ABSTRACT

The solution to environmental challenges begins with putting into motion the principle of industrial ecology. Focusing on industrial ecology principles alone will not ensure solutions for environmental problems. Those principles must be put in motion through the process known as 'enterprise integration'. The goal is to make environmental considerations a part of every strategy, design, production and product end-of-life activity. The centrepieces for achieving IBM's environmental goals are its environmentally conscious products programme (ECP) and the Asset Recovery Centre. Established in 1992, the ECP programme is a proactive and strategic approach to worldwide environmental management of products for the corporation. This new emphasis on developing products with increased environmental attributes supplemented IBM's Environmental Policy, which was issued in the early 1970s. Programme metrics continue the corporate focus on landfill-use reduction, recycled plastics usage, product energy-efficiency and development and integration of design for environment assessments in IBM's product design process.