August 17, 2007—Abbott, the global health care company, recently announced that it is the first Fortune 500 company to go carbon neutral with its entire US fleet of company sales vehicles. Abbott also unveiled its new Global Energy Policy and announced the installation of a large, 500-kilowatt hour solar power system to produce electricity for parts of a manufacturing plant in Southern California.
Abbott’s new Global Energy Policy includes commitments to:
- Achieve a 12 percent reduction in overall electric energy purchased by 2011;
- Achieve a 30 percent reduction in overall CO2 emissions by 2011;
- Invest in renewable energy capital projects, or energy sourcing, that produce no CO2 emissions at major manufacturing locations by 2011; and
- Eliminate 12 percent of combined fuel oil/coal consumption by switching to cleaner fuels by 2011.
Abbott’s solar power system will be used to produce electricity for parts of the company’s vascular plant in the southern part of the state. This marks the company’s first solar panel installation in the US.
To learn more about Abbott’s sustainability initiatives, visit the company’s Environment, Health, & Safety Web page.
