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Boulder County manufacturers continue to focus on environmental performance
City of Boulder website
November 16, 2004
Several Boulder County manufacturers are actively working to improve their environmental performance. Lexmark International, Roche Colorado Corporation, IBM Boulder and Ball Aerospace, voluntarily report annual air emissions and hazardous waste data to the city of Boulder. Lexmark, Roche and IBM are certified in the Partners for A Clean Environment (PACE) program. In addition these companies establish goals to reduce emissions and waste, and report their progress toward previous goals. Beginning this year, the companies agreed to expand annual reporting to include water use, energy use and recycling data.
In addition to reporting environmental data to the city, these companies provide resources to reduce employee transportation impacts and participate in state and national environmental programs.
According to Sarah Van Pelt, who coordinates the reporting effort for the city, "Boulder is fortunate that these companies understand the financial and environmental benefits of proactively improving their environmental performance and voluntarily report data to the city to demonstrate their progress. They play a vital role in Boulder's economy and community."
Collectively the companies' air emissions are more than 70 percent lower than in 1995 when the city began tracking this information. Roche Colorado Corporation is the primary source of air emissions among the four companies. Having reduced air emissions by more than 70 percent since 1995, Roche has contributed significantly to the reductions. In 2003 Roche's productivity increased by 54 percent and their air emissions decreased by 32 percent and the company predicts another decrease this year.
Hazardous waste generation has been a more difficult issue for many of the companies to address. Total hazardous waste volume increased by more than 90 percent last year. Each company aggressively pursues opportunities to reduce waste but when new products go online it often takes a few years to maximize waste reduction and recycling opportunities. Lexmark managed to reduce hazardous waste last year while waste volumes increased at both Ball Aerospace and Roche Colorado. As with air emissions, productivity increases resulted in greater hazardous waste generation.
These four companies recycled 1,700 tons of paper, metals and other materials in 2003. That is equivalent to 13 percent of the total volume of recyclables collected from all residential and commercial customers served by the city's primary hauler, Western Disposal.
In addition, each company seeks to reduce energy use and several choose to purchase renewable energy. Lexmark and IBM have demonstrated leadership in this area by completing numerous projects to reduce energy use in recent years. Adding energy use data to the annual reports will provide the city with useful information for tracking greenhouse gas emissions in the manufacturing sector.
For more information on the manufacturer reporting program or the PACE program, contact Sarah Van Pelt at (303) 441-1914 or visit www.pacepartners.com.
