Is Green Food A Good Thing?

PepsiCo would answer yes if by green food you mean food that is manufactured in a plant that has been certified as green.

The certification of course is LEED, which is the program for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings.

PepsiCo's Frito-Lay Casa Grande, Ariz., facility became the nation's first food manufacturing site to garner that distinction.

The facility has reduced its energy consumption by nearly 20% since 2006 by installing a heat recovery system that preheats cooking oil on the production line. The faciliity also has skylights to supplement lighting systems in office areas as well as high efficiency ovens.

It has introduced water efficient landscaping with native plants and water saving technologies in the manufacturing line to decrease the site's usage by 17% since 2006.

And more than 99% of the facility's wastes were diverted from landfills.

The company is working on investing in other technologies that should further reduce water and electricity consumption by 90%, natural gas use by 80%, and dramatically lower overall greenhouse gas emissions from the manufacturing facility once the installation process is completed in 2010.