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Companies reap benefits from pollution-free policies
By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer
The Alcoa Mount Holly aluminum plant in Goose Creek each year produces about 500 million pounds of aluminum, used in everything from cans to cars.
The plant, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, chemically processes bauxite ore to produce alumina, which is then smelted into aluminum. The process is odorless, and smoke stack emissions are less than a percentage point away from being completely pollution-free.
Alcoa Mount Holly spends about $5 million a year on air pollution control, water and wastewater management, chemical management and other environmental protection programs. In its 25-year history, the plant has received awards and recognitions from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and in 2004, it was accepted into the South Carolina Environmental Excellence Program.
Manufacturers like Alcoa and forest-products giant MeadWestvaco, which in 2004 spent about $41 million in environmental programs companywide, have shown that care for the environment is not only good public relations but sound business sense, saving bundles through energy-efficiency, waste recycling and by complying with state and federal environmental regulations.
Alcoa Mount Holly, which in 1996 became the first aluminum plant in the world to achieve an internationally recognized environmental management standard known as ISO 14001, uses air-cleaning units called scrubbers to remove fluorides and particles from the plant’s smelting emissions. Ducts collect the emissions and send them to the scrubbers. Each scrubber processes 400,000 cubic feet of air per minute before emitting the air through smoke stacks.
“The air going out is 99.98% clean,” says Randy Pulley, the plant’s environmental manager.
Fluoride and other matter removed from the emissions are returned to the smelting process because they help fuel the smelting. “Nothing is wasted,” Pulley says.
By finding ways to reuse ingredients for smelting, Alcoa reduced its landfill waste and compiled a cost savings of nearly $1 million between 1990 and 2003, Pulley says. Also, retention ponds control storm water runoff, and wastewater is sent to the Berkeley County Public Operator of Treatment Works.
Alcoa Mount Holly’s 6,200-acre site consists of 6,000 acres of forestland that the company maintains to measure the effect of the aluminum facility’s emissions on forests. Biologists conduct wildlife and vegetation studies on the site, part of which is a former rice plantation. Trees are cared for, and tree density controlled by weeding out old trees and planting new ones. Deer, wild turkeys and other animals, including the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker, are fed and safeguarded.
Maintaining the forest and keeping the 200-acre manufacturing facility clean enough for geese to roam freely over the grounds is all part of being a conscientious corporate citizen, Farmer says. He adds that the plant’s 600 employees have been well versed in environmental education and habitually recycle aluminum cans and plastics.
MeadWestvaco’s North Charleston Special Chemicals facility, which recycles waste from its neighboring paper mill on the Cooper River, is a member of the American Chemistry Council’s Responsible Care program dedicated to continual improvement of health, safety and environmental practices. The company’s Special Chemicals facilities became among the first in the world to achieve Responsible Care 14001 standards, a combination of the international environmental ISO 14001 standards and the Responsible Care program’s requirements.
“The environmental aspect is one part of sustainability,” explains Barbara McCutchan, MeadWestvaco’s Enterprise Stewardship & Sustainability director. Maintaining a safe and healthful working environment, increasing the energy efficiency of facilities and returning a profitable result to company shareholders are the other aspects.
The company’s efforts to increase its stock value through energy-efficient, healthful and environmentally safe practices have placed it among the Dow Jones Sustainability Index’s top 10% of the world’s sustainability-driven companies. Some 2,500 companies are included in the index.
In addition to achieving recognition for the sustainability practices of its facilities, MeadWestvaco has received kudos as a conservationist. The company manages 400,000 acres of forestland in coastal South Carolina, including in the Summerville area. In 2003, the South Carolina Wildlife Federation named MeadWestvaco Forest Conservationist of the Year for its Edisto River Forest Legacy Project, which protected nearly 20 miles of forestland along the Edisto River.
Dennis Quick is senior staff writer at the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@crbj.com.
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