Abbott Labs lowers emissions
Corporate companies, long accused of being profit focused and not having enough consideration for environment have finally started showing some groundwork. It seems so in the light of the announcement by Abbott Laboratories that it has exceeded the carbon emissions reduction targets. After the recent green rankings by Newsweek, in which many food and pharmaceutical giants secured low scores (including Mylan, Monsanto and Bunge), Abbott’s revelation comes as a fresh breeze. Abbott’s overall rank stood at 88 with a sector ranking of 6 in the pharmaceutical industry.
The medical equipment and pharmaceutical giant claims to have reduced the consumption of oil and gas by 35 percent since 2006. This sales adjusted reduction not only meets but exceeds the target of a planned reduction of 12 percent by 2011.
Abbott is one of the companies who have agreed to disclose emissions data on a regular basis. The company purchased 1.3 million megawatt hours of electricity in the year ended 31 December 2008, implying a decline of 11 percent in absolute terms from the baseline 2006 figures. However, the figure presents an incomplete picture as the sales increased during the two year period. On a sales adjusted basis, the reduction works out to 32 percent. Abbott originally planned to reduce the emissions by 12 percent by 2011 on a sales adjusted basis. Similarly, the fuel consumption was down 35 percent from 2006 levels at 4.2 million British thermal units (BTUs) on a normalized basis. Abbott had a similar target of reducing the fossil fuel consumption by 12 percent through 2011.
The reduction didn’t come as a result of buying carbon credits but was accomplished by some real ground work. In its large plants which require considerable amount of heat energy, Abbott installed co-generation systems to produce electricity and recycle waste heat to steam. The steam thus generated is used in double-effect chillers to make ice or cold water or simply to boil water. The electricity from co-generation systems fulfills the better part of the power demand as high as 85 percent in the case of Campoverde (Italy) facility. Co-generation processes have a high pay-off of around 20 percent return on investment. Abbott plans to recover its total investment in co-generation systems in five years.
Apart from the co-generation initiatives, the company also invested in solar panels in its facilities. The solar panels are estimated to fulfill the plant’s electricity requirements to the tune of around seven percent. Abbott achieved energy efficiency by replacing old equipments such as lighting systems etc with the ones consuming less energy and high-efficiency heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Abbott plans to incorporate energy efficient designs such as natural sunlight and cooling in its new buildings. Its recently constructed Singapore facility took design cues from these guidelines.
Not all is green with the company, though. On the flip side, Abbott’s disposal of hazardous waste increased during the period. The increase was largely attributable to the high production at a chemical plant in Campoverde (Italy) coupled with the final disposal of residual materials from other sites. In light of the increased hazardous waste, Abbott received flak from Newsweek. The company was named a ‘top emitter of toxic pollutants among drug manufacturers’ by the magazine. However, Abbott remains committed to its 2010 target of reducing hazardous waste disposal by 20 percent.
