PepsiCo looks to reducing the University’s carbon footprint

 

Stephanie Feldman/Staff Writer

One of America’s top beverage companies, PepsiCo, is leading the way in recycling with their new “PepsiCo Dream Machine Program.”

Plastic bottles account for a large amount of waste every year, yet less than a third of plastic beverage containers are being recycled each year and only 12 percent of public spaces are equipped with recycling receptacles.

In order to decrease the amount of plastic bottles flooding landfills and increasing the rate of beverage containers being recycled in the US to 50 percent, PepsiCo, in partnership with Waste Management, the largest recycling company in North America, have created a new recycling initiative called the “PepsiCo Dream Machine Program.”

FIU has become a part of a small but increasing number of universities with Dream Machines on campus. There are currently four machines throughout Modesto Maidique Campus and one at Biscayne Bay Campus.

The dark blue receptacles come in two varieties. The intelligent kiosk  is equipped with a computer system that monitors usage and allows users to sign up and receive five points for every container they recycle.

They can then redeem the points from retailers. The other  receptacle is a traditional looking bin. Both systems are being used in high traffic and other busy areas such as universities. They accept all Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET/PETE)  plastic bottles and aluminum cans.

According to Carrie Kashar, the Assistant Director at the Office of University Sustainability, the Pepsi Dream machines is a convenient way for students and staff on campus to make a significant change to the environment.

Kashar explains that the interest in the machines began two years ago, when a group of FIU GoGreen Team volunteers helped to launch one of the first PepsiCo Dream machines at Dolphin Stadium in Miami.

“Large corporations, even including universities, all have a big environmental footprint, but any change that they can make to help lesson that impact is a good one in my mind,” Kashar said. “You have to start somewhere, and eventually all the small changes (some not so small) will have big impacts.”

She hopes that they will become more popular and hopefully more will be placed more throughout BBC and in other locations as well such as housing and the Engineering Center.

“I recently redid my home using ‘green’ appliances, I’m not going to change the world, but if everyone starts doing it, we could make a big change,” said Karen Gonzalez, freshman Business Administration major.

According to Gonzalez, making a change in the environment begins at home.

“I think it will create a culture of recycling, and it will get you into the habit,” said David Ullman, a senior and International Relations major. “I think it’s good that FIU and are working to promote recycling on campus.”

Initiated on Earth Day 2010, PepsiCo has bought thousands of computerized recycling receptacles which people can use to deposit plastic bottles or other recyclables and in turn, gain points which they can redeem for rewards from various retailers online.

Kashar is working alongside Business Services in order to supply the machines with coupons that students can use for vendors on campus. She plans on promoting the machines more heavily during Earth Week from April 2- 6.  Kashar says that she, along with the OUS and Custodial Services will monitor the machine’s activity in order to evaluate which locations are most popular, and place them accordingly.

She hopes to engage students, staff and faculty and get them excited about recycling.

“We have a goal to increase our recycling rate from 30 percent to 50 percent by 2015, and then hope to meet the state requirement of 75 percent by 2020,” Kasher said.  “To be able to recycle 75 percent of our waste, it is going to take an effort from everybody on campus.”

In order to reach this goal and promote the usage of the Dream Machines, the OUS along with PepsiCo and Waste Management representatives put on an event in the Green Library’s Breezeway where close to 1,000 students stopped by to learn more about the program.

While some may be skeptical of large corporations such as PepsiCo attempting to go “green,” Sigal Segev, a professor in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations, who has conducted research in consumer behavior and “green” practices, believes that “any initiative of big or small company that decides to go green and communicates that with its various audiences is indeed welcomed.”

According to Segev, large companies, which often have huge marketing budgets, can raise awareness about environmentalism and “green” practices to larger audiences than traditional grass roots methods.

She also believes that programs such as this address “the ever-increasing consumer demands for green products and pro-environmental procedures that are related with the production process. So it works in both ways: From consumer demands to the company’s practices and from companies practices to create and/or increase green awareness among various audiences.”

This demand is evident on the Dream Machine’s Facebook page which is filled with people requesting that a machine be put on their campus.  Segev hopes that if other companies follow PepsiCo’s lead, there will be a larger impact.

“Such initiatives definitely set the tone and lead the way for others to follow, be they individual consumers or other businesses,” Segev said.

PepsiCo has enlisted the help of specific partners like Waste Management, which was chosen because its vast network of plants and technologies would shorten the processing time and travel that the containers would have to go through, thus minimizing the carbon footprint.

Greenopolis.com, an interactive social media company which focuses on environmental issues, has provided the kiosks with a points reward system which could be accessed on their website.

PepsiCo has also partnered with Keep America Beautiful, an organization which relies on volunteers across the United States to help promote environmental initiatives, reduce waste, and preserve nature to promote the new initiative.

Most impressively PepsiCo has also pledged a minimum of half a million dollars per year, to the Entrepreneurship Boot camp for Veterans with Disabilities. This program provides returning disabled veterans with career training, and an education in entrepreneurship and small business management, where they can learn business skills to apply to future careers. For every ten million pounds of recycled beverage containers gathered, PepsiCo has promised another quarter of a million dollars to the Boot camp.

Professor Yi Ju Chen, from the Department of Marketing agrees that projects such as the Dream Machines can help set industry standards as well as paint a positive image of the company. She also believes that the effects of this effort depend on the scale of the program.

“If it is limited within a few campuses, the impact on the environment would be limited,” Chen said. “However, if the project can be implemented in various campuses and lasts for a certain period of time, the impact on the environment can be more influential.”

Back at OUS, Kashar urges students to stop by to learn more about the Dream Machines and other recycling programs.

“We feel, by creating a really successful recycling program it will help us on our journey toward a more sustainable, climate-friendly campus.”