Think Green – Combating Climate Change

Lenovo is committed to continually reducing the global carbon footprint of all of its business activities. This commitment is demonstrated by developing Lenovo's corporate Climate Change Policy, setting aggressive corporate-wide Climate Change Objectives and Targets, and implementing a long term comprehensive Climate Change Strategy. Management of climate change activities and programs is carried out within the scope of Lenovo's global environmental management system (EMS).

Climate Change Policy

Lenovo's corporate climate change policy was signed by Yuanqing Yang, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, on August 6, 2010. This policy applies to all Lenovo's operations and activities.

Click here for more information on Lenovo's climate change policy.

Lenovo’s climate change strategy focuses on five areas of influence. Lenovo identifies and works with partners in each of these areas to drive and facilitate global, national and local greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions.

The areas of influence include:

• •  Lenovo internal operations and the direct emissions from our facilities (Scope 1 emissions),
• •  Energy suppliers and their operational emissions which are attributable to our activities (Scope 2 emissions),
• •  Our supply chain and emissions associated with the production and delivery of goods and services to Lenovo (cradle to gate – Upstream Scope 3 emissions),
• •  Our customers and the emissions associated with their procurement, use and disposal of our products (gate to grave – Downstream Scope 3 emissions),
• •  Government, NGO, and public actions in support of transition to a low carbon economy.

For more details on Lenovo's climate change strategy, please see the white paper Addressing Climate Change at Lenovo.

In accordance with the requirements of Lenovo's EMS, energy consumption, the associated GHG emissions and the resulting climate change impacts have been identified as significant environmental aspects and impacts for the company. To address these significant aspects, company-wide short and long term climate change objectives and targets (O&T) are establishedf.  Energy and emissions reductions plans to support accomplishing these O&T are maintained and updated annually. The energy and emissions project hierarchy that Lenovo uses to establish these plans favors energy efficiency first, use of renewable energy second and finally the purchase of renewable energy credits or carbon offsets.

Over 50 energy efficiency and renewable energy projects were implemented during the past three years. Purchase of renewable energy credits and carbon offsets was used to supplement this good work and ensure we met our reduction goals. To date this work was carried out exclusively by Lenovo personnel. As we continue rapid growth in infrastructure, organization and product sales meeting our long term goals becomes more challenging. To help us address this we are now evaluating external partners to help us drive continued improvement in this area.

Progress towards accomplishing our O&T is tracked on a quarterly basis and reported to senior management semiannually. 

Click here for more information on Lenovo’s climate change objectives and targets.

Lenovo began reporting its GHG emissions performance in our calendar year 2006 Corporate Environmental Report. We continue to track, report, and strive to improve our performance yearly. Detailed in the table below are emissions data from our last three fiscal years.¹ The table includes Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions for Lenovo’s global operations. 

Note 1: As part of our improvements efforts, beginning April 1, 2009 Lenovo transitioned to reporting energy and climate change performance in conjunction with our financial year (FY = Apr 1 through Mar 31). Following this change at the recommendation of our external verifier Lenovo changed its base year for GHG emissions to FY 2009/10.

In an effort to minimize Lenovo’s climate change impact and reduce its carbon footprint, Lenovo uses local manufacturing facilities in the Americas, Europe and Asia, as well as the lowest carbon shipping methods via truck, rail or sea, where possible. Lenovo is working closely with its shipping partners to ship products responsibly and, in July 2008, was certified by the US EPA SmartWay program for implementing fuel efficient shipping standards. Lighter and smaller products, more compact and reusable packaging materials, bulk shipping alternatives, and regional distribution facilities allow for lighter loads, load consolidation and full truck load shipments. During 2009, Lenovo shifted 7 percent of notebooks from air transport to ocean transport to minimize environmental impacts related to shipping. In 2012 Lenovo has implemented Pallet Pooling project which will drive wooden pallet recycle and consumption reduction.

During FY 2011/12 Lenovo started collecting product transportation emissions data and accomplished the establishment of the initial baseline for four key downstream suppliers which represent 60% of global logistics spend. We have plans for future work in this area as follows: (1) expand emissions data collection to additional key suppliers, (2) update Lenovo’s product transportation baseline accordingly, and (3) start engaging with carriers to collaboratively work on reduction targets.

Lenovo also continues to evaluate internal operations to reduce our carbon footprint by improving energy efficiency, reducing resource consumption, reducing waste and increasing recycling and reuse. Lenovo established a Global Energy Management Team to provide oversight and direction to location Energy Action Teams, which are driving energy saving activities and projects at our operations sites globally. Lenovo’s Site GHG/Energy Profile was developed for each manufacturing, research & development site, and large real estate offices. These profiles provide energy and GHG emissions information for evaluating energy usage, identifying improvement opportunities, minimizing/eliminating potential risks, identifying GHG emissions sources, improving tracking of GHG emissions, promoting better practice sharing, and creating a base for credible communication in the supply chain.

We continue to work internally to improve the energy efficiency of our operations. During FY 2011/12 Lenovo implemented 7 new energy efficiency projects in addition to the 40 plus that were implemented in the previous 2 years. These new projects will contribute approximately $100,000 in savings and reduce energy consumption by 950 MWh annually. We are now working with external partners to identify further opportunities to reduce energy use and GHG emissions. 

Some examples of implemented energy savings activities are:

• •  Installation of low energy lighting and related electrical equipment,
• •  Energy efficiency improvements to HVAC system,
• •  Eliminating or improving usage of transformers and air compressors,
• •  Manufacturing area optimization - integrating assembly lines,
• •  Reducing PC on-line testing time,
• •  Building management adjustments that turn lights/HVAC on later in morning and off earlier in the afternoon,
• •  Improving data centers energy efficiency,
• •  Consolidation of operations,
• •  Signs/training for turning lights, laptops off,
• •  Reduction in the number of company operated vehicles,
• •  Acquisition of ENERGY STAR® certification for Morrisville, NC buildings, and
• •  Summer Hours program.

Lenovo continues to minimize the use of packaging material consumption per box while driving the use of environmentally sustainable materials year by year, reduce transportation miles incurred and improve reuse of packaging and shipping materials. Actions all of which ultimately result in lower carbon emissions. Additionally it was estimated that Lenovo avoided in FY 2011/12 more than 32,000 MT CO₂e thanks to recycling end-of-life electronic products.²

Note 2: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Waste Reduction Model (WARM, February 2012)’s emission factor of 2.35 MT CO₂e per short ton was used for the estimate - http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/waste/calculators/Warm_home.html.

Lenovo manufacturing facility in Shanghai, China was recognized by local government with an award for their energy efficiency project that reduced energy consumption by 946,000 KWh and saved RMB 850,000. The project developed and implemented several energy-savings features in power distribution, assembly production lines, refrigeration & air conditioning system, lighting, and electrical production equipment.

Lenovo has committed to install local renewable energy generation sources where technically and economically feasible. Hot water solar system was implemented on some buildings in Chinese facilities and solar lamps were installed for parking lot lights in Beijing. Furthermore, Lenovo has been exploring availability and feasibility of alternative fuel use and installation of solar photovoltaic and solar hot water renewable energy sources at sites worldwide.

During FY 2011/12 Lenovo committed to install solar panel arrays at the manufacturing site in Shanghai in conjunction with Chinese government “Golden Sun” program. The project was completed on June 25th, 2012 and became operational during July, 2012. It has capacity to generate 520 MWh per year, representing between 10-15% of site's annual electricity consumption and reducing GHG emissions by more than 400 MT CO₂e yearly. This initiative demonstrates Lenovo's focus on increasing use of renewable energy as a percentage of total electricity use at Lenovo's sites.  

Lenovo is pleased to purchase renewable energy to support our emission reduction commitments where actual direct energy reductions are not technically or economically feasible. Lenovo has contracted with NextEra Energy Resources to carbon balance a portion of its electricity and steam usage by purchasing Green-e Certified Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) through the company’s innovative EarthEra program. Lenovo has initially committed to purchasing over 10 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year for 3 years, which will help avoid over 19,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. This is equivalent to greater than 15% of the carbon emissions associated with Lenovo’s total direct and indirect emissions during FY 2011/12. In addition, 100% of the proceeds from Lenovo’s purchase of RECs will be directed to the EarthEra Renewable Energy Trust and used by NextEra Energy Resources to build new renewable energy facilities in the United States.

Click here for the certificate of retired RECs: 2011 and 2012.

Lenovo also has chosen to offset a part of reported direct emissions associated with emissions from operating own vehicles and burnt fuels on-site. Therefore, Lenovo purchased 3,000 US origin wind carbon offset credits from NextEra Energy Resources' emission reduction project in Texas, USA -- Capricorn Ridge Wind Energy Center -- which will help avoid 3,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. It has been initially committed to purchase the same amount for FY 2010/11 and FY 2011/12.

Click here for the certificate of retired carbon offsets: 2011 and 2012.

For more information about the EarthEra renewable energy and carbon offset programs, visit www.earthera.com.

Lenovo has partnered with Climate Action and committed to purchase a little over 5,450 carbon offsets from a renewable energy – biomass waste to energy - project to balance the carbon emissions associated with the purchased power for the new manufacturing facility in Chengdu, China in FY 2012/13.

Click the following link for the project details and information on its economic-social and environmental benefits: biomass waste to energy.

For more information about Climate Action and its commitment to deliver clean energy to China, visit http://www.climateaction2n.com/.

Energy Efficient Products

Lenovo’s historical and continued focus on product and operations energy efficiency provides a strong product differentiator in a market and regulatory environment that increasingly values these attributes. With a development process that places a premium on energy efficiency, an already outstanding offering of energy efficient IT products and internal processes in place to drive continued improvements in operational efficiency, Lenovo is well positioned to benefit from an increasing demand for energy efficient products with smaller carbon footprints.

Energy efficiency is a targeted attribute of the Lenovo product development process. Improvements in product energy efficiency are consistently part of our key environmental objectives and targets.

Lenovo PCs come with built-in energy-efficient tools and eco-friendly features that include:

• •  Power Manager™ — helps optimize energy used by a running machine and saves up to 69 percent on energy consumption per desktop, per year.
• •  Active Thermal Management — adjusts processor and fan speeds based on ambient levels.
• •  Dynamic Brightness Control — conserves battery by lowering LCD brightness during transient states, including startup, shutdown, log off, screen lock and screensaver mode.
• •  Hybrid Graphics — allows switching between integrated and discrete graphics, helping optimize battery life and graphics performance.
• •  Active Directory and LANDesk® — supports remote deployment of power schemes and global settings to allow administrators the ability to control and enforce ThinkPad® energy savings company-wide.
• •  Cisco EnergyWise software application — allows Cisco networks to control and perform energy management and enables customers to monitor, control and report on the energy use of building equipment and IT devices using a Cisco EnergyWise enabled network.

Click here for more information about Lenovo’s energy efficient products.

Measuring Product Efficiency

Lenovo recognizes that the existence of a universally accepted method for establishing product carbon footprint (PCF) will promote targeted product energy reduction actions and allow for product differentiation. To this end, Lenovo is engaged in the development of PCF protocols and tools with external partners. The company participates as a member of the Stakeholder Advisory Group for the World Resources Institute (WRI) & World Business Council for Sustainable Development's (WBCSD) development of the Product Accounting & Reporting Standard. Our Beijing Desktop Development group participated in the road test of this Standard.

Lenovo is also engaged with other members of the information and communication technology (ICT) industry, academia and ENERGY STAR® in the development of a tool to simplify and expedite determination of the PCF for ICT products through the Product Attribute Impact Algorithm (PAIA) project. It is hoped that this work will move the industry towards a standard method for establishing PCF. Lenovo's product development groups are currently in process of evaluating PAIA notebook PCF calculation tool and engaged in development of a tool for desktops and monitors. As a PAIA project member, Lenovo is also a participant in the EU ICT footprint pilot tests. The project is assessing the compatibility of methodologies for the measurement of the energy consumption and carbon emissions arising from the lifecycle of ICT products and services. More information is available at http://www.ict-footprint.com.

Internally Lenovo continues to work on quantifying the lifetime impact of its products. The carbon footprint of Lenovo's products will help identify lifecycle areas where GHG emissions can be effectively reduced. An internal product carbon footprint calculation guidance has been developed to support quantifying the product life cycle GHG emissions of Lenovo's products. This document is written in accordance with ISO 14040 & 44 Environmental management – Life cycle assessment and consistent with Publicly Available Specification 2050, and Greenhouse Gas Protocol's Product Accounting & Reporting Standard. Each business unit must follow this guide in assessing the life cycle emissions of its products.

In FY 2011/12 Lenovo started working on the Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) China Standard Project in cooperation with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China. Lenovo has been supporting the project in the following four areas: Product Category Rule, Desktop PCF, Notebook PCF and PCF Certification. Among other concrete supporting activities Lenovo provided product carbon footprint training to more than 200 components’ suppliers and successfully performed the first facility-based GHG verification by CESI for the manufacturing site in Shenzhen.

Lenovo continues to participate with the Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition's Environmental Sustainability Working Group in the implementation of a carbon/water reporting tool for measuring and reporting the carbon emissions and water usage of our supply chain. The carbon reporting system is used to gather primary data from key Tier 1 suppliers that are identified by the Lenovo's Global Supply Chain department and Global Environmental Affairs team. Based on received 2010 suppliers’ Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions it was estimated that Lenovo’s 19 key suppliers representing almost 80 % of direct spend accounted for over 900,000 MT CO₂e allocated emissions. Lenovo plans to engage with its key suppliers on carbon emission reductions opportunities. As part of Lenovo's climate change strategy, an evaluation of potential supplier climate change performance and strategy will become a differentiator in the procurement process. Ultimately this will allow us to identify points in the chain where significant risks are created due to high level of GHG emissions. This will allow us to implement specific mitigation plans including targets relative to those high risk areas.

Lenovo meets annually with its primary suppliers and shares strategies and requirements. During our most recent annual meeting senior management communicated our commitment to sustainable operations and a sustainable supply chain to the over 1200 suppliers in attendance. Suppliers were informed that our sustainability commitment includes reducing GHG emissions in our supply chain and that they have a vital role in that effort. Our message included Lenovo’s commitment to engage with them in support of tracking and reporting their emissions data externally and to Lenovo via EICC or CDP, setting their continuous improvement GHG goals, and collaborating on future emissions reduction programs.

External Initiatives

Lenovo discloses greenhouse gas emissions and climate change strategies through the voluntary public reporting system - CDP. CDP is an independent not-for-profit organization holding the largest database of primary corporate climate change information in the world. Thousands of organizations from across the world's major economies measure and disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and climate change strategies through CDP. Lenovo began participation in 2009 and has been reporting to two CDP programs: Investor CDP and the CDP supply chain. Lenovo has been improving the disclosure as well as performance ratings year by year. Moreover Lenovo participated in developing the new ICT sector module that was added to the Investor CDP questionnaire for year 2012 and has supported development of the second version of CDP’s ICT sector module.

Lenovo's annual GHG report is publicly available at http://www.cdproject.net.

Lenovo supports the conclusions as presented by the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - “Climate Change 2007”. Lenovo concurs with the findings and agrees that specific actions are needed to stabilize atmospheric GHG levels and hold global average temperatures to acceptable increases. The actions supported by Lenovo include the capping of global emissions by 2015, a 30% reduction in emissions from developed countries by 2020 (relative to year 1990 levels), and a 50% reduction in global emissions by 2050 (relative to year 1990 levels).

Lenovo supported the World Resources Institute (WRI) & World Business Council for Sustainable Development's (WBCSD) development of Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard as an active participant in the Stakeholder Advisory Group of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative. Additionally Lenovo continues its support of development World Resources Institute & World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s GHG Protocol Product Accounting and Reporting Standard – ICT Sector Supplement.

Lenovo as a member of Coalition for Energy and Environmental Leadership in Leased Space has been using Environmental and Energy Efficiency Attributes Checklist for an evaluation process for new leased building in areas of sustainable site management, water efficiency, energy efficiency and materials & resources.

Lenovo continues its support of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), an authoritative advocate for the global environment, and has been proudly contributing to the UNEP's Plant for the Planet Billion Tree Campaign.

Please click here for the certificate of Lenovo's contribution.

Due to its strong local presence in China, Lenovo is leading its advocacy efforts in China GHG Standard, PC China Energy Efficiency Standard, China Green PC Standard, and is active in the following energy efficiency-related workgroups, associations, and initiatives:  Visual China Energy Efficiency Standard update, China Environmental Labeling Program, Energy Saving Work Association of Chinese Institute of Electronics, and China Energy Conservation Program.