Soda Companies Go Green
Posted by Kelly Smith on Wed, May 19, 2010
Popular beverage company PepsiCo is becoming a more sustainable business by increasing their water efficiency and energy efficiency, decreasing their fuel use and carbon emissions, and increasing the recyclability of their products. In the next five years, Pepsi plans to reduce water usage by 20 percent, reduce carbon emissions by 25 percent, and increase energy efficiency by 20 percent. Pepsi products will contain a higher percentage of recycled material in their packaging, and they will be easier to recycle. The Frito-Lay division of PepsiCo is even distributing SunChips in a compostable bag.
Customers are demanding greener business practices across many industries. Pepsi has a fresh new take on going green with their new electronic recycling kiosks, which will be located in places like airports and gas stations. Five hundred kiosks should be operating in California by the end of this month. People can scan empty aluminum cans and plastic beverage bottles, even from non-Pepsi products, in order to earn points that will give them retail discounts and other rewards, like half price hotel stays. This program makes recycling more visible and fun, with tangible rewards for environmentally conscious consumers.
The question is, how does the competition measure up? The Coca-Cola Company plans to reduce carbon emissions by 5 percent in the next five years and increase energy efficiency by 40 to 50 percent by the end of this year. Coca-Cola is also working on developing a diesel-electric hybrid delivery truck that is 30 percent more efficient than standard delivery vehicles.
Interestingly, neither Pepsi or Coke are members of the EPA's Green Power Partnership, although Pepsi has won an Energy Star award from the Environmental Protection Agency several years in a row for their energy efficiency efforts. Coke is a member of the World Wildlife Fund's Climate Savers program. Both companies are obviously making a green go of it. But rather than competing for the better commercial, how about competing to see which beverage giant can make the product with the smallest carbon footprint?