IBM strives to conserve resources across its operations. Two examples are water and materials conservation.
Water conservation
Internally, IBM's microelectronics manufacturing operations are our company's most water-intensive. In 2011, these operations represented more than 80 percent -- nearly 9,300 thousand cubic meters (TCMs) -- of the approximately 11,500 TCMs of water used at our manufacturing operations and laboratories worldwide.
Though our microelectronics operations are not located in areas of water scarcity, in 2000 we established a water conservation goal to achieve average annual water conservation savings equal to 2 percent of IBM's annual water use at microelectronics manufacturing operations, based on the water usage of the previous year and measured over a rolling five-year period. This voluntary environmental goal measures increases in annual water conservation resulting from new water reduction projects and improvements in water reuse and recycling at these locations.
In 2011, new water conservation initiatives in IBM's microelectronics manufacturing facilities achieved an annual 1.2 percent year-to-year increase in water conservation savings over 2010 usage.
Over the past 5 years, new water conservation initiatives at our microelectronics manufacturing facilities have achieved an average 2.6 percent savings versus the 2 percent goal.
Materials conservation and reuse
In addition to its waste recycling programs, IBM has a wide range of initiatives that conserve materials through reuse and recycling in the company's products and in its procurement of paper and wood-based packaging. Some examples:
- Product recycling:
As part of its product end-of-life management (PELM) activities, IBM began offering product take-back programs in Europe in 1989 and has extended and enhanced them over the years. From 1995, when we first began including product recovery in our annual corporate environmental report, through the end of 2011, IBM has documented the collection and recovery of an estimated 844,900 metric tons (over 1.86 billion pounds) of product and product waste worldwide.
In 2011, IBM's PELM operations worldwide processed more than 37,950 metric tons of end-of-life products and product waste, and 97.6 percent of the total amount processed was recycled or reused. These PELM operations sent only 0.4 percent to landfills or to incineration facilities for treatment versus IBM's goal to not exceed a combined 3 percent of the total amount processed. - Product packaging design:
To minimize packaging waste, IBM strives to keep packaging to a minimum and, whenever feasible, composed of recyclable and/or reusable materials.
In addition to prohibiting an array of substances from IBM packaging, IBM's Packaging Guidelines, developed in 1990 and updated many times over the years, identify methods, processes and designs to reduce packaging volume; and promote the use of packaging materials that are reusable, recyclable and/or contain recycled content.
In 2011, the integrated worldwide packaging engineering team saved approximately 780 metric tons of packaging materials through the implementation of 24 packaging redesign projects for parts and assemblies shipped to manufacturing operations and for packaged products supplied to clients worldwide. These projects delivered an annual materials and transport cost savings of $4.3 million. The following are highlights of a few of the key projects implemented:
- Storage system products were previously transported to customers in China using outer wooden crates to protect against the harsh nature of the shipping environment. Following a redesign, the primary corrugated cardboard box was strengthened, which allowed the outer wooden crate to be eliminated. Wood packaging materials savings of 65 metric tons per year were achieved with corresponding annual cost savings of $416,100.
- The central processing unit option package of the IBM System x® server was redesigned to eliminate the individual corrugated carton packaging for each part in the option package which consisted of processing chip, heatsink and fan module. Corrugated cardboard packaging savings of 10.8 metric tons per year were achieved with associated cost savings of $88,600 annually.
- Certain Power SystemsTM server products were packaged individually in a pizza box with four pizza boxes per carton. After the collaborative redesign between IBM and the supplier, four systems were packaged per carton in a bulk format. The redesign provided materials savings and solid waste reductions of 20.5 metric tons and associated cost savings of $462,900 annually.
- Past Power System server chassis were packaged and shipped by the supplier to the IBM manufacturing location and the final manufactured product was then newly packaged prior to delivery to the customer. After the redesign, the chassis packaging was strengthened so it could be reused for final delivery of the completed product to the customer. The redesign eliminated the need for the use of new packaging resulting in a materials savings of 78 metric tons per year and a corresponding cost savings of $508,000 annually.
- Voluntary Environmental Goal for Packaging Materials:
We established IBM's requirement for the responsible sourcing of paper and paper-/wood-based packaging in 2002. It requires that the paper and wood-based packaging directly acquired by IBM will be procured from suppliers who source from sustainably managed forests where such sources exist.
When this goal was first established, sufficient quantities of sustainably sourced packaging materials were not yet available for much of the company's needs. With a continued focus on this objective by IBM and our suppliers over the years, in 2011, 99 percent of the paper and paper-/wood-based packaging IBM procured worldwide came from suppliers who contractually warranted that the source was derived from forests managed in an ecologically sound and sustainable manner.