Shareholders | Customers | Employees | Communities

Community Service | Environmental

General Dynamics Corporation is committed to the preservation of the environment and compliance with all relevant environmental laws and regulations.  To that end, General Dynamics:

1. operates its facilities in compliance with all applicable environmental laws and regulations, and in a way that is protective of the health and safety of its employees, surrounding communities and the environment;
2. strives to be a leader in improving environmental quality, by minimizing waste and emissions reusing and recycling, reducing the use of natural resources and promoting pollution prevention efforts throughout the Company;
3. reviews its facilities and programs on a regular basis and establishes goals for continuous improvement in the environmental arena;
4. integrates environmental considerations into business planning and decisions, including in design, procurement, production, facilities management and product support;
5. promotes a workplace in which all employees are properly trained to comply with applicable environmental laws and regulations, to meet environmental program goals and to take personal responsibility for protecting the environment;
6. works
7. with its customers in ascertaining and meeting their environmental needs and goals consistent with the Company’s environmental compliance and management programs; and
8. implements a management system for environmental matters at each Subsidiary/ Business Unit that is compliant with the most current edition of ISO 14001.

*    Bath Iron Works was presented a Governor’s Award for carbon emission reductions.
*    Gulfstream won the Environmental Excellence Award from the Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce, citing achievements in emission reductions, pollution prevention and water conservation.
*    Advanced Information Systems received the Waste Reduction Awards Program (WRAP) award from the California Integrated Waste Management Board for their efforts to reduce, reuse, recycle and buy recycled.

In 2008 General Dynamics commenced an initiative to measure all our Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions.  General Dynamics contracted with a consultant recommended by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.  The project began with two business units as a pilot study, and then quickly expanded across all domestic business units once the system proved acceptable. General Dynamics now can report GHG emissions for all domestic based business units for 2007 and on.  This program will expand to our international operations incrementally, beginning in 2009.

General Dynamics business expanded from 2007 to 2008 through organic growth and five acquisitions totaling $3.2B.  Because of this growth, and the lack of GHG emissions data for 2007 for the acquired companies, the best measure of General Dynamics GHG performance is an evaluation compared to our revenues.  The chart on the next page shows that for domestic based business units, including their foreign operating sites, General Dynamics GHG emissions as a percent of sales declined by 3% from 2007 to 2008.

This reduction is a result of energy saving initiatives being implemented across General Dynamics.  For example, at NASSCO, a lighting retrofit program was implemented at the shipyard, and 5,000 fixtures were replaced with an energy reduction per fixture of 67%.  At the largest offsite warehouse facility metal halide lighting was replaced with high power fluorescent lighting in early 2008.  Together these will reduce GHG emissions by 1,150 tCO2e/yr.

General DynamicsArmament and Technical Products business unit has made significant strides to reduce energy consumption.  Over the past three years the company has reduced its total energy use by 11% compared to 2005.  This has avoided the generation of 10,000 tCO2e over this time period.

Gulfstream, a General Dynamics company, commissioned a new paint hanger in 2008 at their Savannah site.  This paint booth re-circulates 80% of the air flow, eliminating the need for a 600 ton chiller and the energy required to operate it.

We recognize that environmental stewardship is more than energy reduction.  General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems demonstrates their commitment to environmental protection through efforts like the San Tomas Aquino Adopt-a-Creek program.  Santa Clara, CA employees volunteer their time to maintain a 1.5 mile section of the creek so visitors to the adjacent recreation path can enjoy the natural scenery. A photograph of employees participating in the program is shown below.

NASSCO encourages its employees to preserve the environment outside of the company’s facilities, and is an active participant in San Diego’s annual “Operation Clean Sweep.” Along the 30-plus mile Chollas Creek watershed, NASSCO has hosted numerous cleanup events and since 2002 has removed over 18 tons of trash. In addition to the cleanup efforts, volunteers helped restore key areas along Chollas Creek by removing invasive, overgrown and non-native plants which disrupt the natural growth of native plants and weeds. Pictures of the Creek (dry much of the year) before and after a cleanup are shown below.

General Dynamics has programs in place to increase recycling of waste at our facilities.  We measure the amount of waste that is recycled at our business units, and every business unit sets annual goals to improve our performance.  The chart below shows our improvement from 2005 to 2008.  In 2008, Gulfstream Long Beach launched a “Zero Discharge-to-Landfill Program.”  All solid waste not recycled at the Long Beach facility is processed by a nearby materials-recovery facility.  All recyclable materials are separated and the remaining solid waste is sent to a permitted Waste-to-Energy plant. The program has eliminated the need to deposit solid waste in area landfills.

General Dynamics United Kingdom invested in a printer consolidation project for printers/copiers/scanners.  By setting the printer defaults to double sided it is estimated this will result in using 3,000,000 less sheets of paper across the business unit each year.  Also setting black and white printing as the default reduces cartridge use.

Another environmental metric that we monitor is hazardous waste disposed, which is displayed below.  We take steps at the business units to eliminate this waste, through recycling, alternative methods, and use of alternative materials.  Ordnance and Tactical Systems had purchased material which had a shelf life of only three months.  The smallest container size was five gallons, even though use was typically less than a gallon every three months.   Ordnance and Tactical Systems worked with the supplier, and now procures the material in one gallon containers, saving money and reducing hazardous waste.

Over the last couple years, Land Systems has installed two paint gun cleaning units and two solvent recovery units which allow for reuse of cleaning solvents that previously were disposed of as hazardous waste.  Recycling of paint cleaning solvents reduces hazardous waste disposal by 18,000 pounds per year.  A third solvent recovery unit and a container/ drum crusher were purchased in 2008 to further reduce waste generation.

Land Systems Solvent Recovery Unit	Container/ Drum Crusher

Bath Iron Works also operates a solvent recovery program.  Since 2003 Bath Iron Works has recovered over 36,000 gallons of reuseable solvent that would otherwise have been disposed of as a hazardous waste.  In addition, the distillation sludge is treated to render the material non-hazardous prior to disposal.  The chart below shows our reduction in hazardous waste from 2005 to 2008.

General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems has a contract from the U.S. Government to demilitarize old explosives and munitions.  Through this contract the government sends explosives and munitions which have exceeded their safe useful life to Ordnance and Tactical Systems, where these munitions are safely disassembled.  Ordnance and Tactical Systems has instituted a process where this work is safely conducted, and no injuries have occurred.  Ordnance and Tactical Systems has also worked to develop markets for some of the recovered materials, for instance, recovered propellant is processed into fertilizer or used as a blasting agent for commercial mining, as shown below.  Through Ordnance and Tactical Systems' efforts 95 percent of the materials are recycled.  The quantity of munitions demilitarized is shown below, as well as uses of the recycled material.

These are just some of the examples of the efforts General Dynamics has in place across the country to improve the environment locally and globally. 

Back to Top