Cincinnati-based Sunny Delight Beverages Company (SDBC), who are not only the purveyors of the wildly popular faux orange juice but also sell Fruit Simple smoothies, Fruit2O flavored waters, Bossa Nova "superfruit" beverages and Veryfine juices (some are 100% juice others are not). Do you regularly drink any of their offerings? If so you will be happy to know that today they released their Sustainability Report for 2011. Now if only they would stop putting artificial sweeteners in their drinks.

Selected highlights from the report led off with what they have done so far to make their drinks healthier: “Reduced average number of calories per beverage serving from 92 in 2007 to 50 by the end of 2011--a 46% reduction achieved three years ahead of schedule.  This represents a 140 billion calorie reduction per year and removes 40 million pounds of potential weight gain from the American diet annually.”

"Sunny Delight Beverage's Co.'s commitment to sustainability is unwavering and we are pleased to share our progress. Our 2011 focus was on implementing our $85 million supply chain reinvention project designed to improve our products, plants, planet and profits," said Ellen Iobst, chief sustainability officer and senior vice president, manufacturing and technology in a statement this morning. "We have achieved a number of our sustainability goals and we are on track to achieve even more in the years ahead as our sustainability journey continues."

Their journey has meant reducing per-unit non-product related water usage by 20% at both their Anaheim, California and South Brunswick facilities since 2007. Their manufacturing sites reused, recirculated, or recycled almost three billion gallons of water. SBDC’s goal is now to reduce water usage by 25% in the next three years.

In December of 2010 SBDC purchased a manufacturing plant that was formerly a Procter & Gamble Folgers coffee plant in Sherman, Texas. SBDC completely revamped the site, including selling land they had no intention of using to Sherman and scrapping unnecessary equipment because the previous owners had failed at making the building and operations sustainable.

If this blog has given you a hankering for some SunnyD we suggest visiting your local grocery store. While there check to see if the new bottle has hit shelves in your area yet. SBDC’s new square bottle is poised to reduce overall packaging material by 9.7 million pounds a year once full roll-out is achieved. Tests have shown consumers like the new design because its easier to store and easier to pour.

To view SDBC’s full sustainability report please visit their corporate website.