DALLAS, TX, 16-NOV-01 -- Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control was awarded two important City of Grand Prairie environmental awards Thursday evening at the City's Cleaner & Greener Recognition event. The company was presented with a Pollution Prevention Award for Outstanding Achievement and Innovation, recognizing Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control for its outstanding efforts in recycling wood. Plant-wide, the employees of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control participate in an on-going recycling program, collecting and recycling hundreds of tons of wood, paper and other materials over the past year.

Missiles and Fire Control was also named the Adopt-A-Street Group of the Year in the Industry category. The company adopted the longest stretch of roadway among all Grand Prairie businesses participating in the program, involving a large section of West Freeway Street. Cleanups are held quarterly with a festive atmosphere; refreshments are served afterwards and a prize is awarded for the most unusual item found.

It's truly an honor to be recognized by the City of Grand Prairie for our efforts with the environmental program, said Tim Millican, manager - Environmental Safety and Health. Our employees have gone the extra mile, quite literally, to make sure we operate in an environmentally safe and efficient manner. And that's all part of being a good corporate citizen.

Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control Environmental Programs
Lockheed Martin created Process Excellence Teams, or PETeams, to bring together different departments within Lockheed Martin to identify waste minimization/pollution prevention opportunities, process improvements, cost savings, safety initiatives and regulatory drivers. A number of PETeams were formed to identify opportunities to improve the company's current programs, maintain compliance and pursue new initiatives with a focus on continuous improvement.

Weekly meetings are held where action items are identified, assignments are made and progress is tracked. The Environmental Safety and Health (ESH) PETeam has identified projects that will result in a cost savings of $191,000 to the company. In addition to cost savings, pollution prevention and waste minimization projects have been implemented resulting significant reductions in waste materials.

Examples of ESH PETeam projects that resulted in waste and/or cost reductions are discussed below:

Wood Recycling
In April of this year, recycling of wood was proposed as a PETeam action item. In May, a wood-recycling program was implemented. Wood is collected in satellite areas around the plant and consolidated in boxes. The wood is then transported to the City of Grand Prairie landfill, where the City shreds the wood and uses the mulch to help prevent erosion. Since May of this year, Missiles and Fire Control has recycled 29 tons of wood. Before implementation of the wood recycling program, this material was disposed of as solid waste, taking up valuable landfill space.

Paper and Corrugated Cardboard Recycling
ESH PETeam members conducted an in-house survey on the company's trash and paper recycling program. Missiles and Fire Control retained a new paper recycling vendor, eliminating the need for two compactors. A major communications effort in the company emphasized to employees the importance of recycling anything that tears. The amount of recycled paper and corrugated cardboard drastically increased from 157 tons for calendar year 2000 to an estimated 205 tons for 2001. Total increase in recycling of paper and corrugated cardboard is up 31 percent.

Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control recycles many other items, such as steel, aluminum, titanium, lead, fluorescent bulbs, circuit boards, toner cartridges and oil. At the current rate of recycling, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control's recycling program is on pace to reach 456 tons of recyclable materials this year, a significant increase from 347 tons of recyclable material in 2000.

Employing more than 8,500 people, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with additional base operations in Orlando, Fla., and manufacturing and assembly facilities in Sunnyvale, Calif., Chelmsford, Mass., Camden, Ark., Horizon City and Lufkin, Texas, Ocala, Fla., White Sands Missile Range, N.M., and Troy, Ala. The company is a business unit of Lockheed Martin Systems Integration in Bethesda, Md.