PepsiCo Portugal announced the start of a new project to reduce carbon emissions by converting waste to renewable energy at its snack food plant in Carregado, a first for PepsiCo in Southern Europe.
The project is a new biodigester that will transform organic waste into biogas with a total investment of €7.5m. The project will begin construction in April 2023.
Besides achieving a 30% reduction in carbon emissions at the Carregado plant, the biodigester will also reduce gas consumption by allowing the facility to use the biogas produced during the process of digestion. The biogas is then used directly as fuel in the various stages of production, as well as for sanitising the production lines and heating the sanitary waters in the shower rooms and cafeteria.
The project is part of the PepsiCo Positive (pep+) end-to-end transformation, which puts sustainability at the core of the company’s business, and is an example of a project helping to create a Positive Value Chain.
Sustainability at the Carregado plant
Since 2012, the Carregado plant has had a biogas production system that allows a 50% reduction in electricity consumption at its wastewater treatment plant. It has also implemented a project for the reuse of heat in ovens, which aids the recovery of “wasted” energy from the chimney and the production of steam, facilitating a reduction in gas consumption at the plant of around 5%.
PepsiCo: for a more Positive Value Chain
PepsiCo has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by more than 40% by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2040, a decade earlier than envisaged in the Paris Agreement.
Specifically, PepsiCo plans to reduce GHG emissions in its direct operations by 75% and in its indirect operations by 40% by 2030. Together, this action is expected to contribute to a reduction of more than 26 million tons of GHG emissions globally, the equivalent of removing more than five million cars from the road for a year.
This initiative is part of PepsiCo Positive (pep+), the new sustainability-focused strategy through which the company is accelerating its transformation to drive positive impact on both the planet and people. This new program drives action and progress through three key pillars of its business: agriculture, value chain and positive choices.
