Environmental Performance (cont.)
WASTE MANAGEMENT AND REMEDIAL ACTIVITIES
Our Healthy Planet 2010 goal is to reduce hazardous and non-hazardous waste by 10 percent against our 2005 baseline. Between 2005 and 2009, we reduced non-hazardous waste by 32 percent and hazardous waste by 32 percent.
We continue to identify ways to reduce waste as well as recycle or reuse our industrial waste. Our efforts are aided by growing markets for hazardous and non-hazardous materials; waste streams formerly disposed of as hazardous waste are in some cases now brokered for reuse. One example: By sending approximately 75,000 gallons of acetone annually to the automobile and paint industries for reuse as lacquer thinner, our Global Pharmaceutical Supply Group (ALZA) in Vacaville, Calif., has reduced hazardous waste off-site disposal by more than 50 percent.
Johnson & Johnson is remediating contamination at 16 current or former facilities at a cost of $5.4 million in 2009. We hold approximately $45 million in reserve for the continued cleanup of these sites and for any potential waste-disposal-site liabilities. The conditions at these sites are the result of waste management practices that were standard industry practice in the past and, in the case of waste-disposal sites, improper handling of our wastes by vendor companies.
BIODIVERSITY
Johnson & Johnson achieved one of our Healthy Planet 2010 goals in 2008: enhancing biodiversity by implementing conservation plans at all our facilities and companies. We have completed 66 biodiversity projects and have 28 more under way around the world. Of these, 68 percent support biodiversity at external locations, 14 percent focus on enhancing and conserving biodiversity on our properties, 9 percent sponsor endangered species, and 3 percent protect a habitat from an environmental threat (another 6 percent are other types of conservation programs).
The current economic environment makes it challenging to support projects such as these, but we are making progress, in part because our employees volunteer much time and effort toward these projects.
AIR EMISSIONS
Refrigeration equipment in some of our facilities contains hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), which can affect the ozone layer. Johnson & Johnson has committed to eliminate use of HCFCs in equipment greater than five tons of capacity by 2015, five years ahead of the schedule set by the Montreal Protocol. The first steps toward this goal are preparing an emissions inventory and identifying alternative technologies. We are assessing hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) as well as other substitutes.
In 2009 we began collecting baseline data for emissions of nitrous oxides and sulfur oxides, which are less relevant to our operations than HCFCs. We are enhancing our data accuracy and plan to report these metrics in future years.
PAPER AND PACKAGING
Our membership in the World Wildlife Fund’s North America Forest and Trade Network has helped us understand both the threats to our forests and the ways to protect them. When it comes to forest products, we use our purchasing power to help support sustainable forestry.
Our Healthy Planet 2010 goal is for 90 percent of office paper and 75 percent of paper-based packaging to contain more than 30 percent post-consumer recycled (PCR) content or fiber from certified forests. By the end of 2009, 96 percent of paper- based packaging and 95 percent of office paper met these criteria.
Johnson & Johnson has also established minimum PCR-content requirements for glass, certain plastics and metals in our Consumer segment and set a goal to reduce use of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) packaging across the Company. PVC is used both in primary packaging (which comes into direct contact with the product) and secondary or tertiary packaging (which does not come into direct contact), such as bottle cap seals.
Although validating alternatives to PVC packaging is time-consuming and expensive, we continue to make progress, as outlined in the chart above. We are also working to reduce packaging weight and the energy used to make and transport packaging, and to increase the post-consumer recycled, sustainable and biodegradable materials in our packaging.
