Local Projects: Billerica, MA

Our corporate headquarters (100,000 square feet), occupied since 2002, houses functions including Finance, Management Information Systems, Legal, Strategy, Executive, Quality, Corporate Communications and Global Supply Chain (into which Environment, Health Safety, Global Properties and Sustainability report). We have approximately 320 people located at the facility.

Upgrading Our Fleet

Millipore’s US corporate auto fleet is managed from this site, and we see emissions from our fleet as an important, controllable piece of our carbon footprint, though not a simple one! In 2007, we decided to change our US vehicle fleet of close to 300 vehicles to include a significant number of hybrid vehicles. After extensive analysis – considering factors including cost, functionality (e.g., size), safety, and environmental impact – we selected Toyota as our new vendor. This process illustrated that financial factors, employee satisfaction and environmental performance were not opposed but rather mutually reinforcing.

It’s important to note that there is not a hybrid vehicle that fits every need. For example, employees who are installing or demonstrating equipment at our customers’ sites need more storage room than a hybrid sedan or hybrid small SUV could offer, so we chose Toyota’s minivan (rated at 11.8l/100km or 19 mpg combined) and RAV4 (rated at 11.2l/100km or 21mpg combined) as the best alternatives for these employees.

For other employees who don’t need as much room for cargo, we are offering Toyota Prius (rated at 5.1l/100km or 46mpg combined) and Camry Hybrid (rated at 6.9l/100km or 34mpg combined) models. Employees who are eligible to receive a fleet vehicle are given the opportunity pick a hybrid, but are not required to do so. Those who do pick a hybrid, receive a $750 (Camry) or $1000 (Prius) bonus, as our way of recognizing them for making an environmentally, as well as financially, preferable choice.

How has the program gone so far? We deployed the first hybrid vehicles in our fleet in October 2007, and as of December, 2007 we have switched over 100 vehicles to Toyotas. Among employees receiving new fleet vehicles, half have voluntarily chosen Camry Hybrid or Prius Hybrid models! Our US Fleet accounts for approximately 2,000T CO2e. Out goal is to cut that number in half simply by using more efficient, more cost-effective vehicles. Our hybrid program--even after incentives to employees--is saving Millipore money and reducing our environmental impact.

In Europe, due to the price of gas and taxes on larger engines, almost all of our fleet is powered by fuel-efficient, smaller output diesel engines. Although we will look at hybrids in Europe in the future, we have determined that we do not have as much opportunity for fuel savings there.

At our New England sites we have selected PlanetTran as our preferred provider of private car and airport transport services. Using a fleet of Toyota hybrids, PlanetTran decreases annual CO2 emissions by an estimated 30 metric tons while reducing cost.

See Climate Change for more information about our range of efforts for addressing our greenhouse gas emissions.

Find out more about your car at http://www.fueleconomy.gov.
To view a video on how hybrid cars work, see http://auto.howstuffworks.com/hybrid-car.htm.

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