First firms meet EPA climate targets
London, 19 January: Five US organisations have become the first members of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Climate Leaders programme to meet their voluntary greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets.

The organisations include four companies – healthcare group Baxter International, car-maker General Motors, computing giant IBM and cleaning product firm SC Johnson – plus the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), part of the Department of Energy.

Under the Climate Leaders programme – a voluntary partnership between the EPA and businesses which aims to help companies develop long-term strategies for tackling climate change – all five cut their emissions between 2000 and 2005.

The biggest reduction in GHGs in percentage terms was made by SC Johnson, which reduced its emissions per pound of product by 23%, while Baxter International cut its emissions per unit of production value by 16%.

General Motors instead based its target on overall GHG emissions from its North American facilities, which it managed to cut by 10%, while IBM cut the emissions related to its energy use by 4% worldwide and the PFC emissions from semiconductor manufacture by 10% over the five-year period. The NREL, meanwhile, cut GHG emissions from its operations by 10% per square foot.

The Climate Leaders programme has 79 members, of which 46 have GHG targets. The EPA estimates that if all these targets are met they will prevent GHG emissions equivalent to more than 8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.

The targets are set by the companies themselves, although they are required to create company-wide inventory systems to track their total emissions.