In these environmentally conscious times, corporations are out to play the green angle, and some efforts are particularly notable. One is a Frito-Lay plant that's converting over to solar energy. Located in Modesto, Calif., the plant makes SunChips snacks. The plant goes solar on April 22, Earth Day.

And to promote the opening, its agency, Juniper Park, a BBDO Worldwide unit in Toronto, came up with a most fitting billboard, one that's itself powered by the sun (see artist's rendition, below).

The billboard, which also goes live on Earth Day, has a cutout image of the word "SunChips" projecting from the top of the sign at a 90-degree angle.

When the sun is up, it will cast a shadow shaped like the brand name onto the yellow board. A tagline printed across the bottom of the sign says, "Made with the help of solar energy.”

The sun-powered sign, on Grand Avenue in Oakland, seemed to follow logically from the notion of a plant powered by the sun, says Barry Quinn, Juniper Park’s creative director.

“We said, ‘if we can make chips, what else can we make with the power of the sun? So we made the word ‘SunChips’ with the power of the sun,” he says.

“The great thing about it is it looks different at different times of the day.”

Frito-Lay is adding 10 acres of solar panels to its Modesto, Calif., plant as a part of its Live Brightly initiative, which encourages people to make small steps en route to big change. The panels will produce about 75 percent of the energy used at the plant.