategies based on learnings, listening to stakeholders, and building partnerships that can help unlock scale. And above all, remaining transparent and outcome-driven in how we communicate progress.
2. The CSO role has evolved dramatically. What defines a successful Chief Sustainability Officer today, and what does the job really require in 2026 and beyond?
Today’s CSO must be both a systems thinker and a systems changer. A successful CSO helps chart the company’s strategic direction, navigates complex regulatory and stakeholder environments, and helps weave sustainability into the DNA of how a business actually operates—all for the sake of both near- and long-term growth and resilience.
My role is to help PepsiCo focus on where and how we can grow our business, strengthen our resilience, reduce risk, and overall have the greatest positive impact. I work to share progress and challenges transparently and to push for deeper collaboration, both internally and externally. That mindset of balancing pragmatism with bold ambition defines the modern CSO.
3. PepsiCo extended its net-zero target and leaned into regenerative agriculture. Do you think more companies will follow this more pragmatic strategic approach, balancing ambition with the realities of transitioning to a low-carbon, sustainable economy? What are the risks and rewards of that approach?
Yes, and not only do I believe more companies will follow, but I believe they’ll have to in order to scale global progress. I’ve talked with a lot of my peers about how we refined our goals and communicated our approach, and it really resonates with them.
When we updated our agriculture, climate, packaging, and water goals in May 2025, we remained ambitious with our sustainability targets while evolving with the latest science and being pragmatic about where our efforts have been limited by external factors and systemic barriers, such as lagging infrastructure, lack of enabling policy, as well as the growth of our business. The goal refinements reflect our understanding of where we can accelerate impact—while always working to improve both the effectiveness and efficiency of our investments —and where progress will take more time based on the realities of key global enablers, while reinforcing a commitment to rigorous progress-tracking to pursue our long-term sustainability vision.
Our newly published Climate Transition Plan reflects our ambition to achieve net-zero by 2050, based on SBTi-aligned 1.5°C targets for Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. The shift from 2040 to 2050 reflects an understanding that global systems, from energy to agriculture, need more time to transform than many were earlier predicting.
In parallel, we increased our Positive Agriculture ambitions, aiming to drive the adoption of regenerative, restorative, or protective practices across 10 million acres by 2030. An expansion of our original 7-million-acre regenerative agriculture goal. We did this because we believe that healthier soil has the potential to drive better yields for farmers and to grow stronger crops in the long-term, which is important for our business, especially in the face of increasing climate pressures and extreme weather patterns.
The global food system must transform to become more resilient, and regenerative agriculture can be a powerful tool in that transformation, promoting healthier soil, enhancing biodiversity and watershed health, helping to reduce agricultural emissions, and raising the standard of living for farmers and farming communities. We’ve seen the impact of working closely with farmers – placing them at the center of any change – and together have produced meaningful results: over 3.5 million acres already transitioned to regenerative practices as of 2024, and approximately 1.6 million metric tons of on-farm GHG emissions were reduced or sequestered in 2024 alone.
We know it’s important that we continue to be transparent about our progress – both our successes and the challenges – and the dynamic realities that our company and the broader industry face today. The rewards of this approach are credibility and long-term resilience. A risk is a perception that our actions are not communicated clearly and are mischaracterized as a retreat. That’s why transparency matters.
4. What are the most effective ways to embed sustainability into business infrastructure so that it endures leadership changes, market downturns, and political headwinds?
Embedding sustainability into a company’s “infrastructure” means hardwiring it into the “machinery” that all companies have, including the processes, planning tools, and decision frameworks that guide how the business operates. At PepsiCo, that includes integrating sustainability metrics into performance reviews and incentives, embedding climate and water risks into supply chain planning, using sustainability and regenerative agriculture criteria in sourcing, and designing packaging for circularity.
It's also important to continue demonstrating the value of sustainability for near- and long-term business growth and resilience. Our progress in regenerative agriculture, sustainable packaging, and reducing emissions and water use isn’t just good for the planet. It helps improve supply security, reduce operational risk, and create long-term value. We’re also seeing rising interest in sustainability among customers and consumers, a trend that continues to grow.
While the journey is ongoing, the direction of travel is clear: expectations for sustainable choices and transparent progress will only increase. When sustainability is built into the company's operating system and proven critical to growth, it endures leadership transitions, market fluctuations, and policy shifts.
5. What do you see as the biggest challenges and opportunities in corporate sustainability in 2026, and what advice would you give to others navigating this evolving landscape? What skills, structures, or mindsets will define the winners in this next phase?
There’s still a mismatch between ambition and enabling systems. Infrastructure, policy, and finance are not keeping pace with climate and other sustainability needs. We’re also seeing ESG fatigue or backlash, and polarization risks stalling progress. Business leaders must reframe sustainability as strategic and nonpartisan – because that’s really what it is and how it should be seen. There is an opportunity to scale sustainable solutions across the value chain and through public-private partnerships and pre-competitive collaborations.
I always look to learn from others and my own experiences, and I’ve been fortunate to learn a lot. If I had to give just one piece of advice, it would be to really think like businesspeople. We need to constantly be asking, “What is the value of what we are doing?” “Why are we doing it?”
If we can’t frame what’s needed in the language of business (I cut my teeth on business strategy and P&L ownership, so this comes naturally to me), then sustainability risks being seen as either optional or just a “good to do” item – and it’s neither. Sustainability actions are central to business growth, risk reduction, maintaining a societal license to operate, attracting and retaining talent, and ensuring your company operates in an environment that supports its success. In addition, any businessperson knows there are always different considerations to balance, and things rarely go completely to plan. It’s critical, as we work with our businesses, to remain transparent about challenges, educate stakeholders about the relevant considerations, and consistently incorporate learnings along the way.
