G&J Pepsi’s Commitment To Sustainability Lasts All Year

​​​​​​​The observance of Earth Month in April comes to close. But from picking up trash and planting trees to recycling waste and reducing emissions, G&J Pepsi works all year to enhance its sustainability practices. We take this time to reflect on the progress we made in 2023 and pledge to carry our commitment into 2024.  

Do you know all the ways G&J has reduced its footprint? G&J commits to sustainability by learning and sharing the best practices across all locations. 

Highlighting Some Successes

Last year, G&J Pepsi recycled more than 1,350 tons of materials including fleet tires, metal, wood, oil and water, thereby reducing the use of landfills by diverting waste to an appropriate recycler. As of last year, Columbus is 97% landfill free. To continue reducing our footprint, we are constantly spreading awareness of our processes across the facilities and adapting to new technology available to us.  

Last year, G&J embarked on a journey to increase water efficiencies by participating in a pilot project with PepsiCo. Our Franklin Furnace production facility is part of project using efficiency tools to track real-time water measurements, allowing us to be proactive instead of reactive in our water use. In Franklin Furnace alone, the savings will equal 800,000 gallons of water annually which equates to a 52% water reduction. Other ways we have become more water efficient is through temperature controls on the bottle and can warmers. We have started recycling and treating the water instead of dumping the water each time.  

A key technological improvement from 2023 was investing in a Fluke Meter to help detect air leaks and CO2 leaks throughout the warehouses and production facilities. This has already saved large energy costing repairs in our locations through early detection and will continue with quarterly tests across the sites. 

Other 2023 warehouse & production sustainability projects include: 

• Increasing reverse osmosis efficiencies
• Using LED motion-activated indoor and outdoor lighting
• Adding Big Fans to move heat around
• Microblend efficiency improvements
• Roll-up door upgrades
• Recycling totes
• Efficiencies in start-up and shutdown procedures