Environmental upgrades save Frito-Lay millions annually

Servidyne

For more than 75 years, Frito-Lay North America has produced some of America’s most favorite snack foods. Today, Frito-Lay, a unit of PepsiCo, has more than 15 snack brands manufactured at plants across North America. As one of the PepsiCo’s largest units, Frito-Lay represents its $12 billion convenient foods business and is a leader in its commitment to environmental responsibility.

Since 1999, Frito-Lay has reduced its use of water by 39 percent, natural gas by 30 percent and electricity by 22 percent for each bag of snacks it produces. It deploys “Green Teams” at all of its manufacturing facilities that look for ways to optimize operations and reduce consumption.

“Environmental responsibility is a priority for the company,” says Al Halvorsen, director of environmental sustainability at Frito-Lay. “We have worked diligently to reduce our use of water, natural gas and electricity in our operations. We continue to look for new ways to reduce our consumption of resources. In addition to our cost savings, these efforts have significantly reduced our CO2 emissions.”

In 2000, Servidyne assessed the lighting energy at two Frito-Lay plants in Tennessee and Kansas, and since then its relationship with Frito-Lay has expanded year-over-year.

Lighting the Way to Measurable ROI
Servidyne is currently responsible for the audit, design and project management of each energy efficient lighting retrofit project at the company’s plants and distribution centers.

“We have been working with Frito-Lay for the past eight years, and in that time have performed energy-efficient lighting upgrades for most of the company’s 30-plus manufacturing plants in North America as well as 100 distribution centers,” said James Dore, vice president at Servidyne. “We have also implemented HVAC improvement projects at 12 of its manufacturing plants in the southern U.S.”

“Over the years, we have worked with Servidyne and invested millions in these upgrades,” said Halvorsen. “The Servidyne projects have delivered more than $3 million in annual savings, a figure which surpassed our annual reduction goal. We have seen a significant greenhouse gas and carbon footprint reduction as well, which not only boosts our bottom line but also helps us become a more environmentally responsible company. Servidyne continues to help us on new energy conservation measures.”

Savings and Responsibility Drive Expanding Sustainability Program
Dore said Frito-Lay and Servidyne are now in “phase two” of sustainability. Frito-Lay and Servidyne are currently working together to roll-out a new lighting program as well as a pilot Energy Management System (EMS) to be deployed at all of the company’s distribution centers.

“The system will measure the company’s power consumption on a real-time basis and do some demand response and control of the heating and cooling in their distribution centers,” explained Dore. “This system is also able to scale to easily become one that can monitor all of the company’s facilities.”

About Servidyne
Servidyne provides comprehensive energy-efficiency solutions, sustainability programs, and other products and services that significantly enhance the operating and financial performance of existing buildings. It enables customers to cut energy consumption and realize immediate cost savings across their portfolios, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving the comfort and satisfaction of their buildings’ occupants.