As World Water Week kicks off Aug. 25-29, PepsiCo Foods North America (PFNA) tells of how it’s conserving water through three main areas of focus: people, processes and technologies -- and helping to advance PepsiCo Inc.’s corporate goal to become Net Water Positive by 2030.
“PFNA’s approach to conservation also focuses on collaboration and partnership, participating in the Alliance for Water Stewardship to promote stewardship of local water resources and working with groups like Arbor Day Foundation and Trout Unlimited to replenish local watersheds,” a company news release said.
Last year, PepsiCo Beverages and Frito-Lay, both part of PepsiCo Inc., committed $3.3 million toward water replenishment projects, including restoring wetlands in Florida and providing freshwater to ecosystems and wildlife in Texas. Additional projects include re-establishing connectivity between two segments of the Colorado River through a mile-long channel and planting two million trees across 8,000 acres devastated by wildfires in the San Joaquin Valley in California.
Examples of how PFNA is using technology to reduce the water needed to manufacture its snacks include:
- Scaling a new process to cook the corn used to make food products such as Tostitos, Fritos and Doritos, which uses up to 70% less water.
- Developing a custom technology to capture and recirculate the water used when slicing potatoes that ultimately become snacks like Lay’s and Ruffles.
And in the works: Recapturing the water already in potatoes. Because a potato is made up of 80% water, PepsiCo is working on technology to capture the steam released during the cooking process to be reused in the production process.
