12/17/2009 Companies Embracing Sustainability Of…

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special theme issue

SUSTAINABLE MANUFACTURING

Companies Embracing Sustainability

Often Do It To Reap Financial Rewards
2/12/2007
By Tom Nicholson

Industrial owners worldwide have led the fight Podcasts:

against limits on carbon-dioxide emissions.
Now, having been dragged to the table, many Drivers of Change: A discussion
are finding that the green diet tastes more of with Chris Luebkeman, Director for
filet than crow. Even U.S. companies, Global Foresight & Innovation, Arup
shielded from the Kyoto strictures by their Group, London. Listen >>
government’s rejection of the treaty, are
joining the party and reaping benefits of Green Talk: Sustainable
efficiency, cost reduction and image. Building Center Co-Director
Discusses LEED, Green Guide for
Sweden-based Volvo renovated its Goteborg
Health Care Listen >>
truck plant last year to operate solely on wind
and bio-fuel power. A similar plant being built
in Ghent, Belgium, will begin production this year. Volvo claims they are the first
carbon-free auto plants in the world. “We hope this project will inspire other
companies. The technology is there. It’s a question of daring,” says Patrick Collignon,
managing director at Volvo Trucks Europe.

Several hundred manufacturers, governments, universities and other organizations

now are trading credits on the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), the world’s first
greenhouse-gas-emission registry and trading system. Launched in 2003, CCX is a
self-regulatory exchange system whose members make voluntary commitments to
reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Emission-reduction targets require all CCX
members to reduce emissions to 6% below their 1998 baseline by 2010. Members
must either reduce emissions or mitigate them through purchase of allowances or
project-based offsets.

The price per tonne of CO2

currently is about $3.40, nearly "The greenback is what will ultimately drive
double what it was in January the green movement."
2006. The price in Europe on the — B ILL HEENAN, PRESIDENT , ST EEL RECYCLING INSTIT UTE ,
Amsterdam-based Europe WASHINGT ON, D.C.
Climate Exchange was $37 per
tonne in early 2006 but has plummeted to $6.85, because many European Union
governments issued too-generous allowances and because of mild winter weather
and falling gas prices in Europe, says Rafael Marques, CCX spokesman.

In the U.S., Congress has proposed federal regulations for CO2 emissions, and
industrial owners anticipating the regulations are taking the offensive. Last fall, a
consortium of manufacturers and power companies formed the Climate Action
Partnership. Aiming to get a hand in shaping federal caps on CO2 emissions, the
consortium issued Congress a framework for CO2-capping legislation.

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12/17/2009 Companies Embracing Sustainability Of…
“There’s massive uncertainty right now,” says Jake Siewert, vice president of
environment, health, safety and public strategy at Pittsburgh-based Alcoa, a member
of the consortium. “We don’t know when the regulations will come or what they will
entail.”

Market-Driven
But for many manufacturers, the impetus for change is largely a response to rising
energy costs and increased global competition. Environmental rewards of energy-
efficient facilities are a side benefit of efforts primarily driven by market economics,
many say. Volvo’s carbon-free plants are “not solely an admirable en-vironmental
effort. We also expect that [wind- and biomass-fueled plants] will eventually be
profitable on a purely commercial basis,” says Volvo CEO Leif Johansson.

Waltham, Mass.-based cement maker Holcim U.S. Inc. reduced greenhouse-gas

emissions by 25% since 2003 by implementing a push for more efficient production,
says Ruksana Mirza, vice president of environmental affairs. Holcim is phasing out the
traditional “wet-mix” method of cement production, in favor of a “dry-mix” method that
lowers emissions. Holcim’s progress in reducing emissions is “for economic and
efficiency gains,” Mirza says. “But we are very aware of our environmental impact, and
we believe economic and environmental progress are intertwined.”

By streamlining plants and processes, the steel industry has reduced CO2 emissions
by about 28% since the mid-1990s, says Bill Heenan, president of the Steel Recycling
Institute, Washington, D.C. Environmental sustainability “is good business for steel
companies,” Heenan says. “Anytime you reduce energy use, you reduce costs.” The
laws of economics, more than laws of Congress, will drive the green movement in
industry, he says. “If we mandate it, industry will move to other parts of the world,”
Heenan says. “Without an economic approach, it won’t work. The greenback is what
will ultimately drive the green movement.”

The U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development was formed in 1997 to help
companies find markets for byproducts and waste and to enable them “to learn about
technology in other markets that can be applied to their own facilities,” says Andrew
Mangan, USBCSD executive director. For example, Mangan notes, a grinder widely
used by oil drillers to crush waste material in the extraction of crude oil has been
adopted by cement manufacturers because it is 30% more energy-efficient than
aggregate grinders traditionally used in the cement industry.

SPECIAL THEME ISSUE :

SUSTAINABILITY
Dire Global Warnings Inspire Promising Antidotes to 'Civilization'

View a Time Line of Environmental Twists and Turns, from 1938 to

2007 ( 1.7MB)

Report Lights Fires Globally on Need To Slow Climate Change

Politicians, Builder Groups Jump on the Green-Building Bandwagon

Climate Shifts Have Engineers Rethinking Baseline of Planning

Designers Look To Nature To Render Buildings in Harmony with Earth

Companies Often Go Green To Reap Financial Rewards

Officials Begin To Ask Just How Green a Highway Can Be

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12/17/2009 Companies Embracing Sustainability Of…
Educators Issue Call for Green Programs That Cross Disciplines

Coming Carbon Constraints Spur Powerplant-Emission Cleanups

Eco-Friendly Engine Pioneers Search for Sources of Clean Power

Big Zero-Carbon Project Planned in U.K.

Template for Green Cities Nears in Asia

An Agitated Port Official Pushes for Collaboration

Human Role in Climate Change Is 90% Certain

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When Less Powered More
Barometer of Change at NOAA
In Search of the Zero-Energy Holy Grail
Green Building Council Hones Rating System

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