by Jbs100908 E3 — October 12, 2008—PepsiCo, corporate parent of Frito-Lay snacks, Pepsi-Cola beverages, Gatorade sports drinks, Tropicana juices, and Quaker foods, recently announced that it has made significant progress toward its long-term environmental sustainability goals, which include reducing water consumption by 20%, electricity consumption by 20%, and fuel consumption by 25% per unit of production by 2015 compared to 2006. These goals are part of PepsiCo’s Performance with Purpose vision.
Across the world, PepsiCo says it has saved nearly 1.5 billion gallons of water in 2007 compared to 2006 with a combination of new technology, information sharing, and employee initiatives.
At the Tropicana facility in Bradenton, Florida, the orange juice storage system was converted from an ultra-low temperature freezer system to cool refrigeration that preserves the juice’s freshness without freezing it. This transition not only improved the fresh taste of Tropicana juice, says PepsiCo, it saved the equivalent of electricity needed to power over 7,000 houses.
Alternative fuel sources are also a major focus for PepsiCo. This year, the Frito-Lay manufacturing facility in Modesto, California, inaugurated a solar concentrator field made up of large curved mirrors that move with the position of the sun, focusing the heat into tubes of glass filled with water. The water is converted into steam, which helps heat the cooking oil used to make SunChips.
For more information on PepsiCo’s environmental initiatives, visit the company’s Environment page or read its Sustainability Report.
