In 2011 IBM purchased about 518,000 MWh of renewable energy, representing 10.2 percent of the company’s global electricity use and a CO2 emissions avoidance of 215,000 metric tons. Renewable energy purchases declined by 7.6 percent from 2010 to 2011 due to availability and market conditions, the company said.
IBM reduced the amount of hazardous waste generated from its three microelectronics manufacturing locations by 88 metric tons, or 3.5 percent, year-on-year, according to the 2011 report. The three locations generate more than 90 percent of IBM’s hazardous waste generation attributed to manufacturing.
The year-on-year reduction was achieved by improving process lines at two of the microelectronics manufacturing sites, the report says.
Of the nearly 7,700 metric tons of hazardous waste IBM generated worldwide in 2011, 44 percent was recycled and 36 percent was sent to landfills.
IBM has decreased its total hazardous waste generation by 4,360 metric tons, or 36 percent, in the past five years and by 220,500 metric tons, or 97 percent, since the 1987 base year of this metric, the report says.
In 2011, IBM’s operations generated about 70,000 metric tons of nonhazardous waste, a reduction of 1,100 metric tons, or 1.5 percent, from the previous year. The company reduced its waste through a continued decrease in construction activities at plants and labs in North America.
The reduction was achieved despite a six-percent increase in the end-of-life IT equipment being processed from IBM operations in 2011, over the previous year.
Last year IBM recovered and recycled 78 percent of its nonhazardous waste, exceeding its goal to recycle an average of 75 percent of nonhazardous waste generated at locations managed by the company.
