Month: March 2023

Abbott

Water sustains life, health, and ecosystems. It’s a vital resource for a global healthcare company striving to help people around the world live healthier, fuller lives.

But water availability and quality are facing global challenges due to factors like population growth, climate change, industrial expansion, and intensive agriculture. The United Nations predicts a 40% global shortfall of water by 2030 – and it warns that 2.3 billion people around the world don’t have adequate access to water and soap for handwashing, critical for a healthy existence.

Water is critical in our efforts to innovate life-changing healthcare technologies. We are committed to efficiently and responsibly managing our water use wherever we work to minimize our impact on local resources.

Our approach is four-fold: improve water efficiency, manage water discharges, apply key water-management practices companywide, and educate our employees and suppliers about the importance of responsible water use.

As part of our 2030 Sustainability Plan, we committed to:

Achieve water stewardship certification at all high-water-impact manufacturing sites in water-stressed areas.Implement accredited water stewardship management practices in more than 75% of all manufacturing sites operating in water-stressed areas.Work with 50 key suppliers in high water-stressed areas to reduce water quality and quantity risks to Abbott and the community.

We’ve been focused on responsible water usage for decades and these goals are meant to target our efforts at making the most impact. We’re proud to be making progress and on track to meet these goals by 2030.

Assessing the Environment

Each year, we perform a mapping process to understand where the water we use comes from, how it’s treated and discharged and the impact our operations have on local supply. During this process, Abbott has identified 24 of our manufacturing sites globally that operate in water-stressed areas.

In response, we’ve become a member of the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS), a global collaboration of businesses and NGOs that contribute to the sustainability of local water resources. Two Abbott sites in high-water-impact and water-stressed areas – in California and Spain – received important AWS certification in 2022 and four others in California, Chile, India, and Singapore are working toward certification. Five more sites are slated to pursue future certification during the plan’s course.

Thirteen additional Abbott manufacturing sites in areas considered water-stressed but not in high water impact also started implementing water stewardship practices last year.

Partnering for Greater Impact

It will take everyone working together to make the biggest impact in water stewardship. That’s why partnership is part of our approach and why, for example, we engage our suppliers in high water-stressed areas to work with us to reduce risks to water quality and quantity. So far, we’ve engaged 26 Abbott suppliers from water-stressed locations to identify water management opportunities and have piloted more robust partnerships with five key suppliers to reduce our shared-water impacts.

As part of our AWS certification efforts, Abbott also works with local communities to solve shared water challenges because successful water management accounts for local water and biodiversity needs. This means identifying opportunities to have an impact – and acting. For example:

Our AWS-certified site in Spain donates empty, bulk containers to a local reforestation nonprofit group, supporting irrigation of trees and recycling of the containers.In California our AWS-certified site partners with a waste disposal company to provide compost to a local winery to improve soil conditions.

Looking Forward

We’re committed to maintaining sustainable, efficient, and comprehensive water management programs and finding new approaches to upgrade our existing sites and processes to make the most positive impacts on water quality and supply in areas where we operate globally.

As we pursue the goals in our 2030 plan, we’ll continue to map our water use and track trends globally, as well as look for new ways to engage our employees and partners in our water stewardship efforts.

See below resources to find out more about Abbott’s efforts to manage water usage efficiently and responsibly.

Abbott’s Position Statement on Access to Clean WaterAbbott’s 2021 Global Sustainability ReportAbbott’s Alliance for Water Stewardship commitments

We continue to celebrate International Women’s Month at Sappi! ABB has featured our very own Marjorie Boles, Group Chief Information Officer, in their three-part film series titled Unstoppable. The series highlights three women within the paper and pulp, mining, and metals industries in STEM (academic fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

We’re incredibly proud of Marjorie, who is featured as she speaks on occupying a senior role in technology in the pulp and paper industry. She shares her journey of how she took initial interest in a career in technology, and how, even as technology has advanced in leaps since she started, there is still room to grow in making the field more gender-diverse.

As part of the Unstoppable series, she and others, bring into full view the importance of diversity and inclusion, and pave the way forward for women and girls who will follow in their footsteps, ultimately  driving the next wave of innovation in STEM fields!

Though the energy transition is well underway, new internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles continue to hit the roads. By 2030, over 36 million more will be sold. Even by 2040, when ZEVs are forecast to dominate new vehicle sales, ICE vehicles will continue to serve specific missions and payloads. To keep the energy transition on track, sustainable energy and fuels will help keep emissions at bay. 

But as a fleet manager surveying the range of clean transportation technologies available to you, you might ask: What is sustainable fuel?

A solution for decarbonizing internal combustion engine vehicles and fuel cell electric vehicles, sustainable fuels like biofuels, renewable diesel, and hydrogen will work alongside electric vehicles to meet the diverse needs of the transportation sector.

Introduction to Sustainable Energy & Fuels

A cleaner alternative to conventional fossil fuels, sustainable fuels offer energy from green and renewable sources like solar or wind power, biomass, municipal waste, industrial scrap, and more. Sustainable fuels are also called alternative fuels, but not all alternative fuels are sustainable. Some notable sustainable fuels include:

Electricity BiofuelsRenewable DieselGreen HydrogenSustainable Aviation Fuel

Sustainable fuels are attractive to the transportation sector for their ability to lower greenhouse gas emissions compared to fossil fuels while offering a lower barrier to entry and, in some cases, higher efficiency than electric vehicles. 

They offer fewer carbon emissions, better performance, and are often comparable in cost to their conventional counterparts.  Renewable diesel, for example, can offer up to 85% lower lifecycle emissions than petroleum diesel with no required engine replacements or upgrades — meaning the fuel can be used in existing diesel vehicles. 

Booster & Sustainable Fuels

Sustainable fuels  are gaining traction as a decarbonization solution, but they are rarely available at gas stations. Out of about 145,000 fuel stations in the United States, the AFDC reports that only 5,954 carry alternative fuels (including compressed natural gas, ethanol, biodiesel, and hydrogen) — fewer than 5%. 

Mobile fueling is ready to fill the gap. This fuel delivery system makes a range of sustainable fuels available without the need for development of fixed infrastructure to support them. For example, Booster’s mobile fueling system expands access to renewable diesel, a fuel made from biomass and categorized by the U.S. Department of Energy as an emerging alternative fuel.  With Booster’s renewable diesel service — which currently fuels nearly all of our California-based fleets — fleets can realize an immediate reduction of carbon emissions without sacrificing performance.

As fleets increasingly adopt a range of sustainable solutions, many will take a mixed-energy fleet approach and slowly phase in clean vehicles, shifting the ratio of their ICE vehicles to ZEVs over time. This can complicate fueling as fleets adopt diverse energy sources to see what works best for them. Mobile fueling helps to streamline the fueling process by bringing a range of fuel sources to the fleet, with the flexibility to meet each fleet’s changing needs. 

To learn more about how Booster can help your fleet lower emissions and access sustainable fuels today, contact fleet@boosterusa.com, or go to boosterusa.com.