Industrial building product company Johnson Controls announced this week it has joined 52 other companies in committing to net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 by signing The Climate Pledge, a project of Amazon and Global Optimism.

The move is in line with the company’s desire to position itself as a global leader in smart, healthy and sustainable buildings. According to Johnson Controls, based in Cork, Ireland, the company mission is to reimagine the performance of buildings to serve people, places and the planet through a long-standing commitment to protecting and preserving the environment that empowers customers and communities to streamline building operations and deliver energy efficiencies to meet their environmental goals.

“Sustainability is at the heart of our business and fundamental to everything we do as a company,” said George Oliver, Johnson Controls chairman and CEO, in a release. “Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing the planet today.”

Johnson Controls is increasing its reliance on clean energy and improving waste reduction across many of its plants, according to the company. Amazon and Global Optimism founded The Climate Pledge in 2019 and it is designed to beat the Paris Agreement on climate change by 10 years. Johnson Controls and fellow signatories represent companies across 18 industries and 12 countries.

Measurable Efforts

Signatories to The Climate Pledge agree to:

• Measure and report greenhouse gas emissions on a regular basis.
• Implement decarbonization strategies in line with the Paris Agreement through real business changes and innovations, including efficiency improvements, renewable energy, materials reductions, and other carbon emission elimination strategies.
• Neutralize any remaining emissions with additional, quantifiable, real, permanent, and socially beneficial offsets to achieve net-zero annual carbon emissions by 2040.

“Together, we can use our collective scale to help decarbonize the economy and preserve Earth for future generations,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO.

The other companies joining the pledge along with Johnson Controls this week include:

• ACCIONA
• Colis Prive
• Cranswick plc
• Daabon
• FREE NOW
• Generation Investment Management
• Green Britain Group
• Hotelbeds
• Iceland Foods
• IBM
• Interface
• MiiR
• Ørsted
• Prosegur Group
• Slalom
• S4Capital
• UPM
• Vanderlande

Johnson Controls also recently announced other new environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments, science-based targets, and its own net-zero carbon pledge, according to the company. It is ranked in the top 12% of climate leadership companies globally by CDP and was named one of Corporate Knights’ Global 100 Most Sustainable Companies.

“We are looking forward to further enhancing the role we can play by working with Amazon, Global Optimism, and other signatories to reach net-zero carbon a decade before the important Paris Agreement’s goal,” added Oliver.

For more on distribution industry sustainability efforts, be sure to check out the upcoming feature in the February 25 issue of MDM Premium on Curbell Plastics’ commitment to environmental excellence.