Essential products. Environmental stewardship.

Manufacturing and a healthy environment aren’t mutually exclusive. We believe responsible management of our environmental resources is vital to providing products and services that help people improve their lives, while using fewer resources and respecting the environment.

I’m proud to work for a company that cares deeply about using resources responsibly, and creating an environment that empowers individuals to be the best they can be.

Sheryl Corrigan, Director of Environmental, Health & Safety

SEE THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF PURPOSEFUL STEWARDSHIP AT KOCH

Five environmental stewardship priorities.

With more than 300 manufacturing sites across the United States – and about 100 more globally – we’re one of America’s largest manufacturers. Every day, across those sites, we strive to create more value, using fewer resources than the day before. We do it through constant improvement and innovation – both in the products we make and how we make them, and by managing our resources in a way that benefits our customers, employees, partners, community members and society.

Innovation

Essential to stewardship, and our long-term success, is the discovery of new technologies and methods to create more value for our customers while using fewer resources, minimizing waste and improving the environmental performance and effectiveness of our products and processes. To do this we proactively seek knowledge from the best sources — inside and outside the company — rather than being satisfied with familiar sources.

SPOTLIGHT | Recycling “Unrecyclable” Cups

As much as 99% of single-use paper cups end up in a landfill. But in 2016, Georgia-Pacific invested $36 million in new pulping technology with improved recycling capabilities. These capabilities enabled the GP team to develop a new recycling process that included hard-to-recycle, polyethylene-coated paper cups, things like coffee cups and juice boxes. Through experimental trials, the GP team determined the improved pulping process could better separate the polyethylene coating from the paper cup fiber during the recycling process – an innovation that can result in more cups being recycled and less ending up in landfills.

Energy Efficiency

Since 2015, we’ve invested more than $1.5 billion, and years of hard work and innovation, in energy efficiency projects across Koch’s U.S. facilities. Over the last five years we’ve saved enough energy to power more than 360,000 households for an entire year. Across our operations, we continually work to improve energy efficiency and develop innovative technologies, which will further reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As an active partner and leader in the industry, we were recognized as ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year in 2017 and 2021.

SPOTLIGHT | EPA ENERGY STAR® Certification

Five Koch facilities across four diverse industries have earned EPA’s ENERGY STAR® certification in just 12 months. The awards certify that the facilities performed in the top 25% for energy efficiency within their industries — refining, fertilizer, pulp and flat glass — and meet strict energy efficiency performance levels set by the EPA.

Air Quality

We continually seek new ways to reduce and improve air emissions. Koch companies have reduced EPA criteria air pollutants — among those most common to industry — by 46% from 2008-2020. And in the U.S., we reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 15% since 2014 – that’s a reduction of more than 7 million tons of CO2. Our companies are applying new technologies to monitor emissions leaks and correct and prevent them in real time. Our companies are also investing in improvements – one Georgia-Pacific facility has decreased its sulfur dioxide emissions by 94%.

SPOTLIGHT | Digital Leak Detection & Repair

Flint Hills Resources and Molex teamed up to create a network of hundreds of digital sensors, or sniffers, that constantly take measurements and feed mountains of real-time data via wireless antennas into the cloud to identify leaks. The new system has the potential to reduce emissions by as much as 70 tons, which is comparable to the annual emissions of more than 5,000 vehicles, per year.

Water

Clean, plentiful water is vital to life – for humans and the countless plant and animal species with which we share this planet. We continually explore new opportunities to reduce water consumption and improve the quantity and quality of water discharge throughout our operations.

SPOTLIGHT | Palatka Paper Mill Water Reduction

A 40% water reduction in just 10 weeks earned Georgia-Pacific’s consumer products mill in Palatka, Florida, ENERGY STAR® Top Project for 2020. The mill’s kraft papermaking team achieved these results by focusing on water reuse. The team innovated a way to capture and treat the water from their papermaking instead of releasing it. Now they recycle it back into the papermaking process – replacing the use of fresh water.

Responsible Resource Management

Stewardship encompasses the responsible management of our actions and the resources entrusted to our care in a manner that respects the rights of others. We make it a priority to ensure our resources are managed to create value for our constituencies and for Koch. From 2012 to 2019, we’ve reduced our production-related waste footprint by 53%. And in 2019, the EPA TRI National Analysis Report revealed that our reporting facilities recycled, recovered for energy or treated in 91% of their production-related waste during that year – a total of 415 million pounds. And we’re nowhere near done yet.

SPOTLIGHT | Naheola Mill Waste Reduction Initiative

Our Georgia-Pacific Naheola mill in Pennington, Alabama, has diverted nearly 88% of its waste. In 2019, the facility diverted 82,552 cubic yards of process waste – enough to fill 25 Olympic-size swimming pools – and reused it for energy and new recycled paper products.

Koch by the numbers.

Check out the data around our ongoing commitment to environmental responsibility and the strides we’ve made in increasing efficiencies and conserving resources through the years.

Data courtesy of the Environmental Protection Agency. See full TRI National Analysis.

An estimated 99% of single-use paper cups end up in landfills. One Koch company set out to change that – by innovating a breakthrough to recycle plastic-coated cups that were previously unrecyclable.

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Energy transformation.

Koch companies are reducing greenhouse gas by replacing coal-fired boilers with natural gas boilers. For example, our Georgia-Pacific Broadway Mill in Green Bay, Wisconsin, decreased its sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions by 94% between 2007 and 2017. Overall, GP’s facilities drove a 59% decrease in SO2 over the same period. Additionally, new biomass systems, such as the one installed at GP’s pulp and paper mill in Alabama, process paper-making byproducts (tree bark, sawdust and other organic material) as energy sources. Fifty-five percent of GP’s energy needs come from renewable biomass sources, making biomass their largest source of energy. Read Story

Drawing of hands holding a growing plant

Replenishing forests.

Koch company Georgia-Pacific works with others in the forestry and environmental community to support wildlife and forest enhancement projects in communities near our operations. Efforts include protecting endangered species, restoring forest ecosystems and promoting wildlife diversity. GP is committed to a 1:1 philosophy — for every one tree used, at least one tree is regrown in the United States. We’ve planted well over one million trees through direct investments in conservation projects, as well as more than 400,000 trees on properties surrounding GP facilities.
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Smarter transport.

We’re using smart software in logistics to improve environmental performance. The smart software efficiently plans routes and minimizes the miles spent driving with an empty trailer, thereby reducing carbon dioxide emissions from daily operations. In one year, this helped cut the fuel consumption of trucks across multiple facilities by 615,000 gallons of fuel, saving nearly 6,250 metric tons of annual CO2 emissions. These improvements earned the EPA’s SmartWay® Excellence Award in 2019 and 2020 for improving energy efficiency and supply chain environmental performance. Read Story

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Honors

Koch has a long history of mutually beneficial collaborations with the EPA - from awards and recognition, to programs aimed at enhancing safety and reducing emissions at operating facilities.

Koch Industries earned the EPA’s 2021 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Award for best-in-class energy management practices and achieving energy efficiency certifications in multiple industries.

In 2017, Koch Industries earned ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year for advancing energy management and actively participating in ENERGY STAR’s industrial network.

A 40% water reduction in just 10 weeks earned Georgia-Pacific’s consumer products mill in Palatka, Florida, ENERGY STAR Top Project for 2020.

Georgia-Pacific’s Naheola paper mill in Alabama was chosen by the ENERGY STAR Industrial Partners as a Top Project for 2019 for plant upgrades that reduce emissions.

Five Georgia-Pacific paper mills have reached the ENERGY STAR Challenge for Industry goal of improving energy efficiency by 10% within five years.

Flint Hills Resources' Pine Bend Refinery in Rosemount, Minnesota, achieved ENERGY STAR certification in 2019 and 2020. It is one of the nation’s most efficient refineries.

Koch Fertilizer’s Enid, Oklahoma, facility, one of the largest in North America, achieved ENERGY STAR certification in 2020 for its energy efficiency performance.

Koch Fertilizer’s Beatrice, Nebraska, facility was one of the first two fertilizer plants nationwide to achieve ENERGY STAR certification when it became available in 2019, and again in 2020.

In 2020, Georgia-Pacific's Leaf River cellulose mill in New Augusta, Mississippi, became the first U.S. pulp mill ever to earn ENERGY STAR certification.

Guardian Industries' flat glass manufacturing plant in DeWitt, Iowa, earned 2020 ENERGY STAR certification for being in the top 25% of its peers for energy efficiency.

Wildlife Habitat Council Certification.

Sixteen Koch sites comprising nearly 1,700 acres have earned Wildlife Habitat Council Certification for commitment to habitat conservation and environmental education. Most recently, our headquarters in Wichita, Kansas, earned Silver Certification for conservation efforts undertaken at the campus.

Building homes for wood ducks, planting pollinator plots for migrating monarch butterflies, capturing rainwater for irrigation and composting cafeteria waste for landscaping are a few of the environmental stewardship activities that earned Koch headquarters in Wichita, Kansas, its Wildlife Habitat Council certification.

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For two decades, employees at our Flint Hills Resources Pine Bend Refinery in Minnesota have worked with environmental groups to support the restoration of approximately 200 acres to more natural prairie, forest and savanna. Over the last decade, 113 different species have been spotted there, including the rare rusty-patched bumblebee. Our refineries in both Minnesota and Texas are Wildlife Habitat Council Certified.

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Environmental stewardship news.

Every day, our people are working to deliver better products and services using fewer resources. Here are some of their stories.

KBX Logistics and Georgia-Pacific Receive U.S. EPA 2021 SmartWay Excellence Awards, Building on Historic Recognition for Environmental Performance

WICHITA, Kan., Oct. 27, 2021 -- KBX Logistics (a subsidiary of KBX) and Georgia-Pacific – a...

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Feature

Improving Our Workflow: Georgia-Pacific Mill Reduces Water Use by 40% in 10 Weeks

The processes for making paper have evolved over hundreds of years, but one ingredient has stayed the same: water. Th...

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Feature

A Source for Good: Recycling is Just the Start for a Paper Mill and Its Community

“This is the heartbeat of a 50-mile area,” Shawn Williams says from a corner of Georgia-Pacific’s N...

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Essential products. Environmental stewardship.