Marketing efficiency

NY Times:

At Frito-Lay’s factory here, more than 500,000 pounds of potatoes arrive every day from New Mexico to be washed, sliced, fried, seasoned and portioned into bags of Lay’s and Ruffles chips. The process devours enormous amounts of energy, and creates vast amounts of wastewater, starch and potato peelings.

Now, Frito-Lay is embarking on an ambitious plan to change the way this factory operates, and in the process, create a new type of snack: the environmentally benign chip.

Its goal is to take the Casa Grande plant off the power grid, or nearly so, and run it almost entirely on renewable fuels and recycled water. Net zero, as the concept is called, has the backing of the highest levels of corporate executives at PepsiCo, the parent company of Frito-Lay.

There are benefits besides the potential energy savings. Like many other large corporations, PepsiCo is striving to establish its green credentials as consumers become more focused on climate change. There are marketing opportunities, too. The company, for example, intends to advertise that its popular SunChips snacks are made using solar energy.

“We don’t know what the complete payoff for net zero is going to be,” said Indra K. Nooyi, PepsiCo’s chairman and chief executive. “If this works even to 50 or 60 percent of its potential, that is fantastic, and it’s so much better than what we already have.”

From coast to coast, more companies are thinking about how much fossil fuel they use and ways to conserve energy. Venture capital money is also pouring into fledgling green technology.

Only a few years ago, Andy Walker, a government engineer, pleaded with companies to tackle the problems but got blank stares. “Now, my phone is ringing off the hook,” said Mr. Walker, who works at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory of the Department of Energy in Colorado.

But advocacy groups contend that for all the interest in saving energy, many companies also exaggerate small improvements for marketing purposes.

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No kidding. Pandering to the green control freaks is mostly marketing and many companies are looking for ways to either appeal to the silliness of the globo warmers or to at least get them to leave them alone. Every company should be striving to produce its products and service in the most efficient way possible. If they can save energy in doing that it is just part of added efficiency. But, doing it in their own self interest is more likely to produce significant results than doing it for marketing purposes and show.

Since building my home in the country, the price of propane gas for heating has gone up faster than the cost of electricity. I have found that using ceramic disk electric space heaters in my super insulated house saves me hundreds of dollars a month in heating cost. I am not doing that to save the planet. I am doing it save money. If the green movement would show people how they can save money rather than preaching to them about saving the planet, they would get more followers. Don't make conservation about pain for a cause, make it about gain and personal benefit.