Waste and Emissions Reductions
In 2005, our environmental performance improved in two key areas, toxic releases and government fines, but declined in hazardous waste generation and environmental incidents. As a result, we're implementing corrective action plans aimed at reducing waste and incidents. And in 2006 we will examine our environmental performance and impacts and recommend new, long-term goals in several areas.
Toxic Release Inventory
Each year Air Products must report to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the volume of Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) chemicals released to the environment in the previous year. Excluding remediation efforts at our Pensacola, Florida, chemicals plant, our TRI releases for 2004 declined 12% and returned to 2002 levels.
The Pensacola remediation is a multiyear project aimed at removing chemicals from the soil and groundwater at the plant, with the resulting cleaner water injected into a deep well situated far beneath human water sources. We are required by the EPA to report as TRI releases certain chemicals remaining in the water, and these totaled 1.3 million pounds in 2004.
Hazardous Waste
In 2000, we set a goal to cut hazardous waste in Europe and the U.S. in half by the end of 2005. We met this goal in Europe on an absolute basis and in the U.S. on an indexed basis, reducing hazardous wastes in these regions by 55% and 53%, respectively. Significant production increases since 2000 limited our ability to meet our U.S. goal on an absolute basis, but several key waste minimization projects enabled us to avoid disposing of over 30 million pounds of hazardous waste in 2005.
Air Sensitive Emissions
"Air sensitive" emissions include a more specific group of chemicals on the TRI. Emissions of air sensitives were essentially flat in 2004. Since 1988, we have reduced air sensitive emissions by 94%.
Environmental Incidents
Environmental incidents are key performance indicators that Air Products uses to measure everything from compliance with environmental permitting requirements to noise and odor complaints. In fiscal year 2005, our environmental incidents increased by 16% for several key reasons—increased self-reporting requirements under the U.S. EPA's Title V air permitting program, differences between state and federal permissible limits, and releases caused by the hurricanes in the Gulf Coast region. We have implemented corrective action plans to address these issues and set aggressive improvement goals for 2006.
Greenhouse Gases and Energy Consumption
Air Products believes we must understand the greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint of our key business areas as well as how climate change issues will impact us and our customers. This understanding is critical to managing our operations and creating new opportunities that meet the changing needs of our customers and our planet.
Air Products is well positioned to be part of the solution to GHG issues. We have built a reputation as a worldwide leader in the development and supply of innovative energy technologies and the efficient use of power and natural gas. And in fact, Air Products is already helping people deal with climate change concerns. For example, we are actively involved in the emerging hydrogen economy through fixed and mobile fueling infrastructure, gas-to-liquids and liquefied natural gas technologies, ion transport membrane syngas and oxygen technologies, electronic materials for energy-efficient light-emitting diodes, high-efficiency burner systems for glass and steel manufacturing, and nitrogen trifluoride for reducing perfluorocarbon emissions in semiconductor manufacturing.
Leading our efforts in these areas is our Greenhouse Gas Strategy Team, which serves as our center of excellence companywide. The team is focused on developing strategies to address this emerging market as well as our own emissions. In 2005, the team initiated detailed GHG evaluations of our facilities, closely monitored industry and governmental GHG developments, and identified new business opportunities for our Energy and Process Industries division.
Air Products has a proven track record of focusing on energy and process efficiency, and the results show.
Between 2002 and 2004, our energy efficiency engineers reduced global power consumption equivalent to the annual power consumed by 80,000 average U.S. homes and approximately 480,000 tons of annual carbon dioxide emissions, and we continued to improve on this effort in 2005. Over the last two decades, we decreased energy use per unit of oxygen and nitrogen product by over 35%. Likewise we have a 30-year track record of improving the delivery efficiency of our industrial gas fleet, reducing energy consumption by 50% through advanced logistical planning.
Environmental Compliance and Remediation
While we strive to meet all of the increasingly complex environmental requirements, there are opportunities for errors that may result in fines. In 2005, we reduced our environmental fines to $51,000, which was more than a 60% reduction from the prior year.
From a remediation perspective, Air Products is directly involved in projects at 10 current or former facilities and some 30 off-site locations where many other parties are included. Where we have been legitimately named as a Potentially Responsible Party, the company enters into appropriate agreements with federal or state authorities.
GETTING TO ZERO AT CALVERT CITY
At the Calvert City, Kentucky, Emulsions plant, reactors are cleaned periodically with a caustic methanol-based chemical cleaning solution called "Chem Clean." In the past, Chem Clean was stored and reused until it became "spent" with solids and high water content and had to be disposed of as hazardous waste. Then plant personnel initiated a program to use Chem Clean in the site's wastewater treatment system, and disposal of Chem Clean was reduced to zero in 2005. Not only does this keep over 500 tons of hazardous waste from being shipped off-site, it also saves over $300,000 a year in disposal costs and has improved reactor performance at the plant due to more regular turnover of the Chem Clean.
