Walkers owner PepsiCo UK is upgrading many of its vehicles to run on vegetable oil and electricity in a bid to cut 1,200 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year
The US owned food and drinks giant said it was going to replace diesel with hydrogenated vegetable oil for the 3,000 truck journeys it makes each year between the Quaker Oat mill in Cupar, Scotland, and Leicester, the home of Walkers – equivalent to a distance of one million miles. It said every mile powered by HVO will have 80 per cent less greenhouse gas than conventional diesel.
It is also introducing new electric vehicles to move the 40,000 pallets holding its crisps and snacks around PepsiCo’s distribution centre in Leicester. Both changes are expected to be rolled out by the end of next year.
It comes a month after Walkers announced it was putting £14 million into more sustainable cardboard packaging for its bigger multipacks and a new type of film for its pallets.
The food giant – whose snacks includes Doritos, Wotsits, Monster Munch and Quavers – said using boxes for its 22 and 24 bag multipacks will enable it to remove 250 tonnes of virgin plastic from its supply chain each year. The new design follows a trial with Tesco.
PepsiCo UK said since 2017 all its manufacturing sites have used 100 per cent renewable electricity, with waste from producing Walkers crisps used to make animal feed and biofuel and fuel the company’s special anaerobic digestor, which generates 25 per cent of electricity for the Leicester site.
The initiatives will contribute to PepsiCo UK’s aim of reaching net zero emissions by 2040.
PepsiCo UK & Ireland sustainability director Simon Devaney said: “Using alternative fuels across our manufacturing and logistics operation is one key component in our plan to reduce our emissions footprint.
“The work in this area is never done, and we’re constantly exploring every possible solution to reduce our impact on the planet. These initiatives have huge potential, and we look forward to expanding the use of lower-emission transport solutions across our UK operations.”
Last year the business completed a £14 million upgrade of its Leicester distribution centre site, one of its biggest logistics investments in the UK.
By increasing storage capacity, the company removed the need to transport so many products between sites, taking over 300,000km of journeys off the road in transportation.
PepsiCo generated more than $79 billion in net revenues in 2021, driven by brands such as includes Lay's, Doritos, Cheetos, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, Quaker, and SodaStream.
