Water and Wastewater
Because the earth has a limited water supply, and the manufacture of water-based products comprises a major part of Baxter's business, the company considers it important to use and treat this resource wisely. Baxter adopted a water-use goal to reduce consumption by 20 percent indexed to revenue by 2010.
Baxter pays careful attention to how it obtains, uses, treats, re-circulates and discharges water. In 2006, Baxter obtained approximately half of its water from on-site wells and half from municipal water distribution systems.
Water
In 2006, Baxter's global operations used nearly 14.1 billion liters of water, an absolute decrease of 4 percent from 2005. This equaled a 9 percent reduction per million dollars of sales, placing Baxter on-track to achieve its water-reduction goal.
Baxter decreased water consumption in 2006 through water recovery and reuse projects at several facilities.
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Brazil – Baxter's São Paulo facility improved water recovery from product sterilization by re-circulating cooling water for its plastic pellet extrusion process and increasing the efficiency of its reverse osmosis water purification equipment. These projects reduced consumption by 32 percent compared to 2005.
- Canada – Baxter's Alliston facility continued to upgrade its cooling tower system to reclaim and reuse cooling water from product sterilization. The facility reduced consumption by 11 percent compared to 2005.
- Puerto Rico – Baxter's Jayuya facility implemented a water recovery project from the product sterilization process. This project reduced annual water consumption by 19 percent compared to 2005.
- Singapore – Through a variety of improvements, Baxter's Woodlands facility reduced consumption 31 percent compared to 2005 (see case study ).
In 2006, these four facilities alone helped to reduce water consumption by 271 million liters (2 percent of Baxter's total 2005 water consumption).
Baxter takes several approaches to identify water reduction and conservation projects. Due to the strong link between energy consumption and water processing, optimization of water systems will continue to be a focus for the facility energy assessments conducted under Baxter's energy management strategy. Additionally, Baxter has worked to integrate lean manufacturing principles with water management, allowing facilities to quickly and easily identify areas for additional water conservation.
Wastewater
Wastewater discharged from Baxter's production operations represents one of the company's most significant environmental compliance risks. The majority of Baxter's wastewater compliance issues originate from discharge to regional or municipal wastewater treatment systems, which represents approximately 60 percent of the company's discharge volume. Some of Baxter's largest facilities, and those without access to regional or municipal wastewater-treatment systems, treat wastewater on-site, including 20 percent of Baxter's manufacturing operations.
Baxter uses the following indicators to evaluate the wastewater-treatment performance of its facilities that discharge directly into waterways:
- Chemical oxygen demand (COD);
- Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD); and
- Total suspended solids (TSS).
In 2006, these facilities treated 4.6 billion liters of wastewater, 30 percent of Baxter's total water consumption. The combined treated effluent from these facilities contained 29 metric tons of BOD5, 126 metric tons of COD and 51 metric tons of TSS. This equals average concentrations of 6 mg/liter BOD5, 28 mg/liter COD and 11 mg/liter TSS. These levels generally are regarded as indicators of well-treated wastewater as these levels are below discharge limits typically established by regulatory agencies.
| WATER POLLUTANTS1 (metric tons) | ||||||
| 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | ||
| BOD52 Discharges | metric tons | 36 | 33 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| mg/L | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 6 | |
| COD2 Discharges | metric tons | 129 | 132 | 110 | 116 | 126 |
| mg/L | 26 | 28 | 28 | 27 | 28 | |
| TSS2 Discharges | metric tons | 47 | 50 | 48 | 47 | 51 |
| mg/L | 10 | 11 | 12 | 11 | 11 | |
| TOTAL DIRECT DISCHARGES | m3 | 4,878,412 | 4,629,390 | 3,886,885 | 4,422,284 | 4,644,064 |
1Estimated total water pollutant levels for treated wastewater discharging directly into waterways.
2When actual performance data were not available, estimates were developed based on performance at similar facilities.
