Pepsi Co's Counting Carbon

This story, about Pepsi Co calculating the carbon footprint of their Tropicana orange juice brand, ran in the NY Times this morning:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/business/22pepsi.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

It's a good example of a company taking responsibility for the environmental effects of both their supply chain and production. As I have heard several times in the first semester of my MBA, "If you don't measure it, you can't manage it".

The most carbon-heavy step in the process? The actual growing of our beloved citrus fruit, specifically the abundance of nitrogen-based fertilizer that is used on the fruit.

What will they do next? Pepsi Co's plan is to work with researchers at the University of Florida to develop a way to grow oranges that create less carbon emissions. It would be awesome to see a movement toward organic orange growing as a result of this information ...

They also plan to create consumer education around carbon footprint numbers. According to this article, Pepsi Co will be among one of the first companies to provide actual carbon emissions numbers to its consumers.