WATER REDUCTION STRATEGIES
Challenge
PepsiCo Foods Canada’s (PFC) Resource
Conservation (RC) initiative is focused on
reducing consumption of resources like energy
and water. The volume of water consumed by
PFC’s manufacturing facilities varies based on
product mix and the site’s local operations
practices. Given the nature of our products, even
the most water-efficient PFC sites can consume
more than 100 million litres in a year. As part of
PepsiCo’s global Environmental Sustainability
commitment, we are working to reduce our water
consumption by 20% per unit of product from
2006 to 2015, or 50% reduction vs. our 1999
baseline. Our ultimate goal, however, is to
achieve water balance drawing little to no
municipal water to manufacture our products.
Strategy
The results from our PFC Lean Six Sigma (LSS)
and Kaizen program are prime examples of our
water conservation mission. LSS plays a large
role in the design of our water systems as well as
helping us to identify areas of opportunity. An
example of success is saving more than 40
million litres of water per year from a Sanitation
Water Kaizen at the Cambridge manufacturing
facility. Similar LSS water Kaizens are scheduled
to be installed at each PFC manufacturing plant
annually and further savings are anticipated at
these sites.
While reducing consumption is optimal, some of
the best results PFC has achieved have come
from water recycling technologies. The first, and
most widely used system, is the Tsunami water
recycling treatment system. This technology
takes filtered water from our starch extraction
system and injects a solution to manage organic
loading in the water allowing us to reuse it in our
process. The second system, called the Peeler
Water Recycler, takes the water from our potato
© PepsiCo Canada ULC, 2015
Did you know?
potato peelers and mechanically filters it using
hydro-cyclones so that it can be reused in the
peelers, making the system a virtually-closed
loop.
With the ReCon program PFC has
implemented many water saving ideas in its
manufacturing facilities, including using Lean
Six Sigma tools to find and improve water
usage efficiencies in all operations. Examples
of PFC’s water tactics include:
The Cambridge
manufacturing facility saves more
than 90 million litres of water annually versus 1999

The final element of our long-term Near Zero
Water initiative comes from the potatoes we use
to produce our snacks. Potatoes naturally
contain approximately 80% water by weight.
When these potatoes are cooked, this water is
released in the form of steam, which flows
through our steam stack heat recovery systems.
This water partially condenses within our heat
recovery system heat exchangers today and is
used in the food manufacturing process. Since it
is essentially distilled water, further condensing
the steam into water to use in the manufacturing
process could be the key to food manufacturing
with near zero municipal water.



Reduced water consumption by more
than 40% since 1999 per unit of food
product
Using Lean Six Sigma methods to
reduce sanitation water usage
Launched a water reduction best
practice contest
Enhanced water treatment at PFC’s
largest Frito Lay plant in Cambridge,
Ontario
PFC has reduced water consumption by more
than 40% per pound of product since 1999
Results
The Tsunami and Peeler Water Recycler (PWR)
systems have significantly reduced the amount
of fresh water PFC consumes on a daily basis.
The PWR system, installed recently at the
Cambridge, Ontario facility, is expected to save
more than 26 million gallons of water annually in
combination with the Tsunami treatment system.
The extra starch expected from the PWR system
has the potential to generate additional revenues
from the waste stream. These steps in water
conservation and recycling will enable us to get
closer to our goal of reducing water usage by 75%
per unit vs. our 1999 baseline, and heading
towards PFC’s ultimate goal of operating as water
neutral.
More than 50% reduction in water consumed
© PepsiCo Canada ULC, 2015