Pollution prevention

We believe the best way to prevent pollution is to avoid the generation of waste at its source. This has been a basic philosophy behind IBM's pollution prevention program since 1971. For waste that is generated, we minimize pollution through a comprehensive and proactive waste management program that calls for implementation of the following practices, in order of preference: (1) reuse, (2) recycling, (3) recovery (e.g., waste-to-energy), (4) other treatment (e.g., aqueous and chemical treatments, incineration), and (5) land disposal.

IBM established its first voluntary environmental goal to recycle nonhazardous waste streams in 1988. Since then, we have expanded the goal to include nonhazardous chemical waste, end-of-life IT equipment from our own operations, IBM-owned equipment that is returned by customers at the end of a lease, and nonhazardous waste generated by IBM at larger leased locations.

In 2021, IBM updated its nonhazardous waste goal to divert 90% or more (by weight) of IBM's total nonhazardous waste from landfill and incineration by 2025, through reuse, recycling, composting, and waste-to-energy processes, and to use waste-to-energy processes for no more than 10% (by weight) of the diverted waste. The goal scope encompasses IBM-owned locations and leased locations of 100,000 square feet or greater worldwide, and also builds upon IBM's prior waste management goals across several decades.

In 2023, our reporting locations generated approximately 16,500 metric tons of nonhazardous waste worldwide, diverting 94.2% (by weight) of IBM's total nonhazardous waste from landfill or incineration, and meeting the first component of our goal. Of the total amount diverted, 10% (by weight) was sent to waste-to-energy processes, meeting the second component of our goal.

As part of IBM's continual efforts to conserve natural resources and minimize waste, the company set a goal to eliminate nonessential, single-use plastic items from IBM-managed cafeteria operations globally by 2025. In 2023, we conducted on-site assessments to monitor conformance against our goal and amended procurement contracts with our largest food services vendors to ensure single-use plastic items are not reintroduced and that controls are in place to prohibit future ordering. As of year-end 2023, we eliminated all nonessential, single-use plastic items at 58 of the 60 IBM-managed cafeteria operations worldwide.¹ 

Our focus for 2024 will be to complete the elimination of nonessential, single-use plastic items from two remaining locations, to continue conducting on-site assessments to monitor conformance, and to ensure new procurement contracts for IBM-managed cafeterias incorporate the objectives of the goal.

¹Nonessential, single-use plastic items were removed from 37 IBM-managed cafeterias in accordance with legal requirements in Europe and India.

IBM operations generate small quantities of hazardous waste. In 2023, IBM generated approximately 638 metric tons of hazardous waste, of which 44% (by weight) was sent for recycling.

Water discharges are managed at a location level and discharge information is reported to regulatory agencies where required. Internally, IBM also tracks, reports and manages total water discharges from IBM locations worldwide that have site regulatory wastewater discharge permits. IBM measures and manages wastewater discharges at applicable IBM locations for maintaining operational conditions and compliance with discharge permits. IBM’s global environmental management system establishes treatment requirements applicable to IBM locations where they discharge directly to receiving waters. IBM locations with industrial or sanitary wastewater treatment plants on site that are processing industrial or sanitary wastewater must adhere to these IBM corporate requirements wherever they may be located.

Air emissions associated with IBM’s operations remain relatively small, primarily associated with combustion of natural gas for space heating and diesel fuel for generating emergency power when needed. In addition, there is a limited amount of fugitive emissions of chemicals coming from research and development processes. As part of our global environmental management system, IBM sets and implements requirements such as limiting fuel sulfur content and use of high efficiency boilers to minimize our air emissions.

IBM’s point source air emissions for 2023 were estimated to be:

• 33.0 metric tons of Nitrogen oxides (NOx)
• 17.5 metric tons of Carbon monoxide (CO)
• 8.3 metric tons of Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
• 4.9 metric tons of Particulate matter (PM)
• 0.8 metric tons of Sulphur oxides (SOx)

Note: The figures above do not include emissions of refrigerants and greenhouse gas emissions which are reported separately.