Monsanto’s World Headquarters Site Approach Toward Greener Laboratories and a Greener Site.Gerald T. Coyle, PhDRobert J. Creely

Goals for Today’s Presentation

• Convince you that you can do some/all of this

• Should have a baseline and some goals (but it may still have to come from a grassroots effort)

• Suggest to you that you may have some very large quanities of material currently going to dumpsters

• Show you that this may actually save you money

Who We Are – Monsanto WHQ

• For profit agricultural biotech company• WHQ is where most of our research

occurs– 4000+ employees– Nearly 600 researchers– Two locations, 25+ buildings– 10’s of thousands of lbs of waste per month

• Global Environmental– Feeding more people with less resources– Participating in Chicago Climate Exchange– Sustainability program

Who We Are – Con’t

• All good but my group deals mostly with wastes – chemical, biological, radiolabel

• We needed to operate on a more “rubber meets the road” basis

• Site Environmental group– Four people– Part of larger site ES&H group– Report to Corporate ES&H

Our Site Environmental Work

• Have no permit violations• Maintain our site’s right to operate• Complicated site – a lot of researchers a

lot of different wastes, customers, ideas, etc.

• No distractions – just pickup the waste• Communicate, communicate,

communicate• Moved beyond just compliance – a

bottoms up approach

What We’re Doing• Wildlife Habitat Council – Certified Site• Pure Power – purchase 10% of our energy from

green sources, 75% of which is wind energy• Building automation project• Green buildings (LEED Certification)• Applied for EPA P-Track• Part of EPA Waste Wise • Low flush toilets, sensor flush• Working with Purchasing to incorporate “green”

concepts into our purchasing (computers)• Biodiesel used in on-site trucks and buses

What We Are NOT Doing• No one is being given additional

money to be green (finding dollars in their existing budgets)

• We are not providing $ resources for employees to lessen their footprint at home

• We are not incentivizing use of mass transit

• We are not incentivizing purchase of greener vehicles

Measuring Progress• Need Indicators

– Temperature, pulse, pressure– Instrument panel

• Can’t manage what you don’t/can’t measure

• Indicators come from values– Measure what you care about

• Indicators– Tools of change, Effect behavior, Valuable for

management• Need to be chosen with care

Getting Started• Define the goal

– What are you trying to do?• Conserve energy, natural resources, increase eco efficiency,

effect product labeling, PR, save money????• Set the boundaries

– Process, plant, company, product?– LCA based?– Reporting period

• Absolute or Relative?– Denominator – normalization

• Data quality/accuracy– Metering– Billing

• Reporting– Audience – management, regulatory, etc.

Baseline – Where you Are/Were

If we could first know where we are, and wither we are tending, we could better judge what to do and how to do it…

Abraham Lincoln, June 16, 1858

Where We Were

• 1989 paper and aluminum recycling• Laboratories not directly involved• 1994 initially joined EPA Waste Wise• Tried to bring lab waste into our program

– Internal and external issues• Became institutionalized but at a low level

– Aluminum cans, white paper, limited plastic

“Wither we are Tending”• Initial Goal – just get the program off of life

support, get it kick-started• Get a baseline developed• Move significant quantities of plastic out of our

dumpsters• Increase the amount of waste going to recycle,

reuse, or waste to energy– Normalize to a yearly basis– Use percent of waste being recycled as main metric

• Develop a program which can be sustained• Get research community directly involved

What We are Actually Doing• Routine collection of chemical waste

– Long term procedures in place• Buckets used in chemical waste program

– Once went to trash• Cardboard boxes for different plastics• Some generation of large quantities• Ship wastes to waste specific locations

– Mixed lab waste goes to waste to energy (Covanta)– Solvents to recycle or energy recovery (PCI)– Plastics

• #2, #5 - Recycle (TriRinse)• Other plastic go waste-to-energy• Steel drums – Recycle (TriRinse)

What We are Actually Doing

What We are Actually Doing

What We are Actually Doing

What We are Actually Doing

What We are Actually Doing

Obstacles We had to Overcome• Changing technology• Changing wastes• Cost/Perceived Costs• Span of control or influence• Human resource – people/hands• Old habits die hard

– Researcher, housekeeping, facilities, ES&H• Chemical and laboratory waste• Time to initiate, drive, monitor, correct,

etc the change

How we Overcame the Obstacles• Grassroots driven

– Researcher requested, ESH Initiative/core value• Routine waste collection already in place

– Housekeeping, On-site waste contractor, Partial FTE, combination of all

• Need to be green(er) – trendy, PC• Building from a base – older program• “times they are a changing”

– Opportunity – movement away from just incineration

– Some waste treatment companies have significant capabilities in this area (eg. Covanta, PCI, etc.)

– Cost neutral or even positive!

OK, So How About our Results!

7,510Plastic bottles

40,405Corrugated Cardboard

26,491Lab plastics

835Aluminum Cans

36,725White paper

Amount Recycled(Pounds)

866Steel buckets

63,840Wood pallets

11,760Lab solvents

2,902Plastic buckets (#2)

137,499Electronic waste

Amount Recycled(Pounds)

2007 Recycling Numbers

So What Does it All Mean???

What Does it Mean?• http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/wycd/

waste/calculators/Warm_home.html• Used the Waste Reduction Model to

derive tons of carbon equivalents• This, in turn, represents some number of

cars being removed from the streets or the effectiveness of some number trees or…

• A few representative values– Recycle of a ton of Al cans -> save 3.7 ton

carbon– Corrugated box (cardboard) -> save 0.85 MTCE

330,593 lbs recycled

112 cars (per year)

67 houses (per year)

1360 trees (per year)

Equivalents

Increase waste prevention,

recycling and purchasing

recycled materialsConfidential

paper opportunities

Establish lab glass recycling

Additional cardboard collection

areas

Work with purchasing on opportunities

2008 Goals????

Green Team Opportunities

Sharing ideas

Off-the-job Quarterly newsletter

Education

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

Margaret Mead (1901 - 1978)

I can’t tell you with certainty how to succeed, but I can tell you with absolute certainty how to fail. Do nothing.

Anon