Sustainability and Green is EVERYONE’s Responsibility
Happy Earth Day! Corporate responsibility, a focus on sustainability and a circular economy, should be a guiding principle for every organization. This blog, offered by our member – Emerson, is an excellent example of that commitment.
Engineering Credible Pathways Toward a More Sustainable Future
Chief Sustainability Officer at Emerson
Through conversations with customers, employees and shareholders over the past several years, it has become clear that environmental sustainability matters to all of our company’s stakeholders. Customers are increasingly asking for technologies, services and practices that help them achieve their own environmental sustainability objectives. Employees want to work for a company that empowers them to help make the world a better place. And more and more shareholders want to know the companies they invest in are taking action to address these issues while creating real and sustainable value.
As we reflect on the importance of environmental sustainability this Earth Day, we are focused each and every day at Emerson on integrating environmental sustainability considerations into our business decisions and actions. Our responsibility to the planet is at the core of what we do, which is why last year we made it part of our global purpose statement: “We drive innovation that makes the world healthier, safer, smarter and more sustainable.”
As an organization, we are addressing environmental sustainability challenges through a three-pronged framework we call the greening of, greening by and greening with Emerson.
Greening of Emerson. We are committed to ensuring our own business operations and practices are sustainable. In 2019, we committed to reducing the company’s greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 20% by 2028. This effort is focused on the company’s top 185 manufacturing sites worldwide. We developed a best-practices playbook that has been distributed to operational site leaders, and we are evaluating energy use and emissions at each site to identify the most meaningful actions we can take.
Making changes at scale for a global company requires embedding sustainability throughout our management process and ultimately in every part of our culture – up, down and across the organization. Beyond our corporate and industry commitments, at the facility operations level, we are appointing a sustainability team and leader at each of the 185 sites around the world. These employees will be empowered to help lead and implement our local environmental sustainability efforts, including the reduction of energy use and associated GHG emissions intensity, as well as our existing programs for managing water use and responsible waste disposal.
We are also enlisting our energy providers, supply chain partners and logistics services to join us on this journey towards measurable and meaningful sustainability improvements.
Greening by Emerson. Our company’s portfolio of advanced products and solutions – strengthened by our employees’ industry expertise – is well positioned to support customers’ transitions to a lower carbon future. We have an important role to play in improving energy efficiency, the deployment of low-carbon fuels and power sources, electrification and the management of emissions more broadly.
Emerson is participating in the development of many innovative solutions across the board to help our customers improve the sustainability of their products and operations: from the use of low Global Warming Potential and natural refrigerants to the optimization of low-carbon energy production such as solar, wind, hydro and nuclear; emissions sensing and control solutions; carbon capture, utilization and storage; advanced electrical grid management, optimization and digital twin techniques for better efficiency; and the coming advent of heat pumps and hydrogen across many sectors.
Looking ahead to both the short- and long-term demands from a growing population and evolving global economy, we know there will be tremendous change in the energy systems of the future. Finding credible and practical pathways to lead and enable this transition is critical to our company’s success and the needs of our customers today and in the years to come.
Greening with Emerson. We are actively engaged with national and regional governments, academic and research institutions, industry trade associations and local communities to deliver sustainable innovations and promote enabling policy approaches. Global challenges related to climate risks and sustainability demand constructive dialogue, collective intellect – and ultimately bold, collaborative action to enable real progress. We need to work together to accelerate at-scale implementation of novel solutions and learn about both technical and economic challenges as well as policy options to refine our collective roadmaps going forward.
At Emerson, environmental sustainability is a business imperative. We are ready to learn, ready to work, and will continue to do our part to make a lower carbon future become reality.