Big Hairy Audacious Goals

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October 22, 2009

As all things green grow ever more mainstream these days, some corporate environment-boasting seems more smoke than clear skies. Frito-Lay, however, appears be the real green giant, I learned at this week's Green Fleet Conference in Chicago.

Opening keynoter, David Haft, group VP of sustainability and productivity for Frito-Lay, described the company's far-reaching, comprehensive, and very tangible environmental initiatives. Frito-Lay, under the aegis of parent company PepsiCo, is on a "Sustainability Journey."

Haft began his remarks describing the origin of Frito-Lay's lofty eco-ambitions as "Big Hairy Audacious Goals." The term was coined by authors Jerry Porras and James Collins in their 1994 book Built to Last, Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. The book examines the qualities of successful visionary companies. In their research, Porras and Collins found one factor distinguishing successful efforts from failed ones was the use of ambitious, even outrageous, goals to motivate people and focus their efforts on concrete accomplishments.

"Big Hairy Audacious Goals" (BHAGs) are targets set without knowing how, specifically, you'll achieve them, said Haft. 

An Awesome BHAG

Frito-Lay's BHAGs (pronounced bee-hags) are awesome - a descriptor I rarely find apt, but seems entirely applicable here. Essentially, the $12 billion company intends to reduce its imprint on Mother Earth to as light as a whisper. Just a few of Frito-Lay's steps to sustainability in production plants and operations throughout the country:

• A five-acre solar panel field to power a SunChip product plant in Modesto, Calif.
• A high-efficiency heat exchanger that reduces production fuel consumption by 65 percent.
• A planned biomass-burning boiler in a Topeka, Kansas, plant.
• Tortilla chip roasting ovens that reclaim wasted heat, which is then sent through boilers to create the steam to fry the chips. (Sounds like the children's story, The House that Jack Built!)
• Thermal mapping of plants and operations that pinpointed wasted and lost heat. Fixing those heat leaks and improving efficiencies saves the company $15 million a year.
• An Arizona production facility under construction that will create a nearly 100 percent closed circle operation, off the electrical grid, with recycled water use and solar energy use.
• The world's first completely combustible bags for SunChips, scheduled for introduction next spring.
• Further research into solar and wind use wherever applicable. 

Fleet an Eco-Target, Too

Frito-Lay's fleet is also an eco-target, and here the range is just as impressive. The company is evaluating the use of vehicles powered by such alt-fuels as hydrogen, CNG, LNG, and solar. It's working with Smith and Bright Electric to investigate viability of electric trucks. Seven hundred Frito-Lay tractor-trailer trucks each year will be retrofitted to improve mpg by 7 percent until the entire fleet is updated.

Truck aerodynamics are also being researched to improve fuel economy. Some 1,300 Sprinter trucks have been deployed - with 850-875 more by early next year - taking advantage of their 16-18 mpg. Installing GPS on 1,500 Frito-Lay trucks in Texas created a 40-percent improvement in fuel economy in just eight weeks by reducing idling, jackrabbit stops, etc.

The Frito-Lay sedan fleet will be 100-percent hybrid in the near future, and Haft invited any interested OEM to talk to the company about producing advanced technology trucks. 

Personal Sustainability Projects

My favorite part of the Frito-Lay and PepsiCo Sustainability Journey is the "Personal Sustainability Project," inviting each and every employee to voluntarily commit to one individual sustainability action. These projects can be as personal as stopping smoking, walking more, or running a marathon to greater environment actions such as recycling, composting, trading in a gas-guzzling SUV for hybrid vehicle or, better yet, a bicycle.

When each of use, one by one, takes a single step, the impact is indeed greater than the sum -- the Whole Earth approach to achieving sustainability.