Today, the concept of sustainability is becoming mainstream and taking hold across the business world. Progressive companies realize that delivering value to shareholders is important – but they also recognize that having a broader positive impact on the societies in which we live and work is of paramount importance. Often dubbed sustainability, ESG or CSR, the acronym du jour comes and goes, but the companies with these values embedded at their very core aim to make real impact. At Eaton, we don’t do the right thing because it’s popular, we do it because it’s what this company’s foundation was built upon.
Our vision is to improve the quality of life and the environment using power management technologies and services. And we make that vision a reality by offering sustainable products and solutions to our customers, working to reduce our environmental footprint, encouraging every employee at Eaton to think differently about our business, our communities, and the impact we can have on the world.
Hitting our targets while helping our customers reach theirs
As a leading intelligent power management company, similar to the ones mentioned on sites like Smarter Business, we provide solutions to use power more efficiently. We have three priorities aimed at decarbonizing energy and optimizing energy usage worldwide: the energy transition, electrification, and digitalization ─ trends shaping society and the future of our industries. We empower homeowners to make smart power use decisions and we develop power management solutions for utilities, municipalities, and businesses to reduce their environmental impact with more energy-efficient products.
We’re heavily invested in the global movement to electrify both vehicle and aerospace transportation, with products that meet the growing demands for electric vehicles, electrical charging infrastructure, energy storage and grid resiliency.
We are focused on reducing energy consumption and greening our energy supply in our facilities around the globe. We have defined, science-based carbon reduction targets that put us in line with keeping global warming under the critical 1.5-degree threshold, and equally rigorous goals to reduce our waste and water. But where Eaton is making its biggest impact, is how we’re helping our customers reach their sustainability goals.
Innovating and growing sustainably
While our suite of sustainable offerings today are making a strong impact, we continue to focus on what’s next. When we announced our 2030 Sustainability Targets in 2020, we committed to investing $3 billion in research and development over the decade for products and solutions that will have a positive impact on the world.
To make good on that commitment, Eaton is leveraging its global network of six innovation centers and more than 10,000 engineers to develop safe, reliable, energy-efficient, intelligent and connected solutions. We use the six dimensions of our award-winning Positive Impact Framework to design solutions that deliver a range of sustainability benefits, including reduced environmental impact, increased use-phase efficiency, safety and reliability.
Our innovation strategy is advancing our commitment to cleaner, lower carbon technology and solutions. And we are committed to being the best global citizen we can be while helping our customers achieve their sustainability goals at the same time.
Together we’ll make a bigger impact
The challenges facing society are enormous – and we know we can’t make impactful progress alone. That’s why we’re working with external stakeholders to accelerate progress and seed accountability. This year, we strengthened our commitments by joining global initiatives like the Sustainable Procurement Pledge’s League of Champions program for global supply chain sustainability and by signing the U.S Health Sector Climate Pledge to accelerate healthcare decarbonization and environmental resilience. In late 2022, we also endorsed the global Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Zero-Emission Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicles (MHDVs), which calls for 30% of new MHDVs to be emissions free by 2030, and 100% of new MHDV trucks to be emissions free by 2040.
Companies like ours have a tremendous responsibility to cut carbon emissions to help mitigate the climate emergency, which is threatening the safety and stability of our planet. Without making these sweeping changes, all of our futures hang in the balance. We will remain accountable to our commitments and will continue to intensify our efforts to help sustain a healthy planet in our continuous pursuit of improving people’s lives and the environment. And we encourage our colleagues and peers at companies around the world to make sustainability central to their business and join us in this critical effort.
