PepsiCo's Frito-Lay Killingly Facility Celebrates Becoming Connecticut's First Existing Manufacturing Site To Achieve LEED® Gold

PLANO, Texas, May 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- PepsiCo's Frito-Lay Killingly, Conn., facility today became the state's first manufacturing site to be awarded LEED® Gold existing building from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), as verified by the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI). LEED is the nation's preeminent program for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. Frito-Lay North America now has eight LEED® Gold existing buildings across the country, including its Plano, Texas-based headquarters.

"Today, Frito-Lay Killingly continues its legacy of sustainability and partnership in action by becoming the state's first LEED Gold existing building," said Mike Becher, technical manager, Frito-Lay Killingly. "It is only through partnership with our associates and our community leaders that we were able to retrofit this 31-year-old building and solidify Frito-Lay's place as a leader in sustainability for Connecticut."

"Frito-Lay's certification shows tremendous leadership in greening an existing building, which makes up the vast majority of the U.S. building stock," said Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO & Founding Chair, U.S. Green Building Council. "Greening our existing buildings helps save money and energy, creates healthier places to live, work and learn - all while addressing our single greatest opportunity to help solve the climate change equation."

To achieve LEED certification, the company's Killingly sustainability strategy included implementing a number of green design and construction features and water reduction technologies and practices.

Energy reduction: The Frito-Lay Killingly facility has reduced its natural gas consumption by 46% per pound of product and its electricity use by 10% per pound of product since 1999 by installing new technologies such as the Co-Generation system which generates nearly all of the facility's electrical requirements and greatly reduces the facility's emissions of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide. The facility also captures waste heat from its potato chip production process and uses that heat to warm the facility in the winter.

Water reduction: The facility has reduced its water consumption by nearly 15% per pound of product since 1999 by implementing new operations that reduce water used in its corn cooking and transfer process.

Recycling: Less than 1% of the facility's solid waste goes to landfill. The site achieved this milestone through many initiatives including an employee-led recycling program, reusing cardboard shipping boxes multiple times, and allocating waste product for use in animal feed.

Frito-Lay Killingly has been a part of the Windham County community for 31 years.  The more than 289,000 square foot building sits on 81.5 acres of land.  Frito-Lay Killingly produces some of America's favorite snacks including Lay's potato chips, Fritos corn chips, Tostitos tortilla chips and Doritos tortilla chips.

U.S. Green Building Council

The Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Green Building Council is committed to a prosperous and sustainable future for our nation through cost-efficient and energy-saving green buildings. With a community comprised of 79 local affiliates, 16,000 member companies and organizations, and more than 155,000 LEED Professional Credential holders, USGBC is the driving force of an industry that is projected to contribute $554 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product from 2009-2013. USGBC leads an unlikely diverse constituency of builders and environmentalists, corporations and nonprofit organizations, elected officials and concerned citizens, and teachers and students.

LEED

The U.S. Green Building Council's LEED green building certification system is the foremost program for the design, construction and operation of green buildings. Nearly 40,000 projects are currently participating in the commercial and institutional LEED rating systems, comprising nearly 8 billion square feet of construction space in all 50 states and 117 countries. In addition, more than 10,000 homes have been certified under the LEED for Homes rating system, with nearly 38,000 more homes registered.