Materials & Packaging Materials & Packaging

Dr Pepper Snapple's Packaging Redesign Saves Over 60M Tons of Plastic, A Year Ahead of Goal

Dr Pepper Snapple Group (DPS) has released its 2014 Corporate Social Responsibility Report, highlighting progress toward its 2015 goals. Of note are the fact that the beverage giant exceeded two of its environmental sustainability goals: conserving 60.7 million pounds of PET through lightweighting and packaging redesigns since 2007 (the company says it offers the lightest 2-liter bottle in the industry) — the goal was 60 million pounds by 2015 — and replacing nearly 69,000 outdated coolers and vending machines with more energy-efficient equipment since 2009 (relative to its goal of updating 60,000 by 2015).

By Sustainable Brands | Published 10 years ago | About a 3 minute read

Larry Young, president and CEO of DPS, lauded the accomplishments achieved since the goals were set in 2010 and said DPS will evaluate the results and develop a road map for the years ahead, building upon existing and new priority areas.

“Our progress has tangible results that are positively impacting customers, consumers, communities, shareholders and our own employees. In advancing our sustainability goals, we’re developing operational excellence that helps drive positive change in our business,” said Young. “The mark of a great business is not how you perform during the easy times, but how you deliver results when things are difficult. And Dr Pepper Snapple has continued to win in the marketplace and improve as an organization.”

Among the report’s other highlights, the company:

Achieved a 40 percent reduction in its lost-time injury frequency rate since 2009, surpassing its original goal of 25 percent.
Entered the next phase of its Let’s Play initiative, which over the past three years has benefited more than 5 million kids. With an additional $10 million partnership with KaBOOM! to build or fix up playgrounds and a $1 million partnership with Good Sports to provide sports equipment and gear, the company will benefit another 2.6 million kids.
Once again exceeded its goal to have more of its innovation projects focused on reduced calories, smaller portion sizes and improved nutrition, and launched its TEN™ platform nationally, expanding the full-flavored, 10-calorie platform beyond Dr Pepper to include five additional flavors: 7UP TEN™, Canada Dry TEN™, Sunkist Soda® TEN™, A&W TEN™ and RC TEN™.
Ensured that 100 percent of its suppliers identified as high risk have been audited for compliance with its Ethical Sourcing Code of Conduct.
Was recognized among the Civic 50 for the second consecutive year, being named among the top 50 S&P 500 companies that best use their time, talent and resources to improve the quality of life where they do business.

While it still has work to do, DPS is taking a proactive approach to reducing its impact and its exposure to business risks — for example, in March 2013, the company began operating a biological wastewater pretreatment system at its Houston bottling plant with digestion rates of 75-90 percent, which requires 40 percent less energy to operate than traditional digestion systems and 25 percent less energy than other emerging technologies, and allows DPS to minimize its burden on the City of Houston’s wastewater treatment operations.