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IBM has announced its formal recognition of 44 employees for their
contributions to IBM's leadership in environmental protection. The
achievements were acknowledged through IBM's Corporate
Environmental Affairs Excellence Awards program.
Now in its eleventh year, the program recognizes the contributions of
individuals and teams of employees with awards up to $50,000 for
innovative accomplishments that contribute to IBM's environmental,
energy, and safety objectives.
This year, six awards totaling $220,000 are being presented to the
following employees:
Chad Binkerd, Jonathan Chapple-Sokol, Jose Cruz, John Doughty,
Cuc Huynh, Tim Krywanczyk, and Doug Sturtevant of Burlington,
Vermont, and Donna Cote, Fen Jamin, Susan Jankovsky, Leping Li,
Michael Lofaro, and Cindy Wang of East Fishkill, New York, share
$50,000 for developing and implementing innovative process changes,
used in conjunction with an end point detection process, that
reduced nitrate discharges from the tungsten chemical mechanical
polish (CMP) planarization process during the manufacture of
semiconductors. The new CMP process uses a commercially
available oxidizer and a reformulated IBM-developed slurry for
removing undesired material from the semiconductor wafer. This
innovation reduced ferric nitrate concentration by approximately 50
percent, thereby reducing nitrate discharges to water from the IBM
Burlington site by 20 to 30 percent. Moreover, the accomplishment
significantly improved product yield and reliability, resulting in
approximately $11 million of cost avoidance. Exemplary teamwork
among research, development and manufacturing organizations
enabled the company to realize environmental benefits and cost
savings from this accomplishment two to four years sooner than it
otherwise would have taken. A U.S. patent has been granted and
other patent applications have been filed.
Michael Cummings, James Fuller, Jr., Timothy Krush, Mike Longo,
Thomas Lyons, Curt Miller, Paul Speranza, William Wike, James
Wilson, and Michael Wozniak of Endicott, New York, share $50,000
for developing and qualifying a new process that eliminated solvent
use from the manufacture of ultra fine pitch (UFP) wire bond chip
carrier products. A first in the industry, the team's innovations
included the investigation and qualification of a dry film resist that
achieves UFP's stringent photolithography specifications, while being
compatible with existing printed wire board manufacturing steps.
Benefits include, on an annual basis, avoiding 5.2 million pounds of
chemical use, 5.6 million pounds of industrial and hazardous waste
generation and off-site transport, and 110,000 pounds of process air
emissions while saving over $5.6 million.
Satoshi Baba, Nobuyuki Hashi, Hiromi Ishikawa, and Hitoshi
Tomiyama of Fujisawa, Japan, share $35,000 for reducing waste
generation at Fujisawa by 50 percent through materials conservation
and for sending zero waste to landfills as a result of innovative waste
management, reuse and recycling programs -- a first in the company.
The team's efforts have resulted in environmental benefits that
include, on an annual basis, recycling of 133 tons of plastic
containers; reusing 650 tons of packaging materials; reducing 63
tons of manufacturing materials; and avoiding the disposal of 5 tons
of process equipment, while saving over $3.8 million. In addition, the
site has shared its waste management approach with other IBM
locations, suppliers, and the Japan Management Association, a
Japanese industry group.
Francis Abramovich, Ernie Betancourt, Richard Gaylord, Andrew
Hoadley, Frederick W. Kern, Kenneth McAvey, Clifford Morgan, Mark
Pakulski, and Bill Salamon of Burlington, Vermont, share $35,000 for
developing and implementing an innovative process to rinse and dry
semiconductor wafer surfaces during manufacturing. The new
process eliminated the final rinse process tank and utilized improved
drying technology to allow for increased wafer throughput and
improved tool utilization. Considered to be a best practice, this
achievement has reduced water consumption by over 20 million
gallons per year. It has also cut chemical usage by 15,000 gallons
and conserved 1.55 million kWh of energy annually while saving
$547,000.
Steve Ching, J. Ray Kirby, Dewey Pitts, Rodrigo Samper, and
Charles Sloop III, of Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and
Duane Ruff of Rochester, Minnesota, share $25,000 for the selection,
qualification, and global implementation of powder coatings for the
decorative finishing of metal covers in IBM personal computer and
server products. By working with its suppliers to ensure the global
availability of powder coatings, the team has enabled IBM product
designers and procurement organizations to specify this alternative to
traditional liquid paints, which emit volatile organic compounds
(VOCs). Powder coatings basically contain no solvents and result in
virtually no waste. This initiative is of particular significance in the
regions of the world where using aqueous-based paints that have
lower VOC content than the solvent-based paints is not an option
because water purification capabilities are lacking. The
accomplishment is a demonstration of IBM's commitment to
develop and produce environmentally conscious products. In the
last two years, over 407,000 pounds of VOC emissions have
been avoided and IBM's material cost savings have been
$463,000.
Mark Maresh and Eric Stegner from Research Triangle Park, North
Carolina, share $25,000 for designing environmentally conscious
packaging used for shipping xSeries eServer hard disk drive options
worldwide. The packaging innovation, for which patent protections are
being sought, was designed to accommodate drives with varying
weights and bezel heights, while providing adequate protection during
shipment. The new design, which reduced the number of package
components from 5 to 3 and increased the percentage of corrugated
materials in lieu of plastics, has resulted in an annual reduction of
688 tons of packaging material, decreased carton size, and a more
recyclable container. Total cost savings in materials and
transportation from this accomplishment are $2.8 million.
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