Sustainable Corporate Living with Frito-Lay's Al Halvorsen
Stephen Gray
Issue date: 10/6/08 Section: Inside Ross
Now that Frito-Lay has met its goals, Halvorsen shared with Ross students what lies ahead. Frito-Lay currently has a project underway that is designed to take their Casa Grande, Arizona, facility almost completely off the grid (i.e. rely totally on renewable energy sources). Ninety percent of the water will be recycled, electricity will be generated with photovoltaic cells, and methane gas will be obtained from landfills.
Several in Thursday's audience criticized this project as an unnecessary use of company resources. Halvorsen replied by saying that the expense will be justified by what they learn about conservation (not by what they save in productivity). "If part of the U.S. comes into a heavy drought and the government says we can't use any water in a month, are we ready to respond to that?" Halvorsen asked. For Frito-Lay, they're well on their way.
Marc Whetherill, current Ross MBA student and organizer for the Frito-Lay presentation, talked about Frito-Lay's approach to sustainability. "There are enormous opportunities for companies to reduce their resource consumption in ways that will lead to greater profitability. The fact that Frito-Lay took this approach made it stand out to me as a really interesting story with a lot of good lessons in it."
In its Modesto, California facility, for example, Frito-Lay recently turned a major profit with one of its energy-saving initiatives. 192 solar concentrators with 54,000 square feet of concave mirrors were installed to superheat water to over 500 degrees; the steam produced is then used to cook the oil to make SunChips. It's one of the largest solar panel fields in North America, and it is reducing CO2 emissions by two million pounds annually. Consumers in the surrounding areas were so interested in the environmental impact that they began purchasing far more product than the plant could produce.
How's that for sustainability!
If you would like to learn more about Frito-Lay's sustainability initiatives, go to fritolay.com.
Several in Thursday's audience criticized this project as an unnecessary use of company resources. Halvorsen replied by saying that the expense will be justified by what they learn about conservation (not by what they save in productivity). "If part of the U.S. comes into a heavy drought and the government says we can't use any water in a month, are we ready to respond to that?" Halvorsen asked. For Frito-Lay, they're well on their way.
Marc Whetherill, current Ross MBA student and organizer for the Frito-Lay presentation, talked about Frito-Lay's approach to sustainability. "There are enormous opportunities for companies to reduce their resource consumption in ways that will lead to greater profitability. The fact that Frito-Lay took this approach made it stand out to me as a really interesting story with a lot of good lessons in it."
In its Modesto, California facility, for example, Frito-Lay recently turned a major profit with one of its energy-saving initiatives. 192 solar concentrators with 54,000 square feet of concave mirrors were installed to superheat water to over 500 degrees; the steam produced is then used to cook the oil to make SunChips. It's one of the largest solar panel fields in North America, and it is reducing CO2 emissions by two million pounds annually. Consumers in the surrounding areas were so interested in the environmental impact that they began purchasing far more product than the plant could produce.
How's that for sustainability!
If you would like to learn more about Frito-Lay's sustainability initiatives, go to fritolay.com.
Viewing Comments 1 - 6 of 6
Avery Ray Colter
posted 10/08/08 @ 2:54 PM EST
The truly green tactic Frito-Lay is in a wonderful position to take would be to buy more of its corn from organic sources and to consciously invest in and promote organic corn production, including in the realm of governmental farm subsidies. (Continued…)
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