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 2024, reporting locations subject to our goal generated approximately 19,200 mt of nonhazardous waste worldwide, an increase of 16% over 2023. The increase in nonhazardous waste generated at these locations was largely due to continued efforts to consolidate our real estate portfolio. We diverted 94.4% (by weight) from landfill or incineration, meeting the first component of our goal. Of the total amount diverted, 8.6% (by weight) was sent to waste-to-energy processes, also 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. At year-end 2024, we had removed all nonessential SUP items from 55 of the 58 IBM-managed cafeterias (including snack bars, coffee bars and other amenities) across 17 countries. Beyond our goal, we have engaged with our major food service supplier to introduce initiatives to encourage the use of reusable coffee cups at IBM-managed cafeterias.

IBM operations generate small quantities of hazardous waste. In 2024, IBM generated approximately 730 metric tons of hazardous waste, of which 40.7% (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 are limited amounts 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.