Cummins Achieves Significant Environmental Benefits Through 2020 Sustainability Goals

Cummins Inc.’s 2020 environmental sustainability goals led to significant reductions in water and energy use, waste production, as well as critical savings in the carbon dioxide produced by Cummins’ products in use.

The findings included in the global power leader’s 2020 Sustainability Progress Report released recently demonstrate that setting challenging goals, sharing them publicly and reporting on the company’s progress can drive environmental benefits including reductions in heat-trapping greenhouse gases (GHGs).

Even when the company fell short of a goal, it made significant progress. For example, while Cummins didn’t achieve its goal of a companywide 95% recycling rate, it nevertheless reached a record rate of 93%. Cummins didn’t achieve its goal of a 32% reduction in energy intensity (energy use adjusted by hours worked), although the company ended 2020 with a 27% reduction and achieved a 31% reduction in 2019.

“I remember when we created the 2020 plan, expanding into a wide range of public goals across greenhouse gases, water and waste,” said Brian Mormino, Executive Director of Technical & Environmental Systems at Cummins. “It is amazing to now reflect on how we used our data and experience – combined with our passion and commitment – to produce really powerful results.”

Other achievements from the goals, announced in 2014, included:

• The company ended 2020 exceeding its goal of a 50% reduction in water use intensity (water use adjusted by hours worked), reaching a 53% reduction in 2020 compared to a baseline year of 2010.

• Cummins exceeded its goal of 30 sites achieving the company’s Zero Disposal standard as well as its goal of 15 sites achieving Cummins’ Water Neutrality standard. Thirty-five sites were certified as reaching the company’s Zero Disposal standard in 2020 and 16 sites reached Cummins’ Water Neutrality standard.

•  The company exceeded it’s 2020 goal of partnering with customers to achieve an annual run-rate reduction of 3.5 million metric tons (MMT) of carbon dioxide (CO2) for a third consecutive year, reaching a 4.9 MMT reduction in 2020.

• Cummins expanded the number of company sites with solar arrays to 45 in 2020 and continued to offset nearly all of the electricity used by its Indiana facilities by supporting the expansion of an Indiana wind farm through a virtual power purchase agreement.

The company is now turning its attention to Cummins’ 2030 goals, aligned to the Paris Agreement on climate change. The goals are part of the company’s PLANET 2050 environmental strategy.