Honeywell is a major
conglomerate company that produces a variety of
consumer productA consumer product is generally any tangible personal property for sale and that is used for personal, family, or household for non-business purposes.The determination whether a good is a consumer product requires a factual finding, on a case-by-case basis....
s,
engineeringEngineering is the discipline, art and profession of acquiring and applying technical, scientific and mathematical knowledge to design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and processes that safely realize a desired objective or inventions.The American Engineers' Council...
services, and
aerospaceAerospace comprises the atmosphere of Earth and surrounding space. Typically the term is used to refer to the industry that researches, designs, manufactures, operates, and maintains vehicles moving through air and space...
systems for a wide variety of customers, from private consumers to major
corporationA corporation is a legal entity separate from the shareholders and employees. In British tradition it is the term designating a body corporate, where it can be either a corporation sole or a corporation aggregate...
s and
governmentA government is the body within a community, political entity or organization which has the authority to make and enforce rules, laws and regulations.....
s.
Honeywell is a
Fortune 500The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...
company with a workforce of approximately 128,000, of which approximately 58,000 are employed in the United States. The company is headquartered in
Morristown, New JerseyMorristown is a town in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the town population was 18,544. Its estimated population in 2004 was 18,842. It is the county seat of Morris County...
. Its current
chief executive officerA chief executive officer or chief executive is one of the highest-ranking corporate officers or administrators in charge of total management...
is
David M. CoteDavid M. Cote is chairman and CEO of Honeywell. He was first elected president, CEO and a member of the Board of Honeywell in February 2002, and became chairman of the Board of Directors on July 1 2002...
. The company and its corporate predecessors was part of the
Dow Jones Industrial AverageThe Dow Jones Industrial Average also referred to as the Industrial Average, the Dow Jones, the Dow 30, or simply as the Dow; is one of several stock market indices, created by Wall Street Journal editor and Dow Jones & Company co-founder Charles Dow...
Index from December 7, 1925 until February 9, 2008.
Honeywell has many brands that consumers may recognize. Some of the most recognizable products are its line of home thermostats (particularly the iconic round type), Garrett turbochargers, and automotive products sold under the names of
PrestonePrestone is a brand of antifreeze marketed by Honeywell. Until 1994 it was made by First Brands, which is now The Clorox Company.Several varieties of antifreeze are sold under the Prestone name, in addition to radiator additives, such as stop leaks...
, Fram, and Autolite.
History
Honeywell came into being through the invention of the
damper flapper, a
thermostatA thermostat is a device for regulating the temperature of a system so that the system's temperature is maintained near a desired setpoint temperature. The name is derived from the Greek words thermos "hot" and statos "a standing"...
for coal furnaces, by
Albert ButzAlbert Butz Swiss born inventor and businessman who immigrated to the United States in the 1850s and founded the Butz Thermo-electric Regulator Company that, through a series of re-organizations, name changes, and mergers, became Honeywell, Incorporated.-Early life:In 1857, at 8 years of age, he...
, in 1885 and subsequent innovations in
electric motorAn electric motor uses electrical energy to produce mechanical energy, usually through the interaction of magnetic fields and current-carrying conductors. The reverse process, producing electrical energy from mechanical energy, is accomplished by a generator or dynamo. Traction motors used on...
s and
process controlProcess control is a statistics and engineering discipline that deals with architectures, mechanisms, and algorithms for controlling the output of a specific process. See also control theory....
by
Minneapolis Heat Regulator Company tracing back to 1886. In 1906,
Mark C. HoneywellMark Charles Honeywell was a U.S. electronics industrialist. He founded the eponymous Honeywell, Incorporated and was its first president and CEO .-Early years and marriage:...
founded Honeywell Heating Specialty Co., Inc. in
WabashWabash is a city in Noble Township, Wabash County, Indiana, United States. The population was 11,342 at the 2006 census. The city is the county seat of Wabash County....
,
IndianaIndiana is a U.S. state, the 19
th admitted to the Union. It is located in the Great Lakes region, and with approximately 6.3 million residents, is ranked 16
th in population and 17
th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38
th in land area, and is the...
. Honeywell's company merged with Minneapolis Heat Regulator Company in 1927. The merged company was called the
Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Company. Honeywell was its first president, W.R. Sweatt its first chairman.
Sweatt leadership legacy
W.R. Sweatt and his son Harold provided 75 years of uninterrupted leadership for the company. W.R. Sweatt survived rough spots and turned an innovative idea – thermostatic heating control – into a thriving business. Harold, who took over in 1934, led Honeywell through a period of growth and global expansion that set the stage for Honeywell to become a global technology leader.
For more than thirty years the company annually presented the "H.W. Sweatt Engineer-Scientist Award" to individuals in recognition of their outstanding technical ability and contribution to technical accomplishment of significance for the company and their profession. The award program was canceled after the AlliedSignal and Honeywell merger in 1999.
James H. Binger
James H. BingerJames Henry Binger was a lawyer who became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Honeywell.A well known philanthropist, horse enthusiast and New York and Minneapolis theatre entrepreneur-Career:...
joined Honeywell in 1943, and became its president in 1961 and its chairman in 1965. On becoming Chairman of Honeywell, Binger revamped the company sales approach, placing emphasis on profits rather than on volume. He also stepped up the company's international expansion – it had six plants producing 12% of the companies revenue. He also officially changed the company's corporate name from
Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Co. to Honeywell.
From the 1950s until the mid-1970s, Honeywell was the United States importer of
Pentaxwas a Japanese optics company, producing cameras, sport optics , etc. The company was merged with and into Hoya Corporation on March 31, 2008...
cameras and photographic equipment. These products were labeled in the U.S.
Honeywell Pentax. Under Binger's stewardship from 1961 to 1978 he expanded the company into such fields as defense, aerospace, computers and cameras.
Computing
Honeywell originally entered the computer business via a joint venture with
RaytheonRaytheon Company is a major American defense contractor and industrial corporation with core manufacturing concentrations in defense systems and defense and commercial electronics. It was previously involved in corporate and special-mission aircraft until early 2007...
called Datamatic Corp., but soon bought out Raytheon's share and the business became a Honeywell division. It also purchased minicomputer pioneer Computer Control Corporation, renaming it as Honeywell's Computer Control Division. Through most of the 1960s, Honeywell was one of the "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" of computing. IBM was "Snow White," while the dwarfs were the seven significantly smaller computer companies. Later, when their number had been reduced to five, they were known as "The Bunch", after their initials:
BurroughsThe Burroughs Corporation was a major American manufacturer of business equipment. The company was founded in 1886 as the American Arithmometer Company and was assimilated in the 1986 merger that resulted in the creation of Unisys. During its history the company's history paralled many of the...
,
UNIVACUNIVAC is the name of a business unit and division of the Remington Rand company formed by the 1950 purchase of the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, founded four years earlier by ENIAC inventors J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly and the associated line of computers which continues to this day...
,
NCRNCR can refer to several topics:* nCr as an abbreviation of the mathematics formula "from n choose r"* NCR Corporation, a technology company specializing in solutions for businesses...
,
Control Data CorporationControl Data Corporation was a supercomputer firm. For most of the 1960s, it built the fastest computers in the world by far, only losing that crown in the 1970s after Seymour Cray left the company to found Cray Research, Inc....
, and Honeywell.
In 1970, Honeywell bought General Electric's computer division. The company was reorganized into two operating units one of which was Honeywell Information Systems, headed by President Clarence (Clancy) Spangle.
In 1991 Honeywell's computer division was sold to
Groupe BullGroupe Bull is a French-owned computer company headquartered in Les Clayes-sous-Bois, outside Paris. The company has also been known at various times as Bull General Electric, Honeywell Bull, CII Honeywell Bull, and Bull HN. Bull was founded in 1931, as H.W...
.
Defense Interests
Honeywell entered the defense industry in World War II, at first producing aerospace elements. During and after the
Vietnam EraVietnam Era is a term used by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs to classify veterans of the Vietnam War. The Vietnam Era is considered to have begun in 1964 and ended in 1975. The U.S. Congress, U.S...
, Honeywell's defense division produced a number of products, including cluster bombs,
missile guidanceMissile guidance refers to a variety of methods of guiding a missile or a guided bomb to its intended target. The missile's target accuracy is a critical factor for its effectiveness...
systems,
napalmNapalm is the thickener used to coagulate gasoline into a gelatine for military uses. Developed by Harvard chemists, headed by Louis Fieser, the thickener’s name, napalm, derives from the first letters of the names of the thickeners, coprecipitated aluminium salts of naphthenic and palmitic acids...
and land mines. The
Honeywell projectThe Honeywell Project was a peace group based in Minneapolis, Minnesota that existed from the late 1960s until about 1990. During its existence the organization waged a campaign to convince the board and executives of the Honeywell Corporation to convert their weapons manufacturing business to...
, founded in 1968, organized protests against the company to persuade it to abandon weapons production.
In 1990, Honeywell's defense division was spun off into
Alliant TechsystemsAlliant Techsystems Inc., most commonly known by its ' ticker symbol, is one of the largest aerospace and defense companies in America with approximately 17,000 employees and operations in 21 states. The company headquarters is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota.-Background:ATK was formed in 1990...
. Honeywell continues to supply aerospace products including electronic guidance systems, cockpit instrumentation, lighting, and primary propulsion and secondary power turbine engines.
In 1996, Honeywell acquired
DuracraftDuracraft is a Southboro, Massachusetts-based company that makes home appliances, such as fans, humidifiers and air conditioners. The company was founded in the late 1980s by Tim Chen and Bernard Chiu, who served as President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman. Some Duracraft products are sold...
and began marketing its products in the home comfort sector. Today,
Kaz IncorporatedKaz Incorporated is a manufacturer of small home appliances including air cleaners, humidifiers, fans, blood pressure monitors, heating pads, lawn & garden, and healthcare products....
owns both Duracraft and Honeywell's home comfort lines.
Specialty Materials
Honeywell’s Specialty Materials business can trace its heritage to a small
sulfuric acidSulfuric acid, , is a strong mineral acid. It is soluble in water at all concentrations. Sulfuric acid has many applications, and is one of the top products of the chemical industry. World production in 2001 was 165 million tonnes, with an approximate value of US$8 billion...
company started by chemist
William H. NicholsWilliam Henry Nichols was a famous chemist and businessman who was instrumental in building the chemical supply business in the U.S. The specialty materials business of Honeywell traces its roots back a small sulfuric acid company he started in 1870. Nichols was one of the original founders of the...
in 1870. By the end of the 19th century, Nichols had formed several companies and was recognized as a force in America’s fledgling chemical industry. Nichols’s vision of a bigger, better chemical company took off when he teamed up with investor
Eugene MeyerEugene Isaac Meyer was an American financier, public official, publisher of the Washington Post newspaper. He served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1930 to 1933. He was the father of publisher Katharine Graham.-Biography:Born in Los Angeles, California, he was the son of Marc Eugene Meyer...
in 1920. Nichols and Meyer combined five smaller chemical companies to create the Allied Chemical & Dye Company, which later became Allied Chemical Corp., and eventually became part of
AlliedSignalAlliedSignal was an aerospace, automotive and engineering company that acquired and merged with Honeywell for $15 billion in 1999, after which the new group adopted the Honeywell name.AlliedSignal was created through a 1985 merger of Allied Corp...
, the forerunner of Honeywell’s Specialty Materials business. Meyer went on to serve in the
CoolidgeJohn Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state. His actions during the Boston Police Strike of 1919 thrust him into the...
,
HooverHerbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted government intervention under the rubric "economic...
and Truman administrations and to buy the
Washington Post newspaper in 1933. Both he and Nichols have buildings named after them in Honeywell’s headquarters in Morristown, N.J. Andreas Kramvis is the current President and CEO of the Specialty Materials division.
GE-Honeywell merger attempt
General ElectricThe General Electric Company, or GE , is a multinational American technology and services conglomerate incorporated in the State of New York. In 2009, Forbes ranked GE as the world's largest company...
announced in 2000 it would attempt to acquire Honeywell; at the time, Honeywell was valued at over $21 billion. The merger was cleared by American authorities but was blocked by the
European CommissionThe European Commission acts as an executive of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union.The Commission operates in the method of cabinet government, with 27...
's competition commissioner,
Mario MontiMario Monti is an Italian economist and politician.-Biography:Mario Monti was born in Varese, Lombardy. He is married with two children. He holds a degree in economics and management from Bocconi University, Milan...
, on July 3, 2001. This decision was taken on the grounds that GE's dominance of the small jet engine market (led by the
General Electric CF34The General Electric TF34 is a military turbofan engine used on the A-10 Thunderbolt II and S-3 Viking. Developed by GE Aircraft Engines during the late 1960s, the original engine comprises a single stage fan, driven by a 4-stage low pressure turbine, supercharging a 14-stage high pressure ...
turbofanA turbofan is a type of aircraft gas turbine engine that provides propulsion using a combination of a ducted fan and a jet exhaust nozzle. Part of the airstream from the ducted fan passes through the core, providing oxygen to burn fuel to create power. However, the rest of the air flow bypasses...
engine), leasing services (
GECASGECAS is a unit of GE Commercial Finance, itself part of the large conglomerate General Electric. The president of GECAS is Norman Liu. GECAS is responsible for the leasing of aircraft and associated equipment to airlines...
), and Honeywell's portfolio of regional jet engines and
avionicsAvionics means "aviation electronics". It comprises electronic systems for use on aircraft, artificial satellites and spacecraft, comprising communications, navigation and the display and management of multiple systems...
, the new company would be able to "bundle" products and stifle competition through the creation of a
horizontal monopolyIn microeconomics and strategic management, the term horizontal integration describes a type of ownership and control. It is a strategy used by a business or corporation that seeks to sell a type of product in numerous markets...
. US regulators disagreed, finding that the merger would improve competition and reduce prices; United States Assistant Attorney General
Charles JamesCharles James may refer to:* Charles James , former U.S. assistant attorney general* Charles James * Charles Pinckney James , U.S. federal judge* Charles Holloway James, architect...
called the EU's decision "antithetical to the goals of antitrust law enforcement."
In 2007, General Electric acquired
Smiths AerospaceGE Aviation Systems is the largest European based aerospace equipment company with its businesses and sales revenues split between Europe and North America....
, which had a similar product portfolio.
Today
The current "Honeywell International Inc." is the product of a merger between
AlliedSignalAlliedSignal was an aerospace, automotive and engineering company that acquired and merged with Honeywell for $15 billion in 1999, after which the new group adopted the Honeywell name.AlliedSignal was created through a 1985 merger of Allied Corp...
and Honeywell Inc. in 1999. Although AlliedSignal was twice the size of Honeywell, the combined company chose the name "Honeywell" because of its superior brand recognition. However, the corporate headquarters were consolidated to AlliedSignal's headquarters in
Morristown, New JerseyMorristown is a town in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the town population was 18,544. Its estimated population in 2004 was 18,842. It is the county seat of Morris County...
rather than Honeywell's former headquarters in
Minneapolis, MinnesotaMinneapolis is the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Hennepin County. The city lies on both banks of the Mississippi River, just north of the river's confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Saint Paul, the state's capital. Known as the Twin Cities,...
. When Honeywell closed its corporate headquarters in Minneapolis, over one thousand employees lost their jobs. A few moved to Morristown or other company locations, but the majority were forced to find new jobs or retire. Soon after the merger, the company's stock fell significantly, and the stock value only regained the pre-merger level in 2007.
In 2002 Knorr-Bremse took over from Honeywell International Inc USA its share of joint ventures in Europe, Brazil and the USA. Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems became a subsidiary of Knorr-Bremse AG. Although declining in influence, Honeywell maintains a presence in emerging industries, such as Northern
AlbertaAlberta is one of Canada's prairie provinces. It became a province on September 1, 1905.Alberta is located in western Canada, bounded by the provinces of British Columbia to the west and Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Territories to the north, and the U.S. state of Montana to the south....
's Oilsands. Honeywell's Plant integrator is currently deployed in some of the most important plant-sites in the Oilsands (i.e
SyncrudeSyncrude Canada Ltd. is the world's largest producer of synthetic crude oil from oil sands and the largest single source producer in Canada. It is located just outside Fort McMurray in the Athabasca Oil Sands, and supplies about 13% of Canada's oil requirements, with a production capacity of...
, Suncor and others).
In December 2004, Honeywell made a £1.2bn ($2.3bn) bid for
Novar plcNovar plc was an international group based in the United Kingdom with core activities in Security Systems, Aluminium Extrusion and Cheque Printing. It was bought by Honeywell in 2005, and its activities merged...
. The acquisition was finalized on 31 March 2005.
In October 2008, Honeywell Ltd. was named one of "
Canada's Top 100 EmployersCanada's Top 100 Employers is an annual competition that recognizes the best places in Canada to work. First held in 1999, the project aims to single out the employers that lead their industries in offering exceptional working conditions and progressive human resources policies...
" by Mediacorp Canada Inc., and was featured in
Maclean'sMaclean's is a Canadian weekly news magazine, reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events.}-History:...
newsmagazine. Later that month, Honeywell was also named one of
Greater Toronto's Top EmployersGreater Toronto's Top Employers is an annual competition that recognizes the best places to work in the Greater Toronto Area. Published annually since October 2006, the designation singles out the employers in greater Toronto that lead their industries in creating forward-thinking workplaces with...
, which was announced by the
Toronto StarThe Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, though its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...
newspaper.
Six Sigma Plus
Honeywell International is known for its aggressive implementation and daily practice of
six sigmaSix Sigma is a business management strategy originally developed by Motorola. it enjoys widespread application in many sectors of industry, although its application is not without controversy....
and
lean manufacturingLean manufacturing or lean production, which is often known simply as "Lean", is a production practice that considers the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination...
methodologies commonly referred to as
Six Sigma Plus.
Six Sigma Plus is focused on reducing errors/failures, improving cycle time, and reducing costs. Recently, Honeywell announced the implementation of a corporate philosophy known as the Honeywell Operating System (HOS), which incorporates practices similar to the
Toyota Production SystemThe Toyota Production System is an integrated socio-technical system, developed by Toyota, that comprises its management philosophy and practices. The TPS organizes manufacturing and logistics for the automobile manufacturer, including interaction with suppliers and customers...
.
Honeywell Technology Solutions
Honeywell Technology Solutions (HTS) is a research lab within Honeywell dedicated to innovative product research. This particular entity is headquartered in Bangalore (India) with an employee strength of over 5000. Most of the flight management systems are made and tested at these labs.
HTS offers technological and R&D services to the various business units of Honeywell International, mainly Aerospace, Automation and Control Solutions (ACS), Speciality Materials and Transportation Systems.
recently the company started producing car accessories also such as radiators.
Corporate governance
Current members of the
board of directorsA board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. The body sometimes has a different name, such as board of trustees, board of governors, board of managers, or executive board...
of Honeywell are:
Gordon BethuneGordon M. Bethune is a retired US airline executive. He was the CEO of Continental Airlines from 1994 until his retirement at the end of 2004. He currently serves on the boards of Honeywell, Sprint Nextel, Prudential Financial, and Willis Group Holdings....
, Jaime Chico Pardo,
David CoteDavid M. Cote is chairman and CEO of Honeywell. He was first elected president, CEO and a member of the Board of Honeywell in February 2002, and became chairman of the Board of Directors on July 1 2002...
, Scott Davis, Linnet F. Deily, Clive Hollick, James Howard, Bruce Karatz, Russ Palmer,
Ivan SeidenbergIvan G. Seidenberg is the Chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications.-Early life:Seidenberg began his career in telecommunications as a lineman's assistant straight from high school, and is one of the few Fortune 500 CEOs to have worked his way from the very bottom to the very top...
, Brad Sheares,
Eric ShinsekiEric Ken Shinseki is a retired United States Army four-star general who is currently serving as the 7th United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs. His final U.S. Army post was as the 34th Chief of Staff of the Army . He is a veteran of combat in Vietnam, having been left with a maimed foot...
, John R. Stafford, and
Michael W. WrightMichael W. Wright is a Minneapolis business executive who has served as chief executive officer of SuperValu and who currently is a director of Wells Fargo & Company....
.
Environmental record
Honeywell ranks 44th in a list of U.S. corporations most responsible for air pollution, releasing more than 4.25 million kg (9.4 million pounds) of toxins per year into the air. According to the
United States Environmental Protection AgencyThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged to regulate chemicals and protect human health by safeguarding the natural environment: air, water, and land...
, no corporation has been linked to a greater number of
SuperfundSuperfund is the common name for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 , a United States federal law designed to clean up abandoned hazardous waste sites Superfund created the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry , and it provides broad...
toxic waste sites than has Honeywell. In 2001, Honeywell agreed to pay $150,000 in
civil penaltiesA civil penalty or civil fine is a term used to describe when a state entity, government agency, or private party seeks monetary relief against an individual as restitution for wrongdoing by the individual. The wrongdoing is typically defined by a codification of legislation, regulations, and decrees...
and to perform $772,000 worth of reparations for environmental violations involving:
- failure to prevent or repair leaks of hazardous organic pollutants into the air
- failure to repair or report refrigeration equipment containing chlorofluorocarbons
- inadequate reporting of benzene
Benzene, or benzol, is an organic chemical compound with the molecular formula C6H6. It is sometimes abbreviated Ph–H. Benzene is a colorless and highly flammable liquid with a sweet smell and a relatively high melting point...
, ammoniaAmmonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula NH
3. It is normally encountered as a gas with a characteristic pungent odor. Ammonia contributes significantly to the nutritional needs of terrestrial organisms by serving as a precursor to foodstuffs and fertilizers...
, nitrogen oxideThe term nitrogen oxide typically refers to any binary compound of oxygen and nitrogen, or to a mixture of such compounds:* Nitric oxide , nitrogen oxide* Nitrogen dioxide , nitrogen oxide...
, dichlorodifluoromethaneDichlorodifluoromethane , usually sold under the brand name Freon-12, is a chlorofluorocarbon halomethane , used as a refrigerant and aerosol spray propellant. Complying with the Montreal Protocol, its manufacture was banned in the United States along with many other countries in 1994 due to...
, sulfuric acidSulfuric acid, , is a strong mineral acid. It is soluble in water at all concentrations. Sulfuric acid has many applications, and is one of the top products of the chemical industry. World production in 2001 was 165 million tonnes, with an approximate value of US$8 billion...
, sulfur dioxideSulfur dioxide is the chemical compound with the formula SO
2. It is produced by volcanoes and in various industrial processes. Since coal and petroleum often contain sulfur compounds, their combustion generates sulfur dioxide...
, and caprolactamCaprolactam is an organic compound with the formula
5CNH. This colourless solid, which is a lactam or a cyclic amide of caproic acid. Approximately 2 billion kilograms are produced annually...
emissions
In 2003, a federal judge in
Newark, New JerseyBrick City redirects here. For the township in Ocean County, see Brick Township, New Jersey.Newark is the largest city in New Jersey, and the county seat of Essex County. Newark has a population of 281,402, making it the largest municipality in New Jersey and the 65th largest city in the U.S...
ordered the company to perform an estimated $400 million cleanup of
chromiumChromium is a chemical element which has the symbol Cr and atomic number 24, first element in Group 6. It is a steely-gray, lustrous, hard metal that takes a high polish and has a high melting point. It is also odourless, tasteless, and malleable...
waste, citing “
a substantial risk of imminent damage to public health and safety and imminent and severe damage to the environment. In the same year, Honeywell paid $3.6 million to avoid a federal trial regarding its responsibility for
trichloroethyleneThe chemical compound trichloroethylene is a chlorinated hydrocarbon commonly used as an industrial solvent. It is a clear non-flammable liquid with a sweet smell....
contamination in
Lisle, IllinoisLisle is a village in DuPage County, Illinois, United States. The population was 21,182 at the 2000 census, and estimated to be 23,376 as of 2005...
. In 2004, the State of New York announced that it would require Honeywell to complete an estimated $448 million cleanup of more than 74,000 kg (165,000 lbs) of mercury and other toxic waste dumped into
Onondaga LakeOnondaga Lake is northwest of the city of Syracuse, New York and south of Lake Ontario. Water outflows from the lake to Lake Ontario through the Oswego River. The lake is five miles long and a mile wide. It has an area of 4.6 square miles and has a maximum depth of 63 feet...
in Syracuse, NY. In 2005, the state of
New JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, and to the east by the Hudson River, Upper New York Bay, the Kill Van Kull, Newark Bay, the Arthur Kill, Raritan Bay, Sandy Hook Bay, Westchester County, New York City, Long Island, and...
sued Honeywell,
Occidental PetroleumOccidental Petroleum Corporation is an international oil and gas exploration and production company with operations in the United States, the Middle East, North Africa, and South America. The company nickname “Oxy” began in 1964 in reference to Occidental’s NYSE stock ticker. Headquartered in Los...
, and
PPGPPG may stand for:* PPG Industries, a U.S. manufacturer, and its PPG Place office complex* PPG tankette, a Soviet armoured vehicle* Pacific Proving Grounds, a former US-operated nuclear test site* Palm Products GmbH, an audio synthesizer company...
to compel cleanup of more than 100 sites contaminated with
chromiumChromium is a chemical element which has the symbol Cr and atomic number 24, first element in Group 6. It is a steely-gray, lustrous, hard metal that takes a high polish and has a high melting point. It is also odourless, tasteless, and malleable...
, a metal linked to
lung cancerLung cancer is a disease of uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. This growth may lead to metastasis, which is the invasion of adjacent tissue and infiltration beyond the lungs. The vast majority of primary lung cancers are carcinomas of the lung, derived from epithelial cells...
,
ulcerA peptic ulcer, also known as ulcus pepticum, PUD or peptic ulcer disease, is an ulcer of an area of the gastrointestinal tract that is usually acidic and thus extremely painful...
s, and
dermatitisDermatitis is a blanket term meaning any "inflammation of the skin" . There are several different types of dermatitis. The different kinds usually have in common an allergic reaction to specific allergens. The term may be used to refer to eczema, which is also known as dermatitis eczema or...
. In 2008, the state of
ArizonaThe State of Arizona is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. The capital and largest city is Phoenix. The second largest city is Tucson, followed in size by the four Phoenix metropolitan area cities of Mesa, Glendale, Chandler, and Scottsdale.Arizona was the 48th and...
made a settlement with Honeywell to pay a $5 million fine and contribute $1 million to a local air-quality cleanup project, after allegations of breaking water-quality and hazardous-waste laws on hundreds of occasions between the years of 1974 and 2004.
In 2006, Honeywell announced that its decision to stop manufacturing
mercury switchA mercury switch is a switch whose purpose is to allow or interrupt the flow of electric current in an electrical circuit in a manner that is dependent on the switch's physical position or alignment relative to the direction of the "pull" of earth's gravity, or other inertia.Mercury switches...
es had resulted in reductions of more than 11,300 kg, 2800 kg, and 1500 kg respectively of
mercuryMercury , also called quicksilver or hydrargyrum , is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80...
,
leadLead is a main-group element with symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal, also considered to be one of the heavy metals. Lead has a bluish-white color when freshly cut, but tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed to air...
, and
chromic acidChromic acid generally refers to a collection of compounds generated by the acidification of solutions containing chromate and dichromate anions or the dissolving of chromium trioxide in sulfuric acid. Often the species are assigned the formulas H2CrO4 and...
usage. The largest reduction represents 5% of mercury use in the United States.
Honeywell philanthropy
Honeywell maintains a very active community involvement program called "Hometown Solutions". Program initiatives include matching employee volunteer involvement with charitable donations, encouraging study of math and science, re-building after hurricane Katrina and a long-standing partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children called "Got2bSafe". Literature produced by Got2bSafe has been distributed to more than 72,000 schools across America, representing every school district in the U.S. and the program has reached more than 5 million elementary school students. Honeywell is also involved in the Honeywell Nobel Initiative, a program that takes Physics and Chemistry Nobel Laureates to lecture at special programs all around the world and seeks to make these lectures available online.
External links