Raytheon last year reduced its emissions of greenhouse gas equivalent by 13 percent, from 596,000 to 522,000 metric tons, according to the company’s latest sustainability report. About 92 percent of the defense contractor’s emissions are related to its energy consumption. Raytheon’s greenhouse gas emissions consisted of 82 percent indirect emissions – mainly purchased electricity – and 18 percent direct emissions – mainly natural gas usage, the report says.
Raytheon began measuring and reducing its greenhouse gas emissions footprint in 2002 when it joined the EPA’s Climate Leaders Program. Since then, Raytheon has cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent, cutting a cumulative total of 750,000 metric tons. Since the demise of the Climate Leaders program in 2010, Raytheon joined the Climate Registry – the organization that stepped up to fill the void in voluntary emissions registration.
The 2011 emissions total represents a 16 percent reduction since the company’s 2008 baseline, putting the company well ahead of its target of a 10 percent cut by 2015.
Raytheon says its is a founding supporter of the Destination Gigaton Initiative, a climate program developed by the World Wildlife Fund and the Carbon Disclosure Project. The program encourages industry to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately one gigaton, by 2020, in line with scientifically based climate targets.
The company’s energy consumption dropped by 5.3 percent year-on-year, from 4533 billion BTUs in 2010 to 4295 BTUs in 2011, the report says.
Raytheon’s energy consumption has dropped nine percent since 2008, and 17 percent since 2002. Through energy conservation measures, “hundreds” of energy efficiency projects, and equipment upgrades, Raytheon has reduced its energy use enough to save $80 million since 2002, the report says.
Raytheon was recently awarded the 2012 Energy Star Sustained Excellence Award for its efforts in energy use reduction. This was the fifth consecutive year that the company has been given the award and the eighth time in 12 years that Raytheon has been recognized under the Energy Star program.
In 2011, Raytheon purchased four percent of its energy from renewable sources, which it says puts it “well on the way” to meeting its 2015 goal of five percent. Such energy came from sources including wind farms in Indiana and Iowa, and a landfill gas project in Texas. The company is currently on the EPA’s Top Green Power Purchasers list.