Environment
Environmental Performance
Shrinking Our Eco-Footprint
Each of us leaves an ecological footprint on the planet. The more natural resources we use and the more unhealthy waste streams we generate, the deeper and more damaging our footprints become.
For a global engineering and manufacturing company with 40,000 employees, ITT has a relatively shallow operations footprint in comparison to other manufacturing companies our size. The majority of our products are lower-volume, highly engineered pieces of technology that don't demand huge amounts of raw materials or energy to produce.
However, we understand our ecological footprint can always be smaller, and we are committed to lessening our demand and impact on nature in all possible ways.
Our Commitment:
To recognize our impact on the global environment and be vigilant in our efforts to reduce consumption of natural resources and generation of waste and emissions. To continuously evolve our environmental practices and be an active participant in the environmental responsibility community.
Progress to Date:
In 2007, ITT reached our goal of reducing by 5 percent the consumption of electricity, natural gas, and water — and the generation of hazardous waste volumes, non-hazardous waste volumes and greenhouse gas emissions. With respect to water, ITT has reduced its total water use by more than 30 percent since 2004.
Goals for 2008/2009:
Achieve another 5 percent decrease in our consumption of electricity, natural gas and water, and our generation of non-hazardous waste, hazardous waste and greenhouse gases. To quickly deploy ITT's high standards of environmental responsibility and management processes at the new sites acquired by the company in 2007 through the acquisitions of International Motion Control and EDO Corporation.
ITT's indirect emissions of CO2 from electricity consumption have remained fairly steady relative to the 2003-05 baseline while corporate sales have grown, resulting in an annual decline in intensity of indirect CO2 emissions of more than 10 percent.
Reducing Our Greenhouse Gas Emissions
One of the major elements in a company's environmental impact is its carbon footprint, or the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases that the company produces and emits. At ITT, we support the findings of the 2007 study by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which found a clear link between global warming and man-made greenhouse gases.
While our production and facility growth caused the intensity of direct emissions from ITT plants and vehicles to increase by 6 percent, we were still able to achieve a 29 percent reduction in emission intensity for indirect emissions generated by our use of electricity to heat our facilities, run our computers and power our assembly lines.
To decrease direct emissions, we have reduced our global use of sulfur hexafluoride by 60 percent since 1999, resulting in annual avoided emissions of this greenhouse gas by 200,000 metric tons. In Shenyang, China, we replaced an aging pump plant that burned coal to generate heat with a new facility that taps into the local municipality's more efficient heat-generation system, and we are committed to finding other ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ITT plants around the world.
A new cogeneration system is lowering indirect CO2 emissions at our brake pad manufacturing plant in Barge, Italy, by using electricity byproduct to heat and cool the facility.
Our direct emissions from vehicles are minimal because ITT operates two company jets and a relatively small fleet of company-owned cars and delivery trucks for a company of our size. We are committed to shrinking this small carbon footprint even further by using cleaner-burning alternative fuel vehicles in the United Kingdom, switching from gas cars to electric mopeds in our Emmaboda, Sweden, facility, and using our in-house transportation and distribution operation to aggregate and consolidate shipments of ITT products to global customers.
To realize reductions in indirect carbon dioxide emissions, various ITT locations around the world are installing more efficient lighting, replacing outdated equipment, installing power-saving devices on computers and encouraging employees to conserve energy.
Wherever possible, we are also utilizing renewable energy sources. Our main Water and Wastewater plant in Emmaboda, Sweden, receives 96 percent of its energy mix from renewable sources, and our employee dormitories in Shenzhen, China, use solar panels for heating water. Currently 9 percent of ITT facilities worldwide purchase electricity from renewable sources, and we are making a concerted effort to increase that percentage in the years to come.
In 2007, ITT expanded our use of the World Resources Institute/World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WRI/WBCSD) Greenhouse Gas Accounting Protocol to better identify not just the amount of greenhouse gas we produce, but where it is coming from.
Through major water-reduction projects and conventional techniques such as the installation of low-flow water systems and the repair of leaking pipes and faulty meters, we were able to reduce global water consumption on a normalized basis by more than 30 percent over the past four years, including a 10 percent decrease in 2007 alone.
Using Less Water
Part of being a global water leader is setting the right example. While ITT is not a large industrial user of water in comparison to other multi-industry companies — we used 414 million gallons in 2007 — we are working aggressively to reduce the amount of water we use at all our locations.
The 2007 sale of our electronic switches business, which was very dependent on water for the electro-plating process, helped ITT improve our water-use profile but did not by itself lower overall water use. We continue to make water use reduction a priority for all our locations and we are increasing our investments in water-saving technologies.
At our brake pad production facility in Vauda Canavese, Italy, we transformed our water-based cooling system into a true closed-loop system. By reusing most of its water, the plant reduced water consumption by 70 percent or 10 million gallons per year at just this one location.
In Nanjing, China, we designed our new pump production plant with a water reuse system that transports, treats and recycles all 5,000 gallons of water and wastewater running through the plant each day. Without this system — which features ITT technology throughout the water cycle — the plant would put an additional annual demand of 5,000 tons of fresh water on the local municipality. The Nanjing facility will serve as a water-saving example for all future new plant construction and water system upgrades at ITT.
An innovative water reuse system is reducing annual water demand by 5,000 tons per year at our new pump production plant in Nanjing, China.
ITT currently recycles about 46 percent of our non-hazardous waste and 16 percent of our hazardous waste. Recycling is a local initiative at ITT, and we are working with our sites to increase our percentage of recycled waste and minimize the amount of garbage disposed in landfills.
Eliminating Waste Streams
While ITT aims for maximum efficiency in all our production facilities, waste is inherent in most manufacturing processes and business operations. We generate scrap metal from punch presses, chemical waste from metal-cleaning processes, waste sand from our foundries and paper and plastic from our back-office operations.
Our goal is to reduce or eliminate these waste streams, and where possible find alternative production methods and materials — like water-based paints — that allow us to generate less toxic and lower volumes of waste.
In 2007, we decreased our volume of hazardous waste by 22 percent and our volume of non-hazardous waste by 36 percent. We must point out that non-hazardous waste volume was reduced due to the relocation of some major facilities, resulting in a waste metrics shift to 2006. A similar significant reduction is unlikely in 2008. However, to continue our improvement in this area, our company has begun working with our new facilities to determine what opportunities exist for reducing both hazardous and non-hazardous waste.
Through our company-wide Value-Based Lean Six Sigma process, our plants are focused on becoming "lean and green" and eliminating waste in all its forms. As an example, our Night Vision site in Roanoke, Virginia applied kaizen workflow and material handling principles to streamline its wastewater system and reduce the quantities of hazardous metals entering the waste stream. And in Herford, Germany, our ultraviolet bulb plant switched to a more efficient one-piece flow manufacturing process-meaning one lamp is finished before the next is begun. As a side benefit, the plant minimized the amount of mercury entering the waste stream as a result of our former batch processing method.
Lean operations, like this one at the ITT ultraviolet bulb plant in Germany, are helping us reduce waste streams in all forms by streamlining the energy and materials used in the manufacturing process.
Environment, Safety & Health Organization
ITT is a fast-growing company, and we depend on our dedicated team of 120-plus Environment, Safety & Health professionals to help site leaders manage their ecological footprints. They monitor environmental and safety performances at their own sites, and travel to other ITT sites to audit key environmental and safety activities. In 2007, our company conducted more than 70 of these audits. Corrective action plans for all of the findings identified during the audits were developed. Completion of the actions was tracked using ITT's on-line metrics system.
As a responsible company, we also have a dedicated remediation team to manage environmental legacies associated with our discontinued operations. The team is currently managing or remediating environmental issues at more than 100 sites. Many of these sites were never owned or operated by ITT, but became ITT's responsibility via stock deals or acquisitions, and others are third-party liabilities. A majority of the remaining matters involve former ITT locations that were sold or closed many years ago.
Measuring our Ecological Footprint: Key Metrics
ITT has set a universal goal of improving its normalized environmental metrics by 5 percent each year. In 2008, our company will likely need to re-baseline these metrics, since the acquisition of EDO and IMC in late 2007 increased our manufacturing footprint by more than 10 percent.
Water Consumption
ITT's water use on an actual basis rose only slightly in 2007, despite dramatic increases in production at our most water-intensive sites.
Natural Gas Consumption
Natural gas consumption has declined slightly over the period from 2004 to 2007 while corporate sales have grown, resulting in a 50 percent decline in the intensity of natural gas consumption during this period.
Electricity Consumption: Global ITT
Annual electricity consumption has remained fairly steady over the period from 2004 to 2007 while corporate sales have grown, resulting in a 35 percent decline in the intensity of electricity consumption during this period.
Non-Hazardous Waste Disposal Volume
Hazardous Waste Disposal Volume
Absolute waste disposal has decreased despite significant production increases at ITT. Lean efficiencies introduced into our manufacturing processes continue to reduce waste, including hazardous material. Some of the decreases in 2007 can be attributed to waste streams being "front loaded" into 2006 in anticipation of facility moves.
Direct Emissions of CO2
Direct emissions of CO2 have grown relative to the baseline of 2003-2005, primarily due to the usage of process greenhouse gases. However, since 1999, our overall direct CO2 emissions from process greenhouse gases have declined by 60 percent. ITT will continue to adapt manufacturing processes to minimize usage of process greenhouse gases.
Indirect Emissions of CO2
Indirect emissions of CO2 from electricity consumption have remained fairly steady relative to the baseline of 2003-2005 while corporate sales have grown, resulting in an annual decline in the intensity of indirect CO2 emissions of greater than 10 percent.
ISO 14001 Certification
ISO 14001 is a series of environmental management standards developed and published by the International Standards Organization (ISO). ISO 14001 is widely accepted because it is a global consensus standard, describing appropriate elements of an environmental management system (EMS). Nearly 50 ITT facilities have been certified as meeting ISO 14001 standards, and we are currently updating our global, internal environment, safety and health management system (ESHMS) to more closely adhere to ISO standards, which will make it easier for all ITT sites to qualify for ISO 14001 certification. This new ESHMS system will be deployed in 2009-2011.
Eco-Partnerships
ITT has aligned itself with a number of forward-looking organizations to help us further our progress in the area of being an ecologically responsible business.
Ceres
ITT works closely with Ceres, a leading coalition of environmental, investor and public interest groups working for a sustainable future. ITT has endorsed the Ceres Principles, a 10-point code of environmental conduct and with this report, we are working to adhere to Ceres' global standards for sustainability reporting. www.ceres.org
CHWMEG
ITT is a member of CHWMEG, a consortium of international companies that pools resources for the purpose of evaluating suppliers in the areas of hazardous waste disposal, second material recycling and hazardous material treatment. www.chwmeg.org
Corporate Environmental Enforcement Council
ITT is a member of CEEC, the only cross-industry coalition in which legal, environmental and governmental affairs professionals can interact and benchmark environmental compliance and enforcement issues and policies. www.ceeecinc.com
National Association for Environmental Management
ITT is a member of the NAEM. Member companies benchmark and share ideas about how to advance the state of industrial environmental and safety programs. www.naem.org
World Business Council for Sustainable Development
ITT CEO Steve Loranger is a member of the WBCSD, a CEO-led, global association of more than 200 companies from 20 major industrial sectors dealing exclusively with business and sustainable development. www.wbcsd.org
Environmental Law Institute
ITT is a member of ELI, an internationally recognized non-partisan research and education center working to strengthen environmental protection by improving law and governance worldwide.
Factory Improvements
When it was built in 1962, our Friction Technologies plant in Barge, Italy, was located on a fairly remote site. Through the years, houses have been built near the plant and our Barge operation is now part of a neighborhood. As a responsible neighbor, plant managers and R&D personnel have taken a number of steps to reduce the facility's impact on the local environment.
Innovative infrared ovens burn resins at a lower temperature to eliminate the unpleasant smells that once emanated from the plant. Noise reduction systems keep the neighborhood quiet. Sophisticated air systems were installed to reduce dust levels inside — and outside — the facility, and the Barge operation has reduced its solid waste stream by recycling all possible materials.
In 2008, we are building another Friction Technologies plant in the Czech Republic that will incorporate all of these environmental best practices from Barge.
Office Improvements
In mid-2008, ITT moved into a new worldwide headquarters building designed to reflect our commitment to the environment. We are incorporating certain Green Building technologies into the project in order to create a healthy and energy-efficient working environment for our employees. The building will include:
- T5 and T8 lamps for light fixtures
- Energy Star rated equipment and appliances
- Water-conserving rest room utilities
- Paints with no or low amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
- Light controls and occupancy sensors
- Environmentally friendly refrigerants
- Building energy management system
- Waste-reducing resources, including whiteboards, coffee mugs, drinking glasses, etc.
- Electronic computer-controlled heating control valves
