Our Operations
Our Approach to Operations
We are developing an approach that aims to eliminate our fossil fuel energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, to minimize our impact on water quality and availability, and to mitigate the impacts of waste creation. We call this our Sustainable in a Generation (SiG) program.
As part of this program, we have committed to achieving zero fossil fuel energy use and greenhouse gas emissions from our operations by 2040. We are working on similar long-term commitments for water and waste. In all areas we are beginning by reducing usage and, therefore, impacts and have set hard reduction targets for the short term.
Our Sustainable in Generation Targets
We aim to base our decisions on the best-available scientific data. We identified our goals using a science-based process, which we describe in Understanding Our Impacts.
Using 2007 as our baseline year, we have set hard targets for the short term to drive momentum. Our targets are to:
- Reduce fossil-fuel energy, greenhouse gas emissions and water use by 25 percent by 2015
- Send no waste to landfill by 2015.
We set 2007 as our baseline year as this is our first complete data set. We would need to estimate large quantities of data to set an earlier baseline.
Our Sustainable in a Generation Strategy
Working towards our SiG targets is leading us to think differently about how we design, build and manage our operations. We are exploring four strategies to help meet our targets. Some will make an impact immediately, while others require substantial development and will play a greater role in the future:
- Operational efficiency: Decreasing energy use, water use and waste through changes in practices and behavior
- Capital efficiency: Investing in more efficient equipment and processes
- New technology: Developing and deploying innovations that change the way we do things
- Renewable energy: Working with partners to generate cleaner power
We have improved our data-collection processes and are using them to assess the relative performance of efficiency and technology measures and to inform our future investments. Forecasting has already shown we need to accelerate investment in renewable energy.
Mars Associates from manufacturing, research and development and procurement functions in each business segment are working to implement our SiG strategy and improve performance at our operations. Each segment has created a team, sponsored by its vice president of supply, to assess facilities, share best practice, allocate budget and prioritize technical developments.
