Ingersoll Rand Reduces Water, Energy, Material Use

June 9, 2009

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Ingersoll Rand, a global diversified industrial company, is providing environmental performance metrics from its operations worldwide for the first time in its 2008 sustainability report, which covers the company’s material and water use, energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, waste and recycling, product stewardship and supplier management, and compliance.

Key environmental highlights include:

Material use: Established a production target to increase output by 5 percent while using the same amount of input; saved about 1.5 million pieces of paper as a result of its print on demand initiative in 2008 and switched to environmentally-friendly paper that uses less trees to produce.

At its Thermo King facility in Galway, it achieved a 25 percent reduction in hazardous waste generation and 30 percent reduction in waste sent to landfill from the previous year. The facility also increased the number of reusable product crates returned to the facility by its customers, and reduced refrigerant loss by installing a mass balance system for the storage and distribution within the facility.

Water use: Ingersoll Rand facilities used 6,863 million liters (1.8813 billion gallons) of water during 2008. At its Security Technologies facility in Princeton, Illinois, the company has reduced its water usage by nearly 40 percent from 2007 to 2008 through several improvements to the facility’s 5-stage washer including the completion of its conveyor project.

Energy use: In 2008, Ingersoll Rand used 5,352 thousand gigajoules (1,486 million-kilowatt hours) of energy and its 2008 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were 577,863 metric tons (1.27 billion pounds) of CO2 equivalents. The company did not collect global data to calculate the GHG emissions from refrigerants or fuel used by its fleet vehicles in 2008. This will be included in next year’s sustainability report.

To reduce energy consumption, the company has implemented several energy-saving actions around its global operations including energy and compressed air audits, timer installations on the power switches for building ventilation systems, the promotion of equipment maintenance procedures that improve efficiency, and the implementation of additional employee training and information on energy-saving procedures.

Product stewardship: Throughout a product’s life cycle, the company takes into consideration the energy, environmental, and safety impacts of the product and its use. Many of the company’s products are highly recyclable because of their metal content. In some cases, up to 90 percent of the product or more can be recycled at the end of its useful life.

Ingersoll Rand also announced the launch of a new Web resource dedicated to the company’s sustainability efforts and goals, and the formation of the Ingersoll Rand Sustainability Strategy Council, comprised of representatives from all of Ingersoll Rand’s businesses.

The sustainability Web site provides information about its environmentally-beneficial and energy efficient products and solutions, expertise in green building certification, and ideas about how to reduce environmental impact.

The Sustainability Strategy Council is responsible for defining and leading Ingersoll Rand’s sustainability efforts in the areas of green buildings, energy efficiency, and climate change. As of April 2009, Ingersoll Rand had more than 500 LEED-accredited professionals.

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