Koch Commitment to Excellence

Koch companies have a vision for excellence and principles of operation that demand safe, environmentally responsible decisions and actions. This commitment to a superior standard is evident in how the companies operate facilities and manufacture products.

Koch companies strive to continually improve their environmental, health and safety performance. We believe excellence in these areas is required for long-term success.

Did you know …

Koch companies work to not only meet but exceed environmental requirements.

• Flint Hills Resources’ success in reducing flare time at its Texas and Minnesota refineries earned an EPA Clean Air Award in 2004. The company processes a barrel of crude oil with 67 percent fewer criteria air emissions than the average among peer refiners (based on the latest comparison data available). In fact, since 1997, the company has reduced its per-barrel criteria air emissions by 76 percent.
• In 2008, Koch Fertilizer Company’s Beatrice, Neb., plant went beyond minimum state air permit requirements: an ammonia analyzer allows better control of NOx formation and reduces emissions.
• Flint Hills Resources’ Minnesota plant reduced total air emissions year-to-year by 10 percent in 2009. Since 1997, total emissions have been reduced 60 to 70 percent.

Koch companies use resources efficiently.

• Georgia-Pacific is responsible for about 10 percent of the electricity generated from renewable woody biomass in the United States.
• INVISTA’s Spartanburg, S.C., site, which manufactures PET resins and fiber, has lowered its fuel and electricity energy index by 25 percent from 2000 to 2009.
• Through a cogeneration process, most of Georgia-Pacific’s North America pulp and paper mills use boiler steam produced during the manufacturing process to turn turbines to generate additional mill electricity – at about double the efficiency of a typical commercial utility. More than half of GP’s energy is self-generated. By making heat and power more efficiently, GP buys less electricity externally, thus saving money and reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions.
• In Sigurd, Utah, Georgia-Pacific employees developed an innovative solution to reclaim land more efficiently. The team used a “bump blast” so that the mine reclamation process resulted in optimal water retention to encourage plant and grass growth. This process saved more than $41,000 and left the landscape in good condition. The results earned GP an Innovation in Reclamation Award from the State of Utah, which will be awarded on Earth Day.

Koch companies are dedicated to continuous improvement at their facilities.

• Georgia-Pacific recently announced investments in an advanced, proprietary tissue-papermaking technology. This investment, which could total more than $500 million, will help meet consumer needs for premium qualities in tissue products – including softness and absorbency – while reducing combinations of fiber use, energy use or water use versus alternative papermaking processes.
• Koch Fertilizer, LLC has spent $3.4 million to improve environmental performance. The Fort Dodge, Iowa, plant improved its refrigeration system and temperature monitoring, reducing flared ammonia by 35 percent from 2006 levels, preventing more than 700 tons of ammonia releases. Other projects include emission reduction equipment in Beatrice, Neb., a release prevention project in Dodge City, Kan., and new technology at the fertilizer terminals to improve emission control reliability, and reduce gas consumption and flare emissions of commonly regulated substances such as NOx, SOx, CO, PM, VOC by 80-90 percent.
• Flint Hills Resources completed a $55 million LoTOx project at its Corpus Christi refinery that will reduce NOx air emissions and is part of the refinery's final compliance with its EPA decree that stipulated a specific NOx reduction project. FHR approached EPA with data showing a technology that would provide better emissions reduction, even though much more expensive than what was required for compliance. EPA agreed and the new technology was installed.
• Georgia-Pacific has recently spent $260 million to improve environmental performance. This includes $50 million for a recovery boiler at the Big Island, Va. facility, and $30 million for regenerative thermal oxidators across many wood products facilities.
• Koch Carbon, LLC has spent $10 million since 2007 to enhance environmental performance at California and Illinois facilities. This includes $5 million for dust abatement at its pet coke terminal in Pittsburg, Calif. A $1.3 million diesel-powered loader at its Chicago bulk terminal moves product more efficiently, while the engine technology produces fewer emissions. In 2008, reportable emissions were 6.5 percent less than in 2000, while production increased 10.4 percent. Nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and volatile organic materials emissions were reduced 31 percent.
• Koch Chemical Technology Group companies spent more than $2.16 million, including nearly $1 million to reduce emissions and energy and water consumption at Koch Membrane Co. facilities.

Koch companies strive to forge productive relationships with regulatory agencies, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

• Georgia-Pacific joined the Environmental Protection Agency SmartWay^SM Transport Partnership, a collaboration between EPA and the freight industry to increase energy efficiency and reduce air pollution.
• In 2004, Flint Hills Resources and EPA worked together to develop a refining protocol on refinery startup, shutdown and malfunction events. This multiyear project called for Flint Hills to share best practices with EPA, which then communicated these practices to others in the industry.

Koch companies achieve third-party environmental certification on products.

• In 2010, INVISTA was the first company to obtain Environmentally Preferable Product certification for its STAINMASTER^® and Antron^® carpet fibers under a new, expanded standard by Scientific Certification Systems. Antron^® carpet fiber has been certified as an EPP multiple times since 2002.
• Georgia-Pacific's wood fiber is procured under the certified sourcing requirements of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative^®, the only program offering certification for wood and fiber procurement operations as well as for forest landowners.

Koch companies provide products and technologies that have positive environmental effects for customers.

• The John Zink Company has 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 global communities.
• INVISTA Performance Technologies’ R2R technology is designed to recover more than 90 percent of the chemicals in the terephthalic acid residue stream, reducing by-product waste.

Koch companies are dedicated to being good corporate citizens in their communities.

• Annually, INVISTA’s Waynesboro, Va., site hosts a household hazardous waste cleanup day, providing for the proper collection and disposal of materials that cannot be thrown away, such as solvents, paints, anti-freeze and lead batteries.
• In 2009, Flint Hills Resources’ sites in Minnesota and Illinois and an INVISTA site in South Carolina were finalists for Wildlife Habitat Council awards for their contributions to wildlife habitat conservation and education.
• In February 2010, Georgia-Pacific donated 682 acres in Oregon to The Nature Conservancy.