Frito-Lay Headquarters Seeks LEED Certification

This week, I talked to George Guck, who leads the Facilities group at Frito-Lay headquarters in Plano, Texas, about the application his team recently submitted to the U.S. Green Building Council, a not-for-profit organization with the mission, “to make green buildings available to everyone within a generation," to have the building certified as a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold facility.  Since George has been with Frito-Lay for 24 years, we naturally started to reminisce -- and it brought back a flood of wonderful memories.

I moved to Dallas from Detroit in 1978, and fondly remember our original Frito-Lay headquarters building near downtown Dallas.  Back then, people came to work in cowboy boots and hats and ate lunch at local barbeque joints -- reinforcing stereotypes I had of the western U.S.

Then, in the early 1980s, Frito-Lay needed to move into a larger facility, and I was the lawyer on the relocation team.  We decided to build our new headquarters in Plano, north of Dallas, in a corporate park area EDS was developing, because there was a spectacular parcel of land with woods, wildflowers and a small lake available.

When we moved to the new building 26 years ago, we were secluded in the open, scenic area, so we quickly started to adopt a “green” mentality.  We were one of the first U.S. facilities to use organic materials and processes to maintain our property.

Today, while the cowboy boots are (mostly) gone, George (pictured at left) and his team have taken the green mentality to a new level.  In 2008, Frito-Lay received the City of Plano's Environmental Excellence Star Award for our sustainability leadership.  Now, the goal is to achieve LEED Gold certification.

LEED is an internationally recognized certification system that measures how well a building performs across major environmental measures, including energy savings, water conservation, and indoor and outdoor environmental quality.
 
Many companies are working to make changes to achieve LEED certification.  Frito-Lay’s distribution center in Rochester, N.Y., is a LEED-certified facility.  Two years ago, another PepsiCo building, our Gatorade Blue Ridge facility in Virginia, became the largest food and beverage site in the world to achieve the gold-level LEED certification.  And this month, BusinessWeek featured an article about McDonald’s Corp.’s effort to achieve LEED Platinum certification at its Oak Brook, Ill., headquarters.
 
"We look at LEED as a way to benchmark our progress," George says. "We have learned a lot that we've applied at our headquarters building.  But it’s a journey, and we still have a lot more to do."

Some of the “green” actions George’s team has implemented include:

• Installing solar panels on the roof to help heat water;
• Replacing chillers and air handlers with high-efficiency units;
• Composting all landscaping waste;
• Replacing lawn grasses with low-water varieties for water conservation;
• Implementing new light switches, which turn off hall lights when the sun is shining;
• Recycling paper and kitchen waste from the cafeteria;
• Installing hands-free sinks and paper towel machines in all restrooms to help reduce water and paper waste.

"We've come a long way, partly because resource conservation technology keeps improving and partly because the company and our employees’ commitment to the environment keeps growing," says George, who is also a member of the Native American Chamber of Commerce -- a group whose focus areas include green living and business.  "Our goal is to continue those improvements so that Frito-Lay receives LEED Gold certification this fall, another milestone in our mission to be the preeminent green company."

I’ll keep you posted on our progress toward LEED certification.  In the meantime, tell me: What types of green business practices are in-place at your workplace?

Comments

[Jill Brewer]

I wish you would go back in time say the begining and do the original Taco flavored Doritos I remember them as a child and they were the best taco flavored anything you have had since! Thanks for listening to our comments.
Jill

[zimmy]

Hi Jill
They did have the Original Taco chip out last year for about 3 months. I remember them as a child too and these were the exact flavor from the 70's ..pure gold ! I hope they come out with them again cos its the best chip ever! I ate about a bag a night when I could find them :-)

[Chief Blogger]

Hi Jill and Zimmy: I'd recommend trying the new Doriots Tacos At Midnight. I had them last weekend, and the taco seasoning reminded me a lot of the original taco seasoning -- only more substantial.

[Denis]

How goes the certification? Will this be the first or second building in Texas to achieve LEED-EB Gold?

It might make an interesting case study for the Building Priorities Briefing.

http://buildingpriorities.com