The Sustainability Center developed through the grass roots efforts of an employee-initiated group called "PepsiCo Green Chicago." Launched in 2007, the all-volunteer group is focused on raising employee and community awareness of environmental issues and demonstrating how even small changes can go a long way to saving energy and reducing waste.
Among its outreach and education efforts, PepsiCo Green Chicago transformed employee behaviors that contributed to the recent successful Silver LEED certification of PepsiCo Chicago headquarters.
The 3,000-square-foot Sustainability Center - among the first of its kind in corporate America -- achieved Platinum LEED Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council in April 2009. At that time, it joined the ranks as just one of 20 buildings in the world, the second in Illinois, and the first in the Consumer Products sector to receive the prestigious LEED Platinum Commercial Interiors Certification.
Designed by a local, minority-owned small business, the Center is constructed of reused and recycled construction materials, components with recycled content, low air emissions adhesives, all locally manufactured where possible. As an example, the lounge chairs' fabric is manufactured from 100% post consumer recycled soda bottles.
The Sustainability Center's museum-quality, interactive displays educate and inform visitors about PepsiCo's environmental, human, and talent sustainability efforts.
Installed in August 2008, the Center featured downtown Chicago's first wind-to-energy turbines. The combined wind and solar photovoltaic equipment help power the Center's lighting. Positioned on the edge of a public garden space on the Center's roof, they are a visible, public reminder of the Center's commitment to environmental sustainability.
The Center is a celebration of our potential to help solve some of the great environmental and social challenges we face as an industry, a nation, and a world.
PepsiCo Chicago
555 W. Monroe
Chicago, IL 60661
pepsico.com
