Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) is a major corporate sponsor of Forum on Earth Observations III: The Environmental Information Revolution, which will convene in Washington, D.C. on July 30, 2009. The Forum is organized by the Alliance for Earth Observations, of which Lockheed Martin is a member, and will bring together key leaders who are developing solutions to meet the unprecedented demand for information about our changing planet. Participants from both the private and public sectors are expected, from areas including information technology, aerospace, oceans industry, agriculture, energy, climate policy and national security, and science communications.
“The evidence for global warming is compelling and we have to work collaboratively to provide the best possible data to policymakers, allowing wise decisions on mitigating future damage to our planet,” says Dr. James T. Ryder, vice president of the Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company (LMSSC) Advanced Technology Center (ATC) in Palo Alto, Calif. “We’re pleased to be a primary sponsor of this Forum and look forward to a vigorous exchange of ideas that will be instructive in how best we can move forward together to make a difference.” Dr. Ryder will introduce the lunch speaker on Climate and National Security at the Forum.
Confirmed speakers and panelists include Lawrie Jordan, Director, Imagery Enterprise Solutions, ESRI; Sherri Goodman, Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, Center for Naval Analyses; Richard Lechner, Vice President for Energy and Environment, IBM; Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Former NOAA Administrator, Vice President, Polar Programs, Computer Sciences Corp; Robert Mitrevski, Vice President, Commercial Space Systems, ITT Corp., Space System Division; Berrien Moore III, Executive Director, Climate Central; Andrew Winston, author of the soon-to-be-released book “Green Recovery”; Nancy K. Kopp, Maryland State Treasurer; Linda Travers, Acting Assistant Administrator and Chief Information Officer, Office of Environmental Information, Environmental Protection Agency; and Shere Abbott of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Conference sessions at the Forum will focus on the private sector’s role in responding to the emerging need for environmental information; address key questions regarding carbon monitoring, ocean observations, and delivery of information products to an expanding and increasingly diverse user community; discuss strengthening of the environmental information value chain; and examine entrepreneurial opportunities to develop the environmental information sector.
LMSSC designs and engineers products and processes with environmental protection in mind. Some examples of successful reduction of the company’s “environmental footprint” in the San Francisco Bay Area, and recognition for such efforts include:
— Reducing the total solid waste disposed from 3,750 tons in 1990 to 143 tons in 2006 (96% reduction) through effective recycling efforts.
— Reducing hazardous waste from 6,100 tons per year in the 1985 to 781 tons in 2006 (87% reduction)
— Reducing metal-bearing wastewater discharges from 65 million gallons per year in the mid-1980s to 1.2 million gallons in 2006 (99% reduction).
— Reducing ozone-depleting chemical usage from 660,000 pounds per year in the mid-1980s to less than 100 pounds in 2006.
— At the LMSSC ATC in Palo Alto, the company purchases renewable green power for 10% of its energy needs. This contributed to the ATC being honored with the 2006 “Tall Trees Award” from the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce.
LMSSC is also one of the premier builders of the Nation’s environmental satellites. For NASA and NOAA the company designed and built every Television and Infrared Observational Satellite (TIROS) since the first weather satellite was launched in April 1960. TIROS data supports a broad range of environmental monitoring applications including weather analysis and forecasting, climate research and prediction, ocean dynamics research, volcanic eruption monitoring and forest fire detection. LMSSC has been selected by NASA to build the next generation Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES-R) and, for this important program, the ATC is developing the Solar Ultraviolet Imager and the Geostationary Lightning Mapper instruments.
The company also built Terra, the flagship spacecraft in NASA’s Earth Observing System, launched in 1999 that began the continuous, long-term, calibrated measurements of global processes. In addition, LMSSC built every spacecraft in the NASA Landsat program. Landsat’s 37-year collection of land images serves those who observe and study the Earth, manage and utilize its natural resources, and monitor the changes brought on by natural processes and human activities.
The Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory at the ATC conducts basic research into understanding and predicting space weather and the behavior of our Sun including its impacts on Earth and climate. It has a five-decade-long heritage of spaceborne solar instruments including the Soft X-ray Telescope on the Japanese Yohkoh satellite, the Michelson Doppler Imager on the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, the solar telescope on NASA’s Transition Region and Coronal Explorer, the Focal Plane Package on the Japanese Hinode satellite, the Solar X-ray Imagers on GOES-N and -O, the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager instruments on NASA’s twin STEREO spacecraft, and the Heliospheric and Magnetic Imager and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on NASA’s upcoming Solar Dynamics Observatory. The ATC is the research and development organization of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company (LMSSC). LMSSC, a major operating unit of Lockheed Martin Corporation, designs and develops, tests, manufactures and operates a full spectrum of advanced-technology systems for national security and military, civil government and commercial customers. Chief products include human space flight systems; a full range of remote sensing, navigation, meteorological and communications satellites and instruments; space observatories and interplanetary spacecraft; laser radar; ballistic missiles; missile defense systems; and nanotechnology research and development.
Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 146,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation reported 2008 sales of $42.7 billion.
