Who’s Going Green: Tropicana

Over the next several weeks, Greener Assets will be exploring the green-ness of larger companies. Look for the the “Who’s Going Green” label on future posts to read about the green practice of corporations around the world. You can read about more companies here.

Recently, as you can ready about at Brandcurve, Tropicana recently made waves by changing the look of their packaging drastically.

All carton concerns aside, this company (which is part of Pepsi) has been making waves in the world of green as well. Instead of just implementing policies and setting goals, though, the company actually sat down to figure out where they were. Its a question every business should ask: what’s the carbon footprint of my product?

Tropicana found that every half-gallon carton of OJ emits about 3.75 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. 60% of that comes from juice production, with 22% coming from distribution and 15% coming from packaging. The other 3% is on the consumer’s head- it comes from use and disposal.

Says Bryan Lembke, a manager on the project: “If you don’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” And he’s right. More companies need to get estimates as to where they stand before beginning that long road to becoming greener.

Tropicana’s green efforts include donating money to preserve the rainforest, recycling waste products, making full use of the oranges they grow (even the peels and seeds are made into cattle feed), installing water capturing systems, using landfill gas, and more. You can ready about all of theseefforts at their website.

[Thanks to Miki for the tip]

Photo via Tropicana.