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Date
I simply could not resist the title.
This post actually builds a bit from the former post, "Extra, Extra, Report all About It", in that it shows yet another example of how doing the right thing helps a project manager or other executive do things right. Said otherwise, green (ecologically responsible) begets green (money).
In the June 4 edition of The Economist, there's a very worthwhile article called "Following the Footprints". In the article there is a great example of how this "green begets green" thing really works.
And it all has to do with cheese-and-onion potato crisps (what Americans call chips - and as you know, Brits call what Americans call French Fries chips...but that's another story).
The crips (or chips) in question, are Walkers - a PepsiCo brand. A decision was made to initiate a project to put carbon labels on the Walker's chips in question.
There's quite a bit of background to the story but the gist of the green-begets-green element is this:
Walkers buys its potatoes based on gross weight of the product. Because this was the measure, farmers who sold to Walkers would keep the potatoes in humidified shed to increase the water content (and the weight) for a higher payout. Due to the extra water content in the potatoes, Walkers had to fry the sliced potatoes for a longer time to dry out the extra moisture.
Not only that, but the watered-down-potatoes cost more in transport fuel (and money).
By shifting to a measure based on dry potato weight, Walkers was able to reduce frying time by 10%, save fuel, and reduce the carbon footprint of the product. Oh, and by the way, the farmers could save the money and energy they were putting into humidifying their potatoes.
Green begets green.
So what's the reference in our title? It's from A Fish Called Wanda, in which actor Kevin Kline, as one of the best characters ever imagined, "Otto", philosophizes about "The Chip". For your entertainment we provide a link to a key scene here.
Enjoy!
For project managers, the takeaway (excuse the weak reference to fish and chips) is this: the process that PepsiCo and Walkers followed, to add a carbon label to their crisps bag, yielded process savings. Similarly, if you put that extra up-front work into planning your projects with sustainability in mind, you will not only yield the altruistic benefit of a more sustainable project, you will likely also save your sponsors money.
The Economist put it very well: "It is not so much the (carbon) label itself that matters, but the process that must be gone through to create it".
Not a bad deal, eh?
*crunch*
Posted
by
Richard Maltzman
on: July 03, 2011 12:02 PM |
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