Just as much drink with less plastic.

That’s what customers who buy 500-milliliter bottles of Lipton Iced Tea, Tropican juice, Aquafina FlavorSplash and Aquafina Alive will get.

PepsiCo, the Purchase-based company that markets the drinks, said it has reduced the amount of plastic in the bottles by 20 percent, enough to prevent 20 million pounds of waste from hitting the environment. The lighter bottles will be on store shelves this month, the company said.

The company said it is also reducing the size of the labels by 10 percent and the size of the shrink wrap that’s used to wrap multi-packs by 5 percent.

PepsiCo, the Purchase-based purveyor of Diet Pepsi, Lipton Iced Tea and Tropicana juices, is working to ensure that people around the world have safe water to drink by granting $6 million through its PepsiCo Foundation to the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

In many parts of the world, the water supply is under stress. The result is the spread of disease and not enough water for drinking or irrigating crops. The world water crisis is one of the most pressing challenges of our age. As a global food and beverage company, our success depends on being responsible stewards of this limited resource,” said Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo chairman and chief executive officer and PepsiCo Foundation chairman, said in a written statement.

The grant will be targeted toward finding ways for more efficient water use and developing a sustainable water supply in India, Brazil, China and several countries in Africa. Upmanu Lall, a Columbia professor who is leading the project, noted that new methods, technologies and business models are needed, which he hopes to develop with the aid of the grant.

The PepsiCo Foundation has pledged to bring 1 million people safe drinking water by 2010 parts of the world hurt by drought.

IBM Corp. is joining other companies in offering free access to their environmental patents to outsiders. The Armonk-based company said that making the patents available will encourage researchers, entrepreneurs and companies to develop products that will protect the environment. Sony Corp., Nokia Oyj and Pitney Bowes Inc. are also making their environmental patents available to outsiders as part of the program coordinated with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Last year, IBM led corporations as the leading recipient of patents for the 15th consecutive year.

The Pepsi Bottling Group, the world’s largest manufacturer, seller and distributor of Pepsi-Cola beverages, has received a 2007 Green Power Leadership award from the U.S Environmental Protection Agency. The Somers-based bottler purchased Renewable Energy Certificates that represent 100 percent of the company’s electricity needs. Pepsi Bottling Group is fourth on the EPA’s Top 25 Green Power list. The company is also taking other steps to focus on its environmental impact, including managing its truck routes to decrease emissions and reducing the weight of its Aquafina water bottles. The bottles weigh 14 percent to 22 percent less than they did three years ago. That move is saving 35 millions pounds of plastic a year. PBG is one of 17 companies honored by the EPA for their commitment to green power. Purchase-basedd PepsiCo, which owns a 40 percent stake in Pepsi Bottling Group, was also recognized as a “Green Power Partner of the Year.� PepsiCo ranks first on the EPA’s Green Power list.