Frito Lay: Defining what green business is all about

November 6, 5:21 PMDallas Green Business ExaminerDennis Cheslik

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my sunchips
dennis cheslik

When Frito Lay rolled out it's eco-friendly chip bag earlier this year, during the Superbowl, many people thought of it as just an advertising gimmick. However, if you take a deeper look into the bag and Frito Lay as a whole, you'll find out just how "green" the corporation is becoming. 

Currently, 33% of each SunChips bag is made with renewable, plant based materials. And that, in itself, is eco-friendly. But, their goal is to go way beyond that and hope to roll out their new, first ever, "fully compostable bag" by earthday. The newer bags are designed to fully decompose in as little as 14 weeks. Frito Lay has more going on than just the bags, they are totally into the 3 R's: reduce, reuse, recycle.

Reduce is a way of business at Frito Lay. Over the past five years they have eliminated 5 billion square inches of packaging by reducing the materials they use by 10%. Since 1999, they have reduced the amount of water used to make each bag by 40%, amounting to 1.5 billion gallons saved. Their electricity usage has been reduced by 22%. As members of the Environment Protection Agency's SmartWay program, they have saved more than 15 million gallons of fuel since 2005, therefore, reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. They have also reduced the amount of shipping cartons needed by reusing them at least 5 to 6 times and, quite frequently, even more. This procedure has saved 120,000 pounds of paperboard per year. Once the cartons become unusable, they are recycled.

Beyond those achievements, their headquarters' building has received LEED Gold status from the U.S. Green Building Council. They have received numerous awards for their efforts including the EPA, OSHA, and many at state and local levels. After all these efforts, they are just getting started. Right now they are exploring solar and biofuel options and hope to lower their electrical usage by another 20% or more.

You can learn more about the Frito Lay corporation by visiting their website at the following link: frito lay. You can learn more about the EPA SmartWay program by visiting their link at: smartway .