Environment

Ball is focused on the continuous improvement of our manufacturing processes to increase efficiencies. We have successfully introduced innovative production techniques and, supported by our environmental management systems, reduced energy and water consumption and diverted more waste to beneficial reuse.

Our environmental performance is based on our Ball's global environmental policy. We are committed to strengthening our environmental management systems and conducting our business in a manner that minimizes current and future environmental risks for our company and the communities in which we operate.

Our focus on environmental management systems began in 1995. Today, all of our plants have systems in place and all of our European plants are certified to ISO 14001. Our Beijing, China, plant is also certified according to this standard.

We implement environmental management systems to reduce our environmental impacts and manage costs and to demonstrate to the global community that we conduct business in a responsible manner. Since 1995, these systems have clearly improved our environmental performance in significant ways, enabling us to:

• Understand, monitor and manage our environmental impacts
• Identify emerging requirements and implement compliance strategies ahead of deadlines
• Establish program consistency throughout the corporation

Our long-term direction is to significantly and cost effectively reduce our energy consumption.

Ball used 11 million gigajoules of energy in 2009, an 11 percent decrease from 2007. Our energy efficiency, which we measure as per 1,000 units produced, improved by 9 percent in the same time period. Ball’s goal is to further improve energy efficiency by 7.3 percent by 2011.

We implemented projects in all of our global operations to increase energy efficiency and decrease costs and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (see GHG Emissions tab for more information). These efforts included educational measures, improving operations and major capital investment projects such as replacing older existing equipment with more energy efficient units. Another contributing factor was the closure of eight plants, allowing for consolidated production volumes in other plants, making them more efficient.

Technology and equipment

Ball invested more than $36 million in energy savings projects in 2008 and 2009. These investments will save approximately 390,000 gigajoules annually. This corresponds to the annual energy consumption of more than 2,000 average U.S. households.

We are using comprehensive energy information systems (EIS) in 13 plants, which enable us to better understand and manage the energy consuming processes in our operations and improve total system performance. Other plants are realizing significant energy savings using smaller scope energy monitoring. EIS increases awareness of energy consumption and potential savings and ultimately contributes to improved energy efficiency.

Compressed air use in our plants consumes the most energy in our operations. Production motors, ovens, HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning), vacuum pumps and chillers are other high energy consuming equipment. Our major focus is on optimizing the performance of compressed air systems. We reduced system pressure, minimized wasteful air uses and leaks, regulated volume and pressure and reduced demand by manufacturing equipment. Fourteen of our metal beverage packaging plants now have dual air systems supplying equipment with either high or low pressure air to reduce energy use and costs.

A regenerative thermal oxidizer (RTO) is a pollution control system that uses high temperature to destroy volatile organic compounds (VOC), (see the Other Air Emissions tab for more information) emitted during the can coating processes. It normally operates using natural gas. We replaced certain inefficient incineration devices with more energy efficient units in 2009. A new RTO in Weirton, W.Va., has a thermal efficiency rate of 93 percent, saving approximately 69,000 gigajoules of natural gas and 3,479 tons of CO2 per year. By installing VOC concentrators in the RTOs in our Bierne, France, and Hermsdorf, Germany, plants, we reduced annual energy consumption by 37,200 gigajoules, saving approximately 2,000 tons of CO2 emissions every year.

We also upgraded lighting to improve energy efficiency across all of our divisions. More than 80 percent of lighting in Ball’s North American packaging facilities has been upgraded. In China, we replaced more than 850 lights in three plants with energy efficient lights.

We conducted a vacuum conservation project in our Fairfield, Calif., plant in 2009 and identified two projects with a payback of less than a year that will significantly reduce our vacuum supply and demand, resulting in annual savings of approximately 4,680 gigajoules of electricity or 1,110 tons of CO2.

Case Study: Small Steps, Big Differences at Ball Aerospace

Ball Aerospace accounts for only 2 percent of Ball’s energy consumption, but continuous optimization of energy use is still a high priority for the division. Lighting and HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) are the main focus areas for reduction. More than 100 high intensity discharge light fixtures were replaced with efficient, high output fluorescent lights in 2009. Annual energy consumption will be reduced by 650 gigajoules, reducing approximately 154 tons of CO₂ emissions.

An energy analysis of the HVAC motors in clean rooms revealed significant energy losses due to belt slippage on larger motors. The V-belts on these motors were replaced with synchronous belt systems in 2009. Depending on the size of the motor, the new belts reduce energy use by up to 15 percent. The estimated reduction in electricity consumption is 620 gigajoules per year.

Awareness and Employee Involvement

The ideas and the creativity of our employees often result in process innovations that improve energy efficiency. Employees can direct their ideas to plant management or through an online suggestion board on our global internal portal. Suggestions are reviewed to determine feasibility and we follow up by sharing success stories.

Visibility and education are other important factors for energy awareness. In many Ball plants employees are working diligently to increase energy efficiency. By doing so they attract the interest of others, raise awareness and motivate them to contribute. Our facilities in North America observed Energy Awareness Month in October 2009. We provided a variety of communications on our portal and in our facilities about how to use less energy at our plants, in our offices and at home, as well as some success stories from our businesses.

Our Milwaukee, Wis., plant participated in the state’s Focus on Energy initiative and installed three large, energy efficiency projects. The plant’s projects included a heat recovery system that captures waste heat from the RTO and uses it to supply heated water to the can washing system, energy management controls for HVAC and replacement of nearly 600 light fixtures with high efficiency models. Together the projects are estimated to save 11,952 gigajoules and more than $700,000 in energy costs annually. As a result of efforts, the plant received the Governor’s Award of Excellence in Energy Efficiency.

Benchmarking and Best Practice Sharing

As a global company we benefit greatly from exchanging best practices among our sites and divisions. By learning from each other we make available consistent global efficient processes across our operations. Energy champions from our metal beverage packaging plants met in September 2009 at our Saratoga Springs, N.Y., plant. The focus of the meeting was to learn about EIS, how to optimize energy use and share individual experiences. The exchange of knowledge and team spirit are the cornerstones for the success of our energy improvements.

We utilize our internal portal to share comprehensive information on energy use and best practices for each packaging division. Efficiency opportunities by process and equipment type, assessments, goals and historical usage information are provided in detail to drive results.

Membership in programs such as U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Energy Star provides further tools and training to enhance our efforts and learn about successes in other businesses.

Comprehensive and complete data enables us to develop appropriate solutions across our operations. The new software solution for collecting sustainability metrics of every Ball plant contributes to increased transparency and better benchmarking of our plants.

Accurate accounting of greenhouse gas emissions is essential to implementing effective reduction strategies. Ball introduced a global reporting framework in 2009 that allows tracking of our energy efficiency and GHG emissions and consistent reporting to the sustainability steering committee (see the Strategic Approach, Governance tab for more information).We have participated in the EPA Climate Leaders’ program since 2002 and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) since 2006, where we disclose our GHG emissions.

In 2008, Ball Corporation committed to reducing direct and indirect GHG emissions by 16 percent by 2012, using 2002 as a baseline. This commitment originated from our membership in the Climate Leaders program. We committed to the Climate Leaders goal in 2004 for our North American operations and expanded it to a corporate goal in 2008.

The scope for the original Climate Leaders goal included the facilities where we have operational control, whereas our sustainability reporting scope includes facilities under our financial control. In addition, the calculations of CO2 intensity are slightly different between the two scopes. We use "per 1,000 units produced" normalization for sustainability reporting purposes, while Climate Leaders’ Carbon Intensity Index is based on a more complex formula. Until our Climate Leaders goal ends in 2012, we will collect GHG emissions data for both scopes, but report against the Climate Leaders scope. The Climate Leaders GHG emissions data is reviewed each year by the EPA.

Compared with the 2002 baseline, at the end of 2009 we achieved a 13 percent GHG emissions reduction. Although we are making progress, some developments in our business had a negative impact on energy efficiency. The unexpected softening of demand as a result of the global economic downturn negated some of our progress: the fewer containers we produce in a certain timeframe, the lower the energy efficiency. For example, if we halve the production on an average beverage can line, energy efficiency decreases by more than 25 percent. Also, new energy-intensive equipment was installed for environmental protection purposes and for manufacturing some new products that resulted in higher energy consumption.

Our primary effort is directed toward increasing energy efficiency, which is where we can have the greatest impact on reducing GHG emissions. However, Ball continues to explore cost-effective ways to use renewable energy. For example, we plan to install solar panels on the 34,000-square-meter roof of our La Ciotat, France, plant. The annual power output will be approximately 4,900 gigajoules, thus avoiding 120 tons of CO2 emissions per year. We expect the first power to be delivered in the first half of 2011.

Our manufacturing facilities release a variety of air emissions. Our largest impact is related to the release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These are generated by vaporization of organic solvents in can coatings and drying those coatings. In the presence of ultraviolet light and nitrogen oxides, they form ozone, sometimes called "summer smog."

We have worked to reduce VOCs since the mid-1980s by changing to water-based can coatings and installing regenerative thermal oxidizers, devices that destroy a minimum of 95 percent of captured VOCs. More than 60 percent of our beverage can plants are equipped with RTOs today.

Globally, Ball Corporation emitted 4,220 metric tons of VOCs in 2009, a 7.4 percent decrease. Per 1,000 units produced, we reduced the amount of released VOC emissions by 5 percent.

The environmental trade-off is that destroying VOCs contribute to CO2 emissions. To further reduce VOCs through alternative measures, technological progress and cooperation with our suppliers is needed.

Water

Our long-term direction is to reduce our water usage.

Ball used 5.27 million cubic meters of water in 2009, an 8.6 percent decrease from 2007. Water consumption per 1,000 units produced also decreased 5.5 percent in the same timeframe. Our goal is to further reduce water consumption by 4.8 percent per 1,000 units produced by the end of 2011.

Ball’s various North American packaging facilities have been conducting annual water surveys since 2008. Data is collected centrally and best practices are identified and shared. These plants began implementation of more than 50 water efficiency projects in 2009 that are expected to save approximately 365,000 cubic meters of water every year.

We modified our cascade washing process and are now reusing water in La Ciotat, France. We save approximately 15,000 cubic meters of municipal water per year and reduce the amount of waste water released to treatment systems. We plan to implement this measure in five more European plants in 2010, resulting in annual water savings of more than 75,000 cubic meters.

Ball Aerospace completed three projects in 2009 that eliminated single pass domestic water systems. Through the installation of closed chilled water loops and non-water cooled pumps, annual water usage was reduced by approximately 5,000 cubic meters.

Waste

Our long-term direction is to send zero waste to landfill.

Material use and waste volumes are important yardsticks used to evaluate the efficiency of our processes. Ball employs a number of strategies to minimize raw material use, such as recycling all process scrap within our facilities and making process improvements to reduce spoilage.

Waste reduction, reuse and recycling minimize disposal costs and provide environmental benefits such as resource conservation. We generate additional revenue when we recycle valuable materials such as plastic strapping. By emphasizing the importance of recycling, we are cultivating a conservation mindset.

A number of locally driven, innovative plant recycling initiatives were introduced at our facilities. For example, our manufacturing plant in Chestnut Hill, Tenn., began recycling oil absorbent materials. The materials are processed to remove the oil fluids, which then are fuel blended for reuse. After cleaning, the processed absorbent fiber is recycled. These efforts, along with a comprehensive waste sorting and educational effort, have increased the plant’s recycling rate to 85 percent and saved approximately $52,000 in annual costs.

Approximately 87 percent of the total waste generated by Ball is metal and resin manufacturing scrap which we recycle for environmental and economic benefit. We are focusing our efforts on reducing the remaining waste streams which totaled 33,483 metric tons globally in 2009. One of the main challenges for us is to report on different waste categories in a timely, reliable and consistent way throughout our global operations.

Waste classifications and disposal methods vary from country to country. For example, a certain waste might be recycled in one region, but has to be landfilled in another region. Together with our waste management contractors across the globe, we started to address this challenge and can now collect and consolidate waste data against the categories shown in the chart. We are reporting this data for our North American and European facilities for 2009. Our South American and Asian locations start reporting against these metrics in 2010.