Corporate Responsibility

Water

Nearly all of the water we use in our own operations is for sanitary purposes in cafeterias and restrooms and for use in cooling towers. We use very little water in manufacturing.

Water use performance

In 2010, we used 2,331 thousand cubic meters of water, a 34 percent decrease from 3,534 cubic meters in 2005.

These figures are based on:

1. Actual water use covering 75 percent of total floor space in 2010 versus 59 percent in 2005
2. Estimated water use based on average water use per square foot for the remaining percent

Wastewater

At most of our sites, we discharge our wastewater to public sewer systems for treatment in compliance with regulations. At our Jaguariuna, Brazil site, we treat sanitary wastewater onsite and use the treated water in gardens and cooling towers and the biosolids from the treatment systems to fertilize the site’s landscaped areas. We use the biosolids from our wastewater treatment systems in India to fertilize the on-site garden.

In the U.S., we operate two industrial wastewater treatment systems to process a very small amount of wastewater from our research and development laboratories. These systems treat the wastewater for pH and metals before discharging to the publicly owned treatment system for further treatment in compliance with local regulations.