2010 Sustainability Report - Cummins.com

EARTH professor Carlos Montoya talks with staff member Junior Solano López about the lettuce being grown at the university.
Plants take root in “soil” that consists largely of carbon, rice and coconut husks with pieces of aluminum cans buried in to add volume.
Cummins’ commitment
As part of the Company’s support for EARTH,
The Cummins Foundation approved a $6 million
challenge grant in June 2009 to be awarded over
five years. The grant, is conditional on EARTH
meeting established fund-raising goals and will be
used to fund several endowed scholarships and an
endowed professorship at the university.
Cummins’ support of EARTH goes well beyond the
Foundation grant. Consistent with the Company’s
philosophy of “unleashing the power” of its
employees, Cummins is providing EARTH with
significant human capital.
A senior Cummins executive serves as a member
of the EARTH University Board of Directors and the
EARTH University Foundation Board of Trustees,
and the Company has established an executive
on loan to coordinate Cummins’ work with EARTH.
The Company’s government relations team in
Washington, D.C., also is helping the university build
relationships with government officials from around
the world.
In addition, a number of Cummins leaders are
assisting with projects designed to help EARTH
create a long-term strategic financial plan, to improve
the operating efficiency of its business ventures and
to better assess the impact its graduates are having
on their communities. Other examples of Cummins’
commitment to EARTH include:
Cummins is helping EARTH build on its already
successful efforts to create a sustainable model
for growing bananas. In addition to being served in
the university’s cafeteria every day, a portion of the
banana harvest is sold to Whole Foods Market,
the U.S.-based natural supermarket chain.
Cummins Master Black Belts from Mexico have
trained EARTH employees in Six Sigma project
methodology to drive improvement and efficiencies
throughout the campus.
Cummins employees are working with EARTH
to explore possible commercial markets for the
“smart microbes” mixtures that are developed from
recycled animal waste and which can be used to
repel insects on livestock, fight fungus on plants
and even be converted into a cleaning solution
to reduce odor in livestock barns.