From aggressive conservation efforts to global recycling programs, we continue to take steps to protect the environment.
Since 2005, Lexmark has participated in the Carbon Disclosure Project, a program that helps corporations evaluate their greenhouse gas emissions and develop effective reduction strategies.
Lexmark's carbon footprint is primarily driven by energy usage at Lexmark-owned facilities, the energy used in the transportation of our products, and to a lesser extent by employee travel.
All of Lexmark's facilities have management systems in place for the conservation of energy, including natural gas, oil, compressed air, steam and electricity. These systems undergo regular audits to identify areas for improvement. In recent years, these findings have prompted the installation of energy efficient windows and lighting, the use of reflective roofing materials, and changes in our manufacturing processes that improve the use of energy.
In the last several years, a major push has been under way to reduce energy consumption at Lexmark's global headquarters in Lexington, Kentucky. Since 2006, more than 40 energy efficiency projects have been initiated across the 200-acre campus, which was originally constructed in the 1950s and employs more than 3,000 people in research and development, worldwide marketing, and other corporate functions. These projects have included complete lighting retrofits, upgrades to the steam and compressed air systems, adjustments to heating and cooling control programs, as well as significant updates to the site's direct digital control equipment and utility plant.
The achievements to date have been notable. At the end of 2006, Lexmark's global headquarters recorded an 11 percent year-over-year reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The site had conserved more than 100 million equivalent cubic feet of natural gas, a savings of 28 percent, and 10 million kilowatt hours of electricity, a savings of 7 percent. In 2007, the site recorded further savings of 17 percent in natural gas and fuel oil use and its electrical consumption remained flat in spite of a major expansion of its data center completed during the year.
Lexmark continually looks for opportunities to use renewable energy to power our operations.
- Our facility in Boulder, Colorado, is located in a region where ample wind source power is available. In 2007, the Boulder facility increased its wind source purchases 60 percent, from 600,000 kilowatt hours in 2006 to 1,000,000 kilowatt hours.
- Lexmark's sales and marketing office in Switzerland is taking advantage of that country's abundant sources of hydroelectric power, having entered into an alternative energy agreement with the local electricity providers.
- In Italy, Lexmark's offices in Milan and Rome are now partnered with LifeGate Energy, which supplies energy provided by solar towers and kite wind generators as well as water power.
Environmental waste management -- specifically recycling -- can effectively lower energy usage by reducing the amount of raw materials required to manufacture new products, saving landfill space, and preventing the release of toxins into the environment.
Lexmark has established practices for reducing the amount of waste generated by our operations. Our goal is to recycle generated waste as much as practically possible and to use environmentally preferred disposal methods where no reuse or recycling options are available.
Currently, more than 79 percent of Lexmark's worldwide waste can be handled through environmental disposal methods, such as composting, reuse, recycling and energy recovery.
Examples of our waste-minimizing practices include:
- Facility recycling programs are provided for an array of materials, including office paper, print cartridges, cans, bottles, batteries, e-waste, light bulbs, cardboard and construction materials.
- Lexmark offices are equipped with our environmentally responsible print technologies. These include duplex-capable multifunction printers with advanced “scan-to” technology, such as scan-to-email, and high-yield cartridges.
- Corporate news and management communications are published electronically.
- Overheard projectors, which require transparency films, have been replaced with data projectors.
- The paper used for Lexmark’s print testing operations is recycled. Upon request, our test labs will also print documents from non-profits and schools instead of test sheets
- The printers used in our testing operations and other parts of the business often have years of useful life. Instead of sending them out for recycling, Lexmark looks for opportunities to donate them. For example, Lexmark recently donated more than 1,000 printers initially that were used for manufacturing audits to schools and non-profit groups free of charge.
- Lexmark contributes to the general market for recycled goods by purchasing recycled-content materials for use in new construction and renovation projects, including walls, flooring, ceiling tiles and carpet.
- Packaging materials and other manufacturing waste materials collected at our Juárez and Chihuahua, Mexico facilities are sold to recyclers and the proceeds used to fund charitable projects in the community.
- Process innovations in our cartridge manufacturing facilities are helping us reduce our liquid waste stream and reducing the amount of chemicals that are needed.
Lexmark also offers our customers environmentally sound disposal options for disposing of their old Lexmark printers.
One universal option is through is the Lexmark Equipment Collection Program. Customers can ship their Lexmark-branded products to Lexmark by whatever shipping method is most convenient to them, and we will recycle the equipment for free.
For enterprise customers who are in the process of installing a large fleet of new Lexmark products, Lexmark often develops customized collection strategies. Typically, we will work in partnership with certified electronics disposal agencies, to collect the customer's old devices, mark them for recycling, and arrange for them to be sent to the nearest recycling facility.
As interest in equipment recycling continues to grow, Lexmark's equipment recycling efforts continue to expand.
For example, in many parts of Europe, our equipment take-back strategy is implemented through country-specific programs that are operated in accordance with the European Union Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EU WEEE) directive. Home users in the EU can take their equipment to locally authorized collection centers, or in some cases to local retailers. For business customers in the EU, Lexmark has established a fully compliant logistics system for transporting used products to the nearest storage and sorting facility, where the equipment is properly processed for recycling.
In Victoria, Australia's most populous state, residents and small business owners can recycle their Lexmark printers through Byteback™. This free service is an initiative of Sustainability Australia, and the Australian Information Industry Association in conjunction with Lexmark, a founding partner along with Apple, Canon, Dell, Epson, Fujitsu, Fuji-Xerox, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Lenovo.
Naturally, Lexmark designs its printers recycling in mind. For example, we avoid the use of glued or welded bonds as well as non-recyclable coatings and composite materials. We mark components for easy material identification, and where labels are required, we specify label materials that can be easily removed. We have also terminated the use of flame retardants that lower or limit the recycling value of the plastic parts in our printers. Thanks to the innovative efforts of our product designers, more than 99 percent of the materials used in Lexmark printers can be recycled.
In the European Union, Lexmark products are marked with this symbol, to remind customers that electronic equipment must be recycled.
As a proud partner of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Plug-In To eCycling campaign, Lexmark supports opportunities for consumers and businesses to safely dispose of old electronics. Lexmark helps raise awareness of the benefits of e-cycling by hosting collection events in its workplaces and in the community.
Lexmark is an industry leader with regard to recovery, remanufacturing, reuse and recycling of empty toner cartridges. Attaining that leadership position was made possible by our innovative approach for collecting empty cartridges through the Lexmark Cartridge Collection Program, which is available in over 50 countries.
The Lexmark Cartridge Collection Program (LCCP) diverts millions of Lexmark toner and inkjet cartridges from landfills annually by making it easy -- and free -- for Lexmark customers to return used print cartridges to Lexmark for reuse or recycling.
How easy? To return an individual toner cartridge, simply place the cartridge back in the box and apply the pre-paid mailing label provided. Multiple options are also available to our business users. Connect to our recycling pages, to know more about it. To return an inkjet cartridge, simply use the postage-paid return bag that was provided in the box or go to Lexmark's Web site to request one.
The ease of Lexmark's collection program, coupled with its widespread availability - currently 90 percent of our global market - has made Lexmark an industry leader in the recovery, remanufacturing and recycling of empty toner cartridges. The percentage of inkjet cartridges Lexmark collects is growing steadily, too.
We credit this achievement to our customers' exceptional environmental commitment along with creative incentives that make it easier to do the right thing for the planet, such as:
- Giving Customers a Choice: Multiple cartridge offerings
Lexmark is proud of its environmentally progressive solutions for the Lexmark Cartridge Collection Program. One hundred percent of the empty cartridges returned to Lexmark are either reused or demanufactured for recycling.
Helping keep toner cartridges out of landfills is easy, especially with Lexmark's broad selection of cartridge offerings. No other manufacturer provides a broader selection of toner cartridge choices.
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- Lexmark regular cartridges, which can be returned to Lexmark through the Lexmark Cartridge Collection Program.
- Lexmark Return Program cartridges, which give you an up-front discount in exchange for your agreement to return the cartridge only to Lexmark.
- Lexmark Certified Reconditioned cartridges, the quality assured remanufactured alternative.
Our goal is to give as many cartridges as possible a second life as Lexmark Certified Reconditioned Cartridges. Since 1996, we have converted millions of used toner cartridges into Lexmark Certified Reconditioned Cartridges. Cartridges are disassembled, cleaned and critical components are replaced with genuine Lexmark components. Today, 19 reconditioned cartridge families are offered, all with our assurance of delivering high-quality output and reliable performance.
- We've also designed high-yield laser print cartridges that produce twice as many prints as typical industry cartridges. By offering different yield points, Lexmark gives its customers the flexibility to match their business needs while also helping the environment. With the use of high-yield and extra high-yield cartridges, our customers are able to print the same number of pages with 50 percent fewer cartridges.
- Retail promotions, which reward customers and the causes they care about. For example, last year Lexmark and Sam's Club in Puerto Rico teamed together to provide a $2 discount on a new Lexmark cartridge along with a $1 donation to the Muscular Dystrophy Association for each used cartridge customers returned.
- High-profile recycling campaigns and partnerships with leading global recyclers, such as the world leader in metal recycling, Sims Recycling Solutions. All recovered cartridges are recycled using a unique automated process. Lexmark cartridges that cannot be confidently reconditioned are demanufactured using a process that maximizes materials recovery. Over 90 percent of the weight of each Lexmark returned toner cartridge can be effectively recycled into pure raw materials streams that can then be used for new plastic, aluminum, ferrous metal or paper products. Energy recovery, which typically involves incineration, is used little or to no extent in Lexmark's demanufacturing processes.
- Charitable tie-ins, such as the CRIB program in South Africa. For every empty toner and inkjet cartridge recovered, Lexmark makes a donation to the Cartridge Recycling Initiative for Babies, or CRIB. Since the program's start in 2002, Lexmark has collected over 55 tons of empty cartridges and donated more than 33,000 "Baby Days" to Cotlands, a charity organization that offers housing and care to abandoned, abused, neglected and HIV-positive children.
Lexmark follows a zero landfill practice for all of its cartridges collected through the LCCP. Lexmark controls the collection, sorting and recycling process through global processing centers. Our procedures at these centers allow us to maintain a high level of control throughout the return/sorting/reuse/recycle processes in an effort to achieve environmentally progressive results.
Year-on-Year Growth
We have steadily increased the percentage of retrieved cartridges every year we have been in business. With our innovative initiatives and the rapid expansion of our most successful programs across the globe, we hope to continually increase the number of collected cartridges. The Lexmark Cartridge Collection Program has enabled us to significantly increase the number of cartridges we collect. From 1996 to 2007, the number of cartridges collected for Lexmark remanufacturing or recycling has increased by 18 times.
2007 was Lexmark's best year yet for toner cartridge collections, with effectively 1 out of every 3 cartridges shipped returned to us for recycling or remanufacturing.
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