EnvironmentEnvironment

Environmental performance

This section on our environmental performance relates to all employees working in premises owned or leased by ABB, including manufacturing and non-manufacturing sites. It does not cover our customers’ sites or suppliers.

The majority of employees - some 83 percent - are covered by data collected year-on-year from approximately 360 sites, mainly manufacturing and service organizations.

For non-manufacturing sites, which by nature have only limited environmental impact, we have made assumptions of the levels of their main environmental indicators, such as the use of electricity, district heating and water consumption per person. These assumptions are based on data from comparable premises and relate to about 17 percent of employees, an improvement by 5 percent in 2006. When we have made an assumption, it is stated in the text.

Under the indicators in the GRI Guidelines, we have chosen to report data which is relevant to the environmental impact caused by ABB’s activities, products and services. In recent years we have steadily expanded our data collection system to cover most of the GRI indicators.

However, rather than report the amount of materials used, we believe it is more useful and challenging to report on our use of hazardous substances as defined by official international lists of restricted substances, and to show the progress we are making in eliminating them.

To report precise figures for all other (non-hazardous) materials would be very difficult for a company like ABB, which manufactures such a wide range of products in many different sites, and sources millions of different materials and components globally and locally. Apart from report the amount of materials used, we have reported against all the GRI core environmental indicators and many of the additional indicators.

We have also discontinued the reporting of data – either where the quantities have become negligible, or where ABB’s activities have almost no impact (for example on water sources), or where data can only be based on estimates (for example, types and impacts of transportation, disposal methods of regular waste).

Direct energy use (Gigawatt-hours – GWh)
Primary fuel2006*20052004
Oil (11.63 MWh/ton) 117 134 126
Coal (7.56 MWh/ton) 8 8 17
Gas 435 460 417
District heat 239* 217 256
Electricity1,265*1,3041,212
Total energy used2,0642,1232,028
* The figures are based on reported data from 83 percent of employees and an assumed energy use of 3 megawatt-hours (MWh) per employee for district heat and 12 MWh per employee for electricity for the remaining 17 percent of employees.

Indirect energy use (Gigawatt-hours – GWh)
Used by ABBLosses at utilitiesTotal use of energy
200620052004
District heat239*217256
Electricity1,265*1,3041,212
* The figures are based on reported data from 83 percent of employees and an assumed energy use of 3 megawatt-hours (MWh) per employee for district heat and 12 MWh per employee for electricity for the remaining 17 percent of employees.


Greenhouse gas emissions (kilotons)
200620052004
CO2 from use of energy833*870824
SF6 (in CO2 equivalents)558***295253
CO2 from transport by own fleet** 350 350 350
*The figure is based on reported data from 83 percent of employees and an assumed energy use of 3 megawatt-hours (MWh) per employee for district heat and 12 MWh per employee for electricity for the remaining 17 percent of employees.

**Estimated figures
***Increase due to significantly higher business volume


Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions calculations are based on in-house energy use for production, lighting, heating and air-conditioning, and include indirect emissions at utilities where ABB buys power. Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) emissions are estimated to be equivalent to three percent of all SF6 gas used by ABB.

The total amount of ABB’s greenhouse gas emissions, based on the WBCSD/WRI Greenhouse Gas Protocol (Scope I and II), is estimated to be 1.7 million tons for the whole ABB Group.

Greenhouse gas emissions by type for 2006

– CO2 from use of energy* 48 percent
– SF6 (in CO2 equivalents) 32 percent
– CO2 from transport by own fleet** percent

Use of hazardous substances (tons)
200620052004
Phthalates (DIDP) – softener for PVC42*191.7
PBB and PBDE – flame retardants in plastics3.19108
Lead in submarine cables6,900*4,3062,810
Lead in other products, e.g. counterweights in robots222316211
Cadmium in rechargeable batteries4**201.9
Cadmium in industrial batteries delivered to customers222669
Cadmium in lead alloy532.0
Mercury in products delivered to customers0.0090.0140.020
SF6 insulation gas (inflow to ABB)815*481388
SF6 insulation gas (outflow from ABB) 596* 441 353
*Increase due to higher business volume
**Decrease due to change of battery technology

Water consumption (kilotons)
200620052004
Purchased from water companies3,431*3,4323,200
Groundwater extracted by ABB**2,7002,5002,500
Surface water extracted by ABB** 2,500 1,700 1,000
*The figure is based on reported data from 83 percent of employees and an assumed water consumption of ten tons/year/employee for the remaining 17 percent of employees.
**Estimated (rounded) figures

Emissions of ozone-depleting substances (tons)
200620052004
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC)992981861
Chlorinated Volatile Organic
Compounds (VOC-Cl)
29* 13.5 22
*Increase due to higher business volume

Emissions of NOx and SOx (tons SO2 and NO2)
200620052004
SOx from burning coal 6 612
SOx from burning oil869792
NOx from burning coal 4 4 9
NOx from burning oil657369
NOx from burning gas 89 99 90

Waste (tons)
200620052004
Waste sent for recycling111,67485,13170,291
General waste sent for disposal30,994*28,514n.a.
Hazardous waste 4,296 5,775 3,719
*The figure is based on reported data from 83 percent of employees and an assumed waste output of 0.28 tons/year/employee for the remaining 17 percent of employees.

Numbers of significant spills
200620052004
Oil spills387
Chemical spills072
Emissions to air131
Others 0 1 2
Adequate decontamination procedures were implemented to prevent any permanent contamination of soil and water due to these spills. Corrective actions, such as improved control systems, have been taken to reduce the risk of future spills.

Auditing of suppliers’ sustainability performance

Each country is provided with a generic audit protocol for the screening of suppliers. The protocol is used for the auditing of the five most significant suppliers rated according to the severity of their environmental and social impacts.

For example, ABB has identified a total of 1,233 suppliers which fall in this category. Of this total, 570 already have externally certified environmental management systems to ISO 14001. ABB is now focusing its auditing work on the remaining suppliers. Furthermore, in response to ABB’s screening questionnaire, 1,107 of the total confirmed that they are in legal compliance.

Last edited 2007-10-11
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