The Kraft Heinz Co. apparently drank the clean energy Kool-Aid.

The $43 billion food giant said March 25 that it has been selected for award negotiations that may lead to the maker of products such as Velveeta, Lunchables and Capri Sun to receive up to $170 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstration.

That’s a lot of green: enough to buy roughly 68 million bottles of Heinz sweet relish.

The Miracle Whip maker’s “delicious decarbonization” efforts are intended to support clean energy projects at 10 of the company’s U.S. plants. Kraft Heinz’s plan is to use integrated electrification and energy storage to reduce annual emissions by more than 99%.  It’s unclear whether Taco Bell emissions will be affected.

Kraft Heinz said in a March 25 press release it will use the funds to install a range of technologies, including heat pumps, electric heaters, electric boilers, anaerobic digestors, biogas boilers, solar thermal, solar photovoltaic and thermal energy storage.

Kraft Heinz, which engaged ENGIE to develop its application, said its overall energy use will decline by 23%, natural gas will decline by 97% and water use by 3%.

“At Kraft Heinz, we’re on a journey to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050,” said Marcos Eloi Lima, chief procurement and sustainability officer at Kraft Heinz. “This investment will give us critical resources to make necessary improvements in our plants to help increase their energy efficiency and reduce emissions. This investment recognizes our continued efforts to reduce our environmental footprint, and we’re eager to get started.”

Better now than later. After all, Heinz-sight is 20/20.

Comments