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This is the third in a multi-part series about engineering-related
aspects of PepsiCo's environmental sustainability program. Part 2 ran
yesterday. Part 1 ran on Monday.
CR4: The use of
advanced routing technologies has enabled PepsiCo to cut fuel consumption along
delivery routes. How much money have you saved? And what advanced routing technologies
did you use?
PepsiCo: Best
routing, reducing miles but including back roads to avoid waiting in traffic.
We also have a no-idle policy when delivering product. Frito-Lay is a member of
Smart Way,
and uses techniques of this EPA program.
http://www.epa.gov/smartway/index.htm
We use complex routing and mode trade-off technologies to
improve the efficiencies of our over-the-road (OTR) operations across PepsiCo.
This helps us choose the right assets (Frito-Lay Private Fleet, PepsiCo
Dedicated Fleets, and common/contract carriers) to handle our transportation
needs. We also secure other shipper's freight (backhaul freight) on our Private
and Dedicated fleets to reduce costs. This eliminates empty miles from our
networks as well as the customers we serve.
There have been many collaborative efforts to improve
network efficiency over the past few years in transportation at PepsiCo. We use
our empty rail cars that are owned by Tropicana to haul ours and other shippers'
freight back into the Florida
region. We use intermodal transportation (trailers on rail cars) to reduce
costs. All of these things contribute to
less fuel used to move the same amount of goods in the US.
The combined efforts across transportation over the past few
years have driven 15 million less gallons of diesel fuel consumed to support
our networks. This is roughly a $45 million reduction in today's fuel costs, as
well as 350+million pounds of CO2 emissions eliminated.
CR4: PepsiCo's
divisions have made great strides in reducing their use of packaging materials.
What steps did you take to reduce the amount of aluminum in a Pepsi-Cola
beverage can by 10% since 1993? Saving 75 million pounds of aluminum is
significant.
PepsiCo: The
focus in the 90s was on the reduction of the weight and configuration of the
lid. You'll remember that in earlier
times, the sides went right up to the edge of the lid. Now you'll notice the indentation before the
sides reach the lid. Little changes add
up to a lot of pounds of aluminum.
Pepsi-Cola beverage cans are manufactured by suppliers. The
steps include light weighting: http://www.psc.edu/science/ALCOA/ALCOA.html
Editor's Note: CR4 would like to thank PepsiCo for answering
these questions!
To see PepsiCo
Environmental Sustainability in action, visit: http://www.pepsico.com/PEP_Citizenship/EnvironmentalNews/video/index.cfm
Steve Melito - The Y Files
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