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Baxter Healthcare Corporation - Mountain Home

Baxter Healthcare Corporation’s Mountain Home facility, part of the Renal Division of Baxter Healthcare Corporation, is nationally recognized for its environment= al achievements. Baxter Mountain= Home has been a member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Environmental Performance Track program since 2003. The Performance Track program reco= gnizes companies for their environmental stewardship and continuing commitment to reduce waste, energy and resources. The Mountain Home facility is one of an elite group of Arkansas businesses to be accepted into Performance Track. The EPA pr= ogram, which began in 2000, now has about 500 facility members nationwide.

The Mountain Home pl= ant is also included in www.GreenBizLe= aders.com, a database of businesses that have voluntarily reduced their impact on the environment. The database inc= ludes descriptions of companies that go beyond state and federal regulatory requirements to improve their environmental performance. The database is supported by the E= PA and is produced by the Green Business Network, a nonprofit company that also ru= ns www.GreenBiz.com. GreenBiz.com is a free Web site wi= th information about corporate environmental management strategies.=

The Baxter Mountain = Home facility has the distinction of being one of the world’s largest medi= cal grade plastics manufacturers. In addition to plastics, the company makes medical devices and equipment that allows end-stage renal patients to receive kidney dialysis at home.

The Mountain Home plant’s past environmental achievements include:

A 24% reduction in water use over a two-ye= ar period. This reduction w= as accomplished by the elimination of single pass cooling water, diverting water from the fire pump test back into the fire pond, and reducing the amount of makeup water needed for the fire pond.
During the same two-year period the facili= ty reduced hazardous waste15%. This reduction was accomplished by making changes in the solvent bonding process such as using smaller solvent containers in order to c= reate less waste at the end of a shift.&nbs= p;
Total energy use and associated greenhouse= gas emissions were also reduced by 10% over the same two-year period. The 10% reduction was due to = the replacement of older equipment with energy efficient models, phasing in occupancy sensors throughout the plant, removing unnecessary task lighting, inst= alling ultra-violet light to clean the coils in the HVAC units, and installing variable frequency drive for chiller plant tower fans.

Baxter Mountain Home= has made future commitments to:

Continue to reduce the plant’s total= water usage by replacing equipment and eliminating single-pass water cooling systems.
Continue to reduce non-transportation ener= gy usage through equipment upgrades.
Continue to reduce hazardous solid waste t= hrough source reduction.

The Mountain Home bu= siness employs 950 people and occupies over 600,000 square feet. The plant achieved the Occupationa= l, Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) Star status in 2001. The business is also a certified ISO 14001 facility. ISO 14001 is an internationally re= cognized standard for Environmental Management Systems (EMS).

The plant has been a recipient of the EPA Region VI Administrator’s Environmental Excellen= ce Award and the Arkansas Governor’s Quality Award. It was awarded the Utah State Univ= ersity Shingo Prize as a leader in lean manufacturing. The company has also been featured= in magazines such as Industry Week = and Fortune.

Since 1976, the Baxt= er Healthcare plant has been in partnership with area Shelter Workshops. The Shelter Workshops provide work= for handicapped individuals whose job is to separate the different types of plastics produc= ed at the Baxter facility.

The Mountain Home bu= siness helped develop recycling markets for the plastics and donates the money received from the recycling back to the Workshops. The recycling partnership has resu= lted in diverting 2.8 million pounds of plastics from being landfilled and it has provided approximately $700,000 to the Workshops. The facility currently recycles 91= % of its total waste stream.

The company sponsore= d Best Citizen Program allows employees to give a portion of their time, talent and money back to the local community. Through this program, Baxter Mountain Ho= me teams raise money for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, participate in community clean-up efforts, and provide resources for local community agencies. Volunteers and teams also support and participate in ma= ny educational programs, including local school mentoring and FIRST/STG science & robotics competitions as well. In 2007, Baxter employees dedicated ov= er 5300 hours in volunteer activities. Baxter also awards grants through t= he Baxter International Foundation, which has awarded local grants to the Moun= tain Home Christian Clinic, a local community- based free medical clinic, Sereni= ty House, a shelter for abused women and children, and Kindness, a volunteer g= roup that provides transportation and home services for the elderly and homebound. =

The information in t= his article was obtained from the EPA Performance Track Web site, www.epa.gov/performancetrack, and company representatives. = For more information contact Jason Barnes, Baxter Mountain Home’s Environmental, Health and Safety Manager, at 870-424-5528.