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Aside From The Financial Gains That Ibm Generated From The Implementation Of ...

Aside from the financial gains that IBM generated from the implementation of its climate change amelioration programs, it also successfully achieves operational improvement with respect to the minimization of emissions of both CO2 and PCFs and energy costs. This later translates to profit-making alternatives for IBM due to a significant reduction in its operational costs. Moreover, the development of its sustainable business agenda will prove to be a practical strategy in response to its anticipation of the strict implementation of environmental policy instruments such as the Kyoto Protocol and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative, since it lessens the risk of uncertainty, thereby improving IBM's risk management. Finally, the development of its sustainable business agenda elevates its corporate reputation. Indeed, IBM is regarded as a US EPA climate leader and a CCX partner, providing an example from which other companies could pattern their own sustainable business agenda. IBM's Future Emissions

Reduction Targets

In 2002, IBM became one of US EPA's climate leaders, which is a group of corporations that set aggressive corporate-wide greenhouse gas reduction goals; and inventory their greenhouse gas emissions to track progress toward their reduction goals, (USEPA, 2007). According to US EPA (2007), IBM pledges to reduce total global GHG emissions by 7 percent from 2005 to 2012. IBM has successfully attained its initial goal by diminishing its total GHG emissions by an average of 6% annually (Table and Figure 1) and PFC emissions by 58 percent from 2000 to 2005 (Figure 2), (IBM undated; US EPA, 2007). With respect to both direct and indirect emissions of greenhouse gases, IBM aims to:

Achieve average annual CO2 emissions reductions equivalent to 4 percent of the emissions associated with IBM's annual fuel and electricity use over the six-year period from 2000 through 2005. IBM intends to achieve these reductions through further energy conservation actions, (IBM, undated).
In the same vein, with respect to PFC releases, IBM aims to:
Achieve an absolute 10 percent reduction in PFC emissions from IBM's semiconductor manufacturing processes by the end of 2005, using 2000 as the base year, (IBM, undated).

Conclusion

In response to the pressures exerted by the adverse environmental and economic impacts of climate change, large corporations are faced with the challenge of incorporating sustainability principles in their operations. IBM assumes a corporate responsibility to mitigate the adverse impacts by developing sustainable programs that are implemented in all its corporate offices worldwide. Fundamental to its sustainable agenda is the reduction in emissions of both greenhouse gases and perflourocompounds by implementing simple conservation projects in its corporate offices and installing environmentally-efficient equipment in its semiconductor manufacturing facilities.


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