Koch environmental commitment

INVISTA Victoria, Texas
Ducks fly over the wetlands at INVISTA's Victoria, Texas, manufacturing site. Koch companies strive to continuously improve operations to increase efficiency and reduce emissions and other waste.

Koch companies strive to continually improve their environmental, health and safety performance. We believe excellence in these areas is required for long-term success. Koch companies’ safety and environmental achievements have earned awards and praise from industry associations, numerous regional and national environmental organizations, and local, state and federal government entities including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency during both the Clinton and Bush administrations.

You’ll find a summary of our environmental commitment below. For industry specific information, please follow the links to the right.

Our environmental commitment manifests itself in these ways:

Safe, clean facilities across Koch companies
Products that have positive environmental effects for customers
Environmental stewardship in communities where we operate
Setting the record straight on past issues

1. Efforts to operate safe, clean facilities across Koch companies.
We implement EH&S management systems and strive for superior performance and environmental protection. Many of these efforts are about achieving excellent compliance records and minimizing incidents, but there are also considerable efforts – and results – that go beyond compliance. For example:

In 2009, Flint Hills Resources' overall refinery operations criteria air emissions per barrel were 67 percent lower than the average among peer refiners (based on latest comparison data available). Since 1997, the company has reduced its average per-barrel criteria air emissions by 71 percent.
Flint Hills Resources is a recognized leader in reducing flaring at its refineries. The company earned a Clean Air award from the EPA and has completed a four-year collaborative effort with the agency to set industry best practices surrounding startups, shut-downs and malfunctions.
In 2007, the operations and maintenance team at Koch Nitrogen Company’s Fort Dodge, Iowa, plant set out to voluntarily reduce emissions, including those allowed by the state’s air permit. Improvements to the plant’s refrigeration system and temperature monitoring resulted in a 35 percent reduction in flared ammonia from 2006 levels, meaning more than 700 tons were kept from entering the environment.

2. Efforts to produce products that have positive environmental effects for customers.
Koch companies apply innovation and Principled Entrepreneurship™ to developing a variety of products, from helping industrial facilities around the world reduce emissions, recycle wastewater, and conserve resources to consumer products made from recycled content. For example:

The John Zink Company developed the next-generation of combustion burners that reduce pollutants by 90 percent. Koch Membrane Systems produces state-of-the-art reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration systems that – without use of chemicals such as chlorine, etc. – remove minerals and chemicals from industrial wastewater and help purify drinking water for communities around the world.
Georgia-Pacific’s Professional business in North America and Lotus Professional business in Europe established the Green by Design™ program to highlight their strong environmental platform and message to customers. Through Green by Design, both businesses provide specific measurements for how an extensive line of products supports the goals of reducing waste through dispensing solutions, reusing products such as wipers and using recycled fiber in the manufacturing process.
INVISTA's ANTRON® carpet fiber was the first carpet face fiber to earn Environmentally Preferable Product certification by an independent third party. It was re-certified in 2008. INVISTA’s COOLMAX® EcoMade polyester fibers and CORDURA® EcoMade fabric are both made from recycled polyester. Additionally, it’s ANTRON® Bio Legacy nylon, used in commercial carpet applications, is made with 10 percent renewable content derived from castor bean oil.
Flint Hills Resources introduced low-sulfur fuels in its Minnesota and Texas markets several years ahead of the regulatory mandates to do so.

3. Efforts to restore habitat and promote good environmental stewardship in the communities in which we operate.
Koch companies take a hands-on approach to philanthropy that furthers environmental preservation.

Enhancing the environment by leading and participating in wetlands restoration, award-winning habitat preservation projects and river cleanups from the Midwest to our nation’s capitol.
Koch companies have partnered with these environmental organizations:

        Alice Ferguson Foundation
        American Lung Association of Minnesota
        Anacostia Watershed Society
        Arkansas Environmental Federation
        Big Rivers Partnership
        Chesapeake Bay Foundation
        Clean AIR FORCE of Central Texas
        Coastal Bend Bays Foundation
        Earth Conservation Corps
        Friends of the Mississippi River
        Global Environmental Management Initiative
        Great Plains Nature Center
        Great River Greening
        International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies
        Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation
        Living Lands and Waters
        Louisiana Environmental Leadership Pollution Prevention Program
        Loyola Institute for Environmental Communication
        Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy
        National Audubon Society
        National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
        National Registry of Environmental Professionals
        Potomac Conservancy
        Southeast Environmental Task Force
        Southern Texas Sierra Club
        The Nature Conservancy
        Wildlife Habitat Council

4. Past and Present - Setting the record straight
When challenges arise, Koch companies’ approach is to move quickly to correct the situation (clean up a spill, rectify a reporting issue, etc.) and take responsibility with the appropriate regulatory authorities. Nearly a decade ago, lingering issues at Flint Hills Resources refineries and Koch Pipeline Company facilities were resolved. Overall, journalists, public officials, community members and environmental groups willing to take a balanced look at our overall record have viewed us favorably. Publicly available data confirm that Koch companies overall have managed environmental risk well over many years, and earned accolades for those achievements.

Two issues that bear further explanation:

When Koch entities and employees were charged with 97 counts in 2000, the central issue was not benzene releases. The charges addressed measurement practices and control equipment on pipes and tanks handling waste streams prior to treatment within the refinery. A Clinton-appointed federal judge oversaw the case and, as facts about the case were revealed, it was the Clinton Department of Justice attorneys who dropped the number of counts by nearly 90 percent before the 2001 inauguration of President Bush. These same prosecutors saw the case's continued disintegration -- once their evidence and witnesses were able to be challenged before the judge -- and agreed to a settlement in April 2001 that included dismissing all counts against Koch Industries and the individuals. Koch Petroleum Group pled to just one, non-pollution-related count. That count – alleging a false statement regarding reported information in 1995 – was the original issue the company self-reported to authorities when discovered. The company paid a fine and completed probation.

More than 10 years ago, Koch paid $35 million to settle pipeline releases. It's important to note, however, that the reason it was the largest fine to date (it's been eclipsed many times over by now in cases involving other companies) was that it marked the first time the government had bundled multiple incidents – stretching out over nearly 10 years in six states over multiple pipeline systems – into a single enforcement action. Since that time, Koch-operated pipelines have earned numerous state- and federal-level honors for industry-leading records for safe operations.