Apr 15 2010
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has awarded the LEED Existing Building (EB) Gold Certification to the Frito-Lay Topeka’s Kansas facility. Frito-Lay Topeka is a business division of PepsiCo. The certification means that the facility is only the second food manufacturing center in the country and the first manufacturing facility in the state to be recognized in such a way. Generally, the LEED certification recognizes the construction, design and function of green buildings with high performance.
Frito-Lay Topeka’s technical manager Allen Moore commented that the certification is a step forward for the company as it strives to capture a significant place of leadership in Kansas as well as in the U.S.
Some of the green construction and design features implemented by Frito-Lay Topeka in order to receive the LEED EB Certification include reducing its consumption of natural gas by 39% per product pound and reducing its consumption of electricity by 27% per product pound since the year 1999 by means of installing new lighting systems and high-efficiency oven burners; reusing the same cardboard shipping boxes several times; assigning waste products to be used in animal feed; reducing the consumption of water by around 52% per product pound since the year 1999 by means of implementing new sanitation practices and operations.
Frito-Lay Topeka is a producer of snacks such as Doritos tortilla chips, Tostitos tortilla chips, Fritos corn chips and Lay's potato chips. The company continues investment on advanced technologies that assist in decreasing its environmental footprint.
Source: http://www.fritolay.com/