Progressive Environmental Stewardship
Medtronic’s well-being ultimately depends on the health and resources of the planet. Consistent with our Mission, Code of Conduct, and Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) vision, Medtronic is committed to conducting business in a safe and environmentally sustainable manner that promotes the health of our employees, customers, and communities. We continually strive to reduce the environmental impact of our operations through the sustainable use of natural resources, energy conservation, and the reduction of waste and greenhouse gas emissions.
Our approach to environmental protection provides business benefits by reducing costs and mitigating risks. In 2007, we adopted an EHS Management System and Environmental Sustainability Policy and also established company-wide environmental goals for fiscal year 2013. Additionally, we implemented an EHS Management System Standard in fiscal year 2006, and all of our businesses have defined and track progress against their own performance goals on a quarterly basis. To communicate our progress, we have issued EHS reports each year since 2006.
To enhance our efforts, we actively seek the ideas of individuals throughout the organization to save energy, reduce water use, generate less waste, and increase recycling.
To encourage participation among all employees, we launched a Go Green for Life environmental awareness program to communicate our goals, share success stories company-wide, and promote individual action on everything from desk-side recycling to maximizing power-saving options on personal computers, reducing manufacturing and packaging waste, and reducing carbon emissions through personal food choices and the use of alternative transportation. (See Earth Week 2010 case study below.)
We also established the Medtronic EHS Sustainability Award, which recognizes facilities that have achieved superior results in this area.
Earth Day Challenge Motivates Employees to Reduce Carbon Emissions
To commemorate the 40th annual Earth Day in the Unites States, Medtronic presented an Earth Week Challenge in April 2010 to see how much U.S. employees could reduce carbon emissions in one week by making small changes in their diet and transportation to work.
In just one week, employees ate nearly 13,000 low carbon meals at Medtronic food service locations or elsewhere. These choices represented an 18 metric tonne reduction in carbon emissions, which is equivalent to more than 1,000 days of U.S. household electricity use.
During this period, employees who replaced their typical automobile commute with walking, biking, carpooling, telecommuting, or public transportation reduced their automobile travel by nearly 24,000 miles/39,000 kilometers. This resulted in a corresponding decrease of nearly 10 metric tonnes of carbon emissions, which is equivalent to 556 days of U.S. household electricity use.
The total reduction in carbon emissions exceeded 28 metric tonnes, saving enough energy to power an average U.S. household for more than four years.