Buildings
- Baxter is using green building design principles (such as the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards) in the design and construction of many of its new buildings. The deployment of a company Green Building Policy is currently under consideration.
Internal Operations
- Baxter’s energy goals are: by 2010, reduce energy usage from operations 20 percent indexed to revenue and by 2015 reduce energy usage from operations 30 percent indexed to revenue. The goals are compared to 2005. Energy usage from operations includes the energy used by Baxter- managed and Baxter-operated facilities, and vehicles, such as sales and truck fleets.
- From 2005 to 2009 Baxter’s sales grew over 27 percent. During this same period energy consumption for Baxter operations increased by 1 percent in absolute terms and decreased by 21 percent indexed to revenue. This puts the company on-track to meet its energy improvement goals. Baxter’s corporate energy management group oversees the company’s global energy conservation activities and reports energy usage, cost and efficiency improvements quarterly to senior management.
- Since 2005, Baxter has increased the number of annual facility energy reviews, expanded the use of a third-party utility invoice payment service, established and provided training on facility “Lean” energy standards and promoted best practices in energy management across the company. In addition, to encourage the implementation of energy efficiency projects, Baxter considers a lower internal rate of return for such capital projects.
- In 2007, Baxter launched a “Lean” energy program for the 63 principal company manufacturing facilities. The program established four sets of energy standards – Pre-requisite, Bronze, Silver and Gold – to be phased in from 2007 to 2010. Each category defines 25 to 30 requirements a facility’s energy program should meet. In 2009, 31 locations met 100% of the Bronze-level requirements, and sites on average met 94% of those requirements, up from 85% in 2008. Eight locations met 100% of the Silver-level requirements in 2009, and the average site met 76% of those requirements, an improvement of greater than 50% compared to the prior year. Several facilities are on target to achieve Gold Lean energy status in 2010. In 2009, Baxter’s global energy management initiatives achieved combined energy savings and cost avoidance of approximately $5.1 million. Energy efficiency gains achieved in 2009 are due to systematic implementation of energy conservation projects. About every three years, Baxter reviews the primary utility systems at each manufacturing facility and large office to identify opportunities for improvement, covering steam generation and distribution; water usage; electricity distribution; compressed air consumption; lighting; and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC).
- Baxter Facilities Engineering Services, with the support of the company’s Manufacturing Council, coordinates a biennial Global Energy Conference for Baxter facility energy managers. The most recent face to face conference was held in autumn 2008 in San Jose, California. Approximately 120 Baxter energy managers, corporate staff, outside presenters and guests attended this conference, which included a special focus on renewable energy and alternative power generation. Baxter held a virtual Global Energy Conference in May 2010 to reduce cost, decrease GHG emissions associated with travel and educate the network of energy managers about virtual meeting technology.
- In 2006, Facilities Engineering Services began providing quarterly updates to the Baxter Manufacturing Council on identified energy conservation projects with acceptable return on investment.
Products & Services
- Baxter performs a Product Stewardship Review (PSR) during the early stages of products in the product development process.
- PSR is a two-step assessment of environmental, health and safety, and other sustainability-related impacts (including energy efficiency) of a product throughout its life cycle. An initial screen reveals high-level sustainability risks and opportunities at the product development concept phase, in areas such as regulations and customer and other stakeholder requirements. The second phase is a comprehensive review that identifies improvement opportunities (example: material use, energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions) across the product life cycle.
Supply Chain
- Baxter participates in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Supplier Network. As part of this process, Baxter works to ensure its suppliers are able to minimize their environmental impact, including making improvements in energy efficiency.
- Baxter’s participation in the process includes identifying opportunities for these suppliers to combine product transportation and use intermodal transportation.
- In 2009, Baxter launched its new Global Supplier Sustainability Program. It includes an initiative to procure products and services that help the company reduce its environmental impact while maintaining continuity of supply and managing costs. Baxter incorporated 20 green criteria into its purchasing procedures, providing its procurement organization a framework to evaluate suppliers’ sustainability initiatives. These criteria include items such as environmental performance tracking and reporting; natural resource use; hazardous substances management; product and packaging take-back programs; and goals to decrease energy use, GHG emissions and water consumption. Sustainability is one of several factors, also including quality and cost, which Baxter uses to select and evaluate its suppliers.
Success Stories
- Austria - Baxter’s campus in Vienna used steam-vent condensers to recover steam venting from various plant processes, capturing 450 megawatt-hours of heat for internal use and saving a projected $42,000 per year in energy costs. The facility also began producing domestic hot water by using an air-to-water heat pump that decreased natural gas consumption and provided a cooler working environment in several rooms.
- Brazil - Baxter’s site in São Paulo installed an innovative rooftop water evaporation system to cool the facility’s roof. The system uses relatively clean used process water that would otherwise be discharged to the wastewater collection system. This saves a projected $25,000 per year in energy required for internal building cooling and reuses 5,000 cubic meters of water annually.
- United States – Baxter’s facility in Thousand Oaks, California installed new air compressor technology that uses water injection to maintain a low air temperature. This decreases energy consumption by 50 percent compared to alternative methods. In 2009, this facility retrofitted a boiler used to generate steam with an ultra high-efficiency heat and water recovery system that decreases site energy consumption and GHG emissions by 12-15 percent and site water usage by approximately 5 percent.
- United States – Baxter’s Cherry Hill facility in New Jersey undertook multiple projects to improve boiler and steam-system efficiency, including controlling boiler air intake, optimizing boiler burner combustion control and upgrading steam economizers to maximize heat recovery.