2Sustain

Last Wednesday, the Coca-Cola Company and H.J. Heinz Company announced a strategic partnership that enables Heinz to produce its ketchup bottles using Coca-Cola’s innovative PlantBottle packaging.

I first wrote about the PlantBottle when Coca-Cola launched it back in 2009. It looks, feels and functions just like traditional PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic –but, the PlantBottle is made from up to 30 percent sustainably-sourced plant-based material. Plus, it is 100 percent recyclable, like traditional PET plastic. (In other words, PlantBottle packaging can be recycled in the existing commercial recycling infrastructure.)

By adopting the PlantBottle technology, Heinz is making the biggest change to the brand’s iconic ketchup bottles since the company first introduced plastic in 1983. Heinz plans to convert to PlantBottle globally, beginning with the 20-ounce variety of Heinz Ketchup, which will be rolled out to US consumers this summer. All told, Heinz says it will introduce 120 million PlantBottle packages in 2011. (more…)

The Coca-Cola Company published its seventh system-wide sustainability report last week, and it contains a total of 25 sustainability goals distributed across seven core focus areas: Beverage Benefits, Active Healthy Living, Community, Energy Efficiency and Climate Protection, Sustainable Packaging, Water Stewardship and Workplace.

The 51-page sustainability review includes these notable performance highlights:
With regard to Energy Efficiency and Climate Protection, the Coca-Cola Company has

• Improved energy use efficiency 13 percent since 2004 and reduced absolute emissions from manufacturing operations in developed countries by 8 percent since 2004.

• Advanced energy efficiency of cooling equipment with the installation of some 3.1 million intelligent energy management devices to date, reducing energy consumption by monitoring energy use on refrigeration units.

• Installed more than 127,000 HFC-free refrigeration systems, bringing total placement to more than 240,000 units. The company says its goal is to phase out the use of HFCs in all new cold drink equipment as of 2015.

The Coca-Cola Company had also made significant strides with Sustainable Packaging. For instance, the company has (more…)

The US Postal Service is starting to see significant cost savings from its green initiatives.

For example, the Postal Service says its “Lean Green Teams” reduced energy, water, solid waste to landfills and petroleum fuel use last year, saving the agency more than $5 million in 2010 alone. These teams also helped recycle more than 222,000 tons of material — an increase of nearly 8,000 tons over the prior year — which generated $13 million in revenue, and saved an additional $9.1 million in landfill fees.

According to the Postal Service, these employee green teams are helping mesh low-cost and no-cost sustainable practices with performance management systems to help the agency meet its specific sustainability goals by the target date in 2015. These goals include reducing

• facility energy use 30 percent,
• water use 10 percent,
• petroleum fuel use 20 percent, and
• landfill waste 50 percent. (more…)

PepsiCo UK and Ireland has released its second environmental sustainability report and announced several ambitious goals aimed at minimizing the company’s environmental impact. It’s obvious that PepsiCo UK recognizes the business impact of sustainability initiatives, and over the next few years, the company will be working towards furthering its commitment to sustainability in significant ways.

For example, PepsiCo UK says it plans to be completely fossil fuel-free by 2023.

As it stands now, one fifth of the company’s electricity is sourced from renewable sources. But PepsiCo UK wants to do even better. According to the report: (more…)

Plastic bottle recycling by consumers reached a record high in 2009, increasing two percent to nearly 2.5 billion pounds for the year.

The 20th annual National Post-Consumer Plastics Bottle Recycling Report, released last month by the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR) and American Chemistry Council (ACC), also showed that the recycling rate for plastic bottles rose, too, inching up another one percent to reach 28 percent in 2009. Over the past 20 years, Americans have increased the pounds of plastic bottles returned for recycling each year –although that’s not at all surprising considering how plastic bottle consumption has increased annually, as well.

Fortunately, America’s plastics and recycling industries continue to invest in developing technologies and infrastructure to recycle plastics in communities across the nation. (more…)