The Power of Environmental Innovation

Milwaukee, WI-October 2, 2007- Briggs & Stratton’s 100 year commitment to innovation produced the world’s first portable power sources and a 1980 prototype gasoline/electric hybrid automobile. Innovation – the company’s “Power Within” - extends to operations as well as products. Briggs & Stratton continuously strives to improve efficiency, integrate environmentally friendly technology and renewable resources into products, adopt sustainable practices and reduce its environmental footprint.

As a global company, Briggs & Stratton is acutely aware of the impact its operations and products have on the environment worldwide. That awareness has driven the company to dramatically cut the environmental impacts of its manufacturing processes while also improving the performance of its products.

In the 1970s Briggs & Stratton was one of the first companies in the United States to treat and recycle wastewater from plating operations. A decade later the company installed ultra-filtration treatment equipment to remove oils from machining and washer wastewater so that the oil could be re-used. The company recycles about 250,000 gallons of oil annually.

In the 1980s Briggs & Stratton began working with suppliers to develop paints with significantly lower levels of volatile organic compounds and no heavy metals, long before regulations required it. Emissions from engine painting processes have fallen more than 85 percent since 1990.

In 1999 the company replaced cyanide and the heavy metals chromium and nickel in its piston plating operations with iron. This created a superior piston, as well as one that was more environmentally friendly.

The company has reduced the number of underground storage tanks to 15 worldwide from a high of 72, helping protect aquifers that supply drinking water.

Briggs & Stratton recycles 100 percent of its aluminum scrap, and all of the cast iron and steel components used in its products come from recycled materials. In addition the company recycles 100 percent of its computers and electronic devices.

Since 2002, Briggs & Stratton has reduced its electricity usage by 11 percent and natural gas consumption by 23 percent for each engine produced. Briggs & Stratton has established energy boards at its facilities to continually improve its processes and reduce energy use.

Overall the company has installed new technology and retooled its manufacturing process, resulting in a 90 percent decrease in toxic emissions into air, land and water.

Since 1995 the company has eliminated almost 75 percent of the smog-forming emissions produced by its engines, continually exceeding Environmental Protection Agency regulatory standards. The same is true of evaporative emissions from its engines – we are implementing new technologies to reduce these by down 73 percent.

As the world’s largest manufacturer of small engines, Briggs & Stratton has harnessed the power of innovation to produce products with superior power and environmental performance while leading the industry in adopting more sustainable operational practices. Preparing to enter its second century, Briggs & Stratton remains dedicated to devoting engineering and product development resources to reducing its environmental footprint.

Briggs & Stratton Corporation is the world’s largest producer of gasoline engines for outdoor power equipment. Its wholly owned subsidiary Briggs & Stratton Power Products Group LLC is North America’s number one manufacturer of portable generators and pressure washers, and is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of lawn and garden and turf care through its wholly owned subsidiary Simplicity Manufacturing, Inc. and its Simplicity®, Snapper®, Ferris® and Murray® brands. Briggs & Stratton products are designed, manufactured, marketed and serviced in over 100 countries on all seven continents.