Green is the color of new beginnings and a sign of growth. It’s often used to represent the environment and sustainability too. But it’s also the color of money. And for climate activists who track the environmental impacts of large corporations, skepticism is rising, in reaction to their sense that companies are favoring one type of green over the other. 

In particular, some of the largest consumer packaged goods companies in the world, including Coca-Cola and PepsiCo., have walked back some promises they made in the past regarding their environmental commitments.

Coca-Cola once indicated that it would make one-quarter of all its products sustainable by 2030. But at the end of December 2024, it abandoned this initiative completely. At the same time, it lowered its targets for using recyclable materials, from half of all products to about one-third. When the company’s CEO James Quincey addressed these changes at its 2025 annual shareholders’ meeting, he confirmed the diminished goals, even as he sought to assure investors that creating more sustainable packaging and developing a program for reusing materials remained a priority for Coca-Cola.

Similarly, PepsiCo. amended its environmental pledges—abandoning certain goals and adjusting others. The company no longer maintains its commitment to selling a certain percentage of its products in refillable containers, though it will continue to monitor reusability metrics. Instead of its previous promise to reduce total virgin plastic derivatives by one-fifth by 2030, it now suggests it will work to reduce its reliance on these unprocessed plastics by 2 percent each year, through 2030, but only in key markets. PepsiCo. also amended its goal for using recyclable materials: Rather than half of its packaging to be made from recycled content by 2030, it now hopes to achieve a 40 percent level by 2035. Perhaps most concerning, PepsiCo. reneged on its ambitious, broad commitment to make all packaging from reusable, recyclable, or compostable (RRC) packaging, originally due at the end of 2025. Despite early indications that it was on track to achieve complete RRC, it has moved the target and now commits to manufacture 97 percent of packaging from RRC by 2030.

Perhaps the worst news though, from an environmental protection standpoint, is that the choices of these individual companies are being aggregated across the entire industry. Back in 2020, some of the firms that created the most packaging waste, including Coca-Cola and Heinz, another consumer packaged goods giant, signed on to the U.S. Plastics Pact, which meant they committed to addressing plastic pollutants by 2025. Heinz, for example, committed to the exclusive use of RRC materials by 2025. But the alliance already has implemented delays, meaning that the timing for the joint targets has been extended to 2030. 

Observing these trends, which move away from ambitious and critical sustainability commitments, climate activists might look back nostalgically on the past with yet another type of green—envy for a scenario in which they might have counted on multinational corporations to act in the interest of the planet.  

Discussion Questions

1. Should advocacy groups bring public attention to the corporations’ amended promises? If so, how should they do so?
2. Why might the companies have backed off on their goals?

Sources: Clara Hudson, “Beverage and Snack Giants Defend Sustainable-Packaging Plans Amid Investor Pressure,” The Wall Street Journal, May 9, 2025; Brianna Guntz, “Pepsi Pushes Back Sustainable Packaging Goals,” Packaging World, May 27, 2025; Marissa Heffernan, “Kraft Heinz Aims to Eliminate 50,000 Tons of Virgin Plastic,” Plastic Recycling Update Magazine, August 1, 2023.