Environment

Climate Change & Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The management of climate change risks and opportunities across Belden’s operations and supply chain is a top priority. We strive to mitigate negative contributions to climate change. This includes reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with our operations, managing climate change risks to our business, and designing our products and services to support a low carbon economy. We have committed to these goals internally and as a direct partner with some of our customers.

Belden measures energy use and Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions at all Belden locations with a footprint of over 15,000 ft2 or greater, which includes manufacturing sites, distribution facilities, and large offices.

Goal: By 2030, reduce global scope 1 and scope 2 total combined emissions by 70% (FY19 baseline).

Goal: Publish an inventory of Belden’s Scope 3 GHG emissions across our supply chain, to better guide our Scope 3 reduction strategy in the future.

Scope 1 & 2 Greenhouse Gas Emissions at Belden

Energy Use & Management

 At Belden, we seek to improve energy efficiency across our businesses and to increase our local use of green energy. Both of these efforts directly help progress us towards our GHG emissions reduction goal.

We’ve already improved our energy use efficiency with the installation of LED lighting, motion-controlled lighting systems, and low-energy consumption air compressors at many of our locations; we continue to look for more energy conservation projects at our sites across the globe. We have also invested in green energy projects. We have installed solar panels at our Suzhou, China, and Pune, India plants, and are evaluating the possibility of installing more at other facilities. We have also entered into Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) at our Nogales, Mexico and Suzhou, China locations, two of our largest facilities in the world.

Goal: Increase total global electricity use efficiency from 2019 levels at manufacturing and distribution locations.

Electricity Usage at Belden

Environmental Management

At Belden, we seek to minimize our direct environmental impacts by reducing our amount of generated waste and requiring recycling and reusing the waste we do generate whenever possible. Additionally, we encourage water conservation at our locations. 

Hazardous Waste

Belden Corporate EHS standards mandate proper handling and storage of hazardous waste prior to recycling, reuse, or disposal. Hazardous waste management is audited on a regular basis at Belden manufacturing and distribution locations.

We encourage minimization of hazardous waste generation at the source and recycling or reuse of any generated hazardous waste. Over time, we've moved from solvent-based printing to laser printing at cable manufacturing sites significantly reducing generation of solvent-based hazardous wastes. Our remaining solvent based waste is used for energy generation off-site or is recycled.

Recycling

Several waste streams including scrap metals, wire and cable, plastics, cardboard, and paper have recycling systems established at Belden facilities with the intent of avoiding landfill disposal. Data and information on our recycling efforts is collected for our manufacturing and distribution sites and reviewed annually.

Goal: By 2025, achieve at least 90% of waste by weight diverted from landfill for manufacturing and distribution locations.

Water Use

Belden manages water use at its facilities to reduce environmental impacts and cost, including reusing process water when possible. Our corporate standards encourage water conservation practices, which we review as part of our corporate audit program. Water use is an enterprise-wide metric we track to measure our progress.

EHS Management Systems

Our global Corporate Environmental Health and Safety Management System (EHSMS), implemented globally in 2009, is based on the ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 international standards. The Belden EHSMS provides a structure for implementing proactive and sustainable business practices to drive continuous improvement while meeting our environmental, health, and safety management objectives.

Additionally, multiple global locations are third-party certified to the ISO 14001, ISO 45001, and ISO 50001 standards. Current certificates are available upon request.

Waste Recycled at Belden

Water Usage at Belden

Raw Materials

We define this topic as the management and transparency of raw materials used in production and the impacts associated with sourcing and extraction. We source raw materials sustainably and ethically across Belden’s global supply chain.

Belden is committed to sourcing raw materials sustainably across our global supply chain and production platforms, with full transparency and in accordance with established ISO standards. Our R&D team has established a singular worldwide standard for environmentally preferable materials used in the production and packaging of our products. We work with our suppliers to encourage their compliance to these standards.

Our procurement and supply chain teams share Belden’s sustainability goals with our global suppliers and encourage them to support Belden’s environmental management program. Our strategic suppliers and logistical partners are actively focused on ISO 14001 reporting and carbon footprint reduction, which leads to a more sustainable and ethical supply chain.

Belden is committed to designing products that have minimal contaminants and that comply with all environmental laws in the markets where we sell our products, including all applicable international product environmental regulations. We work with customers and suppliers to ensure compliance with these requirements including LEED, RoHS, China RoHS and REACH.

For a full list of all relevant certificates and declarations, please contact Belden Customer Service.