PepsiCo will tap solar energy to make chips

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Madison Avenue has always been a place for sun worshippers, whether it was naming brands like Sun, Sunlight, Sunbird, Sunbeam and Sol; coining slogans like “A day with orange juice is like a day without sunshine”; or sending the Coppertone girl and her dog out on the beach to urge, “Don’t be a paleface.”

The newest demonstration of solar power (figuratively) is coming from the Frito-Lay division of PepsiCo, which is using the sun to help transform its SunChips line of multi-grain snack chips into a “green” brand. The initiative is centered on the addition of solar power (literally) to the Frito-Lay plant in Modesto, California, that makes SunChips. A 10-acre “farm” of solar collectors is being added, to provide up to 75% of the energy needed to produce the product.

The plant, one of seven in the United States that make SunChips, is scheduled to start using solar power on this Earth Day, April 22, as part of ambitious efforts by Frito-Lay and PepsiCo to convince consumers that the companies care about the environment.

Those measures include buying renewable energy credits, a move that is being promoted on packages of SunChips. The company is also rethinking manufacturing processes to use less water and power and is installing fuel-efficient ovens.

Frito-Lay does not intend to hide its light under a bushel. A campaign to inform shoppers about the ecologically friendly changes is getting under way, composed of television commercials, print advertisements, billboards, information on the SunChips website (sunchips. com) and a presence on Facebook, the popular social-networking website.

Environmental themes are enjoying a boom and are changing how marketers and agencies talk to consumers. Companies like Coca-Cola, General Electric, General Motors, Macy’s, E W Scripps, Toyota and Wal-Mart are clambering aboard a bandwagon painted green, festooned with flowers and powered by an engine that runs on biodiesel.

A dozen news releases so far last week have featured ecological themes, like Macy’s teaming up with the National Parks Foundation for a fundraiser called Turn Over a New Leaf and the opening by Union, an advertising agency in New York, of a shop named Union Green that will specialise in work for “eco-conscious clients.”