NEW YORK, N.Y. — The emerging field of industrial ecology is gaining recognition through a high-profile award given to the telecommunications company AT&T. The nonprofit organization
Keep America Beautiful has announced that
AT&T will be the 2001 recipient of its annual
Vision for America Award.
One of the world's largest companies, AT&T is being honored for creating environmentally efficient and responsible workplaces, and for embracing a telework program that keeps vehicles off the road by allowing employees to work from their home offices.
Industrial ecology systematically studies the environmental consequences of production and consumption. It addresses product-life-cycle planning that examines how the design, production, use, and final disposal of products affect the environment.
Industrial ecology includes the creation of eco-industrial parks that provide for the cleaner production of goods. The field also considers extended producer responsibility, known as product stewardship; eco-efficiency; and environmental policies that produce social and environmental benefits to the company and to society as a whole.
When companies act in an environmentally friendly manner, they should be recognized, according to Keep America Beautiful. "AT&T's policies are not just of words but of forward-thinking action," said Keep America Beautiful president G. Raymond Empson. "It has taken a new look at the way companies must conduct business, taking into consideration environmental and social impact beyond its own walls."
The company has supported the
International Society of Industrial Ecology, a new intellectual and policy venture that marries industry and the environment.
The society will initially be headquartered at the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. The organization's mission is to promote the use of industrial ecology in research, education, policy, community development, and industrial practices.
Brad Allenby, AT&T Environment, Health, and Safety vice president, is a member of the society's steering committee. Additionally, the AT&T Foundation awards $25,000 Industrial Ecology Faculty Fellowships annually to six academic researchers at colleges and universities.
"Industrial Ecology is a systems view of economic activity and its interrelationship with the environment, to enhance both economic and environmental efficiency," Allenby said.
Through the company's telework program, AT&T employees telecommute from home, using computers to accomplish their tasks. The company estimates that its telecommuting employees have avoided driving 110 million miles and consuming 5.1 million gallons of gasoline. They lower traffic congenstion and have kept pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions out of the atmosphere, including almost 50,000 tons of carbon dioxide, the company said.
Teleworkers are also good for the company's bottom line, saving the company about $100 million a year in increased productivity and about $25 million a year due to the reduced need for office space.
From the perspective of Keep America Beautiful, Empson says the company sets an example. "AT&T's teleworking commitment is a major environmental achievement not only for the company, but for society as a whole," said Empson. "This innovation creates a ripple effect of environmental and health benefits for all communities in which the company does business."
AT&T's "triple bottom line" of economic, environmental, and social performance has gotten more than 100,000 employees involved with revamped employee communications on environment, health, and safety issues.
In 1999, the company made the transition from paper to an electronic environment, health, and safety program, replacing a paper newsletter with an intranet Web site. This action saved 1.4 million sheets of paper and reduced AT&T costs by $100,000 a year. The company's recycling program has kept cellphone batteries and carpeting out of landfills.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, AT&T was the first U.S. company to set a goal of phasing out the use of ozone depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by the end of 1994, and actually succeeded in doing so by 1993. The company tested and developed CFC alternatives for its manufacturing operations. These include terpene-based solvents and aqueous spray defluxers for cleaning circuit boards.
AT&T's Global Real Estate organization reported that 82 percent of its waste paper was recycled in 1998. This saved the equivalent of approximately 150,000 trees and 17,500 barrels of oil. More than 5,300 personal computers were kept from landfills through end-of-product-life management efforts.
Still, AT&T has been far from perfect. In 1995, the latest year in which the company appears in the EPA lists of large-scale hazardous-waste generators, AT&T's Hopewell Township, N.J., facility emitted 28,091 tons of hazardous waste, making it one of the largest hazardous-waste producers in that year. Nearly 15,000 tons of hazardous waste were emitted from AT&T's facility in Winston-Salem, N.C., that year, and 2,275 tons were emitted from its Reading, Penn., microelectronics facility. In Richmond, Va., that year, AT&T emitted 4,637 tons of hazardous waste.
Since 1986, Keep America Beautiful's Vision for America Award has been given each year to leaders of corporations whose activities have enhanced environmental stewardship. Last year's award went to British Petroleum chief John Browne in recognition of the energy company's solar power program.
Accepting for AT&T at a black-tie award dinner in October will be AT&T Chairman and CEO C. Michael Armstrong.
AT&T has annual revenues of nearly $66 billion and 162,000 employees. It provides voice, video, and data communications services to customers worldwide.
Keep America Beautiful Inc., is a nonprofit organization with more than 500 local, statewide, and international programs that aim to educate people about litter prevention and ways to reduce, reuse, recycle, and manage waste materials.
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