"We've made meaningful progress toward achieving our EHS 2015 goals," said LaRaye Osborne, Cargill corporate environment, health and safety vice president. "We are harvesting the value of our considerable investment in research, people, processes and technologies. As a result, more of our employees and contractors return home safely at the end of their work day, and we are reducing the environmental impact of our operations."
Cargill aims to achieve by 2015 zero fatalities, zero injuries at 75 percent of its more than 1,200 operating locations globally, and a Reportable Injury Frequency Rate (RIFR) – the number of injuries per 200,000 hours worked – of 2.0. Introducing new strategies contributed – in one year – to a 50 percent reduction in fatalities, a 7 percent improvement in the company's reportable injury frequency rate and 68 percent of Cargill's locations operating injury-free.
By 2015, Cargill aims to improve energy efficiency by 5 percent; improve greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity by 5 percent; increase renewable energy to 12.5 percent of its energy portfolio; and improve fresh-water efficiency by 5 percent.
In fiscal year 2011, Cargill harvested years of investment in developing the people, processes and technology to address these priorities:
* Energy efficiency improved 3.7 percent over its 2010 baseline.
* GHG intensity improved 3.8 percent over its 2010 baseline.
* Renewables accounted for 11 percent of the company's energy portfolio.
* Fresh-water efficiency improved 3.1 percent over its 2010 baseline.
Several environmental initiatives were established by Cargill that contributed to this recent progress and will play a key role in the coming year. Examples include:
• Cargill's recently announced $36 million waste-to-energy project at its High River, Alberta, beef-processing facility will increase to 80 percent the plant's ability to generate energy from byproducts (or non fossil-fuel sources) upon completion.
• Through Cargill's Behavior Based Energy Management (BBEM) system – a tool that engages employees in recognizing and eliminating energy inefficiencies – nearly 200 Cargill facilities conducted rigorous self-assessments to identify opportunities to run their plants more efficiently.
• Cargill established "Project Crowbar," with seed funds for use by its Technology Development Center to identify and deploy energy efficiency technologies that can be replicated rapidly across numerous operating plants and manufacturing technologies.
• Cargill invested in numerous new technologies at its facilities to expand its use of renewable energy, including combined heat-and-power units – which operate with improved efficiencies – at two Cargill facilities in Brazil.
This momentum is continuing for Cargill in the early months of fiscal 2012, particularly with worker safety. In the first three months of fiscal 2012, the company's RIFR was 24 percent better than the same period last year.
