‘Sustainable potato chips’

The first time I purchased a bag of Lay’s potato chips happened when I was in middle school in China. I was impressed by how this company translated its English brand into a great Chinese expression - the happy things. And that brings its huge market success for years to come in the market where I grow up. Almost everyone in my age in China takes this brand as a best chip brand and one of the must have in new year’s day because of the lucky massage it carries. Being the largest chip seller in the world, Frito-Lay feeds consumers around the world and that means it consume huge amount of resource in the manufacturing and distribution, etc.

So how to improve a potato chip manufacturing plant and make it more sustainable? I had no idea until reading a case study on sustainable development class in UCLAx. The first discovery is that potato chip factory is such a huge and complex operation. I was surprised to see water plant, solar panels which looks like an industrial manufacturer.

Why Frito lay want to improve its operation and use solar energy in its operation, and recycle water and reuse the packaging, what are the benefits it will see in this going green revolution? The reason is it is a win-win situation for mother nature and the company: it will save cost and improve efficiency, and ultimately consume less natural resources. Besides, it produced other byproduct that can be used in other ways. That is a benefit of adopting eco-managing process.

To me, when looking back to all I learned in sustainable development class, going green is not just about saving cost and increasing performance, it is also a branding, a marketing, a good action to inspire employees to join the effort, and a strong corporate culture that attract good talents. These are critical issues for big company like Walmart and Frito lay, and when they take action, the impact really scales. It is a triple impact to consumers, employees and the mother nature.