Management and Sustainability

New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI)

This joint venture of General Motors and Toyota, which produces $2 billion of North American automobile purchases, incorporated material efficiency, energy conservation, solid waste reduction, and recycling efforts in their environmental programs, saving the company approximately $4.5 million in 1999. NUMMI now requires their suppliers to use reusable shipping containers for the shipment of parts, which reduced their consumption of cardboard by 60 percent in 1999, accounting for $2.5 million of the company's savings that year while also avoiding 11,000 tons of waste.

Bank of America

By reducing the basis weight of its ATM receipts from 20 pounds to 15 pounds, Bank of America saved more than just paper; this simple move also gained the bank additional savings in transportation, storage and handling costs, to the tune of $500,000 a year.

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, the 16th busiest airport in the United States, increased its recycling from 100 tons diverted from landfills in 2001 to 900 tons diverted in 2005, resulting in an annual savings of $178,000.

Oakland Processing and Distribution Center of U.S. Postal Service

By taking steps to remove recyclables from their waste stream and increasing the efficiency of energy and water use, this processing and distribution point of the U.S. Postal Service is saving $500,000 a year.

Ghirardelli Chocolate Company

Ghirardelli redesigned their packaging to incorporate reusable plastic totes for chocolate shipments, eliminating the need to purchase and dispose of 580,000 cardboard boxes every year. This move saves the chocolate company $520,000 annually.

Successful business greening initiatives

Philadelphia Eagles

In 2004, the owners of the Philadelphia Eagles football team approached the Natural Resources Defense Council for help in improving the environmental profile of their team’s stadium, training facilities, and offices. NRDC worked with the Eagles’ consultants, staff and vendors to implement a number of improvements:

·         Twenty-five percent of the team’s energy is now supplied by renewable sources such as wind.

·         The team uses less-polluting cleaning and maintenance products.

·         The team has increased its use of recycled content, processed chlorine-free paper in its offices and publications.

·         Cooking fat is being recycled for conversion to biodiesel.

·         The stadium scoreboard is now powered by solar energy panels.

Through these initiatives, the Eagles avoided the emission of more than 65 tons of greenhouse gases and 2 billion BTUs of dirty energy generation. They saved some 90 tons of wood, equivalent to more than 100,000 trees, many of which would have been harvested from eagle habitat. The Eagles were able to accomplish all of this at almost no additional cost to their organization.

Philadelphia Eagles Go Green

The Academy Awards

The 79th Annual Academy Awards, in 2007, was the first major awards show to incorporate environmentally intelligent considerations into all aspects of its planning and implementation. The Academy Awards is much more than just one famous night of television. Rather, it is a multi-event affair in which satellite celebrations and ceremonies take place throughout the month leading up to the Oscar telecast.

To implement this ambitious effort, the producers of the Oscars assigned a point person on their team to coordinate the greening of all the events surrounding the Academy Awards. This person worked closely with NRDC and the producers and technicians of each event to help determine potential environmentally preferable alternatives to current practices, locate suppliers of environmentally preferable products and services, and keep track of all efforts and initiatives. This approach yielded meaningful benefits, including the following:

·         Carbon emissions were offset for the Oscar telecast, the pre-show red carpet event, and the Governor’s Ball, by investments into renewable wind and solar energy projects.

·         During the Academy Awards, former Vice President Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio made an on-air announcement about global warming and the carbon-neutral telecast, alerting hundreds of millions of people around the world to the importance of environmental issues.

·         The Green Room backstage at the Oscars incorporated a number of environment-friendly features, including reusable dishes and silverware, less-toxic paints and adhesives, carpets made from 100 percent postconsumer recycled plastic, and furniture made from wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

·         A comprehensive recycling program collected plastics, glass, metals, and paper.

·         Several events offered organic food options.

These initiatives are only a small sample from the many great successes at the 79th Annual Academy Awards. See NRDC’s full list [pdf] of Oscar successes for more details.

Warner Music Group

Warner Music Group has been a pioneer of environmentally preferable business practices in the music industry. Warner has been working with NRDC for several years, initially approaching the organization for advice about improving the environmental profile of its CD inserts. As a result, Warner Music Group worked with its printer, Ivy Hill, to switch to paper containing 30 percent postconsumer recycled content (with remaining fiber certified by the Forest Stewardship Council) for all standard CD and DVD packaging.

The company has also implemented a number of environmental improvements in its day-to-day business operations. These improvements include an ongoing effort to reduce office paper use and increase wastepaper recycling by making double-sided printing the default setting on its printers, centralizing print jobs and reducing the number of printers, and clearly labeling recycling bins, among other steps. Warner has also begun a program to track its greenhouse gas emissions in an attempt to reduce its carbon footprint, and in 2007 the company sponsored a carbon-neutral party following the Grammy Awards.

Energy Audits Save Money

Reducing your energy consumption is smart business. The Oakland Convention Center, for example, saves $78,000 yearly in energy costs because of enhancements made to its air handler, central plant controls, and energy management systems. The cost of these improvements was paid back within a year. The facility operators also report the possibility of saving an additional $174,000 per year with longer-term equipment replacement. In addition to direct energy savings, many utilities, government agencies, and other organizations offer cash rebates for implementing efficient and/or renewable energy improvements.

Between 1990 and 2002, IBM made improvements to its energy systems and saved 12.8 billion kWh of electricity, yielding a savings of more than $700 million. At the same time, these improvements reduced its emissions of carbon dioxide by 32 percent.

Since 2000, with the assistance of Avista Advantage, an energy consulting company, the grocery retailer Food Lion has been able to reduce its energy consumption by 25 percent, even though its total number of stores has increased. Through a variety of upgrades to lighting, HVAC, and refrigeration systems, the company has saved $105 million. Case Study

Corporate Examples of On-Site Solar Generation

FedEx Corporation recently constructed a solar array on the rooftops of two buildings at its facility at Oakland International Airport. The 904-kilowatt array provides approximately 80 percent of FedEx’s peak load demand and, in so doing, reduces FedEx’s energy bills and the risks associated with unstable or rising fossil fuel prices.

Oroville Wastewater Agency operates a 520 kilowatt on-site solar array capable of fulfilling nearly 80 percent of its wastewater treatment plant’s energy needs. On Earth Day 2003, the Sewerage Commission-Oroville Region received a $2,342,502 rebate check from Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) for its on-site array—the largest renewable energy system rebate in PG&E history.

AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, recently installed 590 solar panels in three different parts of the stadium. These panels produce up to 122 kilowatts of renewable energy for PG&E customers in San Francisco, the equivalent of about 40 residential solar systems. As the first Major League Baseball stadium to feature solar power, this installation not only generates renewable energy, but also provides a high-profile platform to showcase the importance of clean energy and energy conservation.

Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies, has undertaken the construction of a solar energy system with 46 solar panels. The 9.8 kilowatt system can provide more than 14,000 kilowatt hours of energy, which could offset the energy consumption of their LED scoreboard for more than a year.