Measuring Impact
Owens Corning is committed to producing an annual sustainability report. This year's report covers the period from January 1 to December 31, 2010. Our previous report covered the year ending December 31, 2009. Each report is issued mid-year and can be found at www.sustainability.owenscorning.com.
Our report covers material information in three main areas of sustainability:
By emphasizing these significant areas, we hope to provide all material information that will reasonably influence our stakeholders' decisions about the company's impacts on those areas.
This report is consistent with our financial reporting, with all consolidated entities reported. This includes all of our businesses and our entire global operations, with no specific limitations within those boundaries. We do not include emissions from outsourced operations in our reporting; however, there have been no material changes to those activities that would affect comparability of results between periods.
Measurement
Our data measurement techniques include the use of supplier information on energy, water and waste-to-landfill. Greenhouse gas from energy use is calculated using generation mix data from sources such as EPA's eGRID for indirect energy emissions and standard formulas for direct emissions based on fuel use. For process greenhouse gas, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds and particulate matter, we use emission factors based on production output or raw material use that are proven through periodic testing.
We set our goals and report our environmental performance primarily on an intensity measure, which normalizes the resource use and environmental emissions to sales adjusted for price fluctuations and foreign currency changes. We use this measure to eliminate the absolute effect of increases or decreases in production output and allow us to pinpoint specific processes or products for improvement initiatives. We also report absolute results so a complete picture of our performance can be expressed.
2009 Report Adjustments
We have made adjustments and corrections to our previously reported information to ensure accuracy and transparency. Changes in this year's reported information from that reported in the last two years include: (1) additions to our data for a global technical center in Chambery, France; (2) corrections of environmental emissions factors to our baseline from the acquisition of the Saint-Gobain reinforcements and fabrics businesses; (3) removal of a divested facility in Europe.
Third-Party Validation
To date, we have not had external assurance for our report or the information included. We are currently finding ways to define and implement a control process for reporting information to support future validation.
