Climate Change Commitment

Sustainable business practices, including reduction of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, are critical to the long-term success of our company and to the benefit of society. Eaton supports the goal of slowing increases in GHG concentrations in the atmosphere and ultimately stabilizing them at levels that will address the risks of climate change.
 

Actions designed to reduce emissions need to be coordinated with efforts to address other urgent world priorities, such as reducing poverty, improving public health, reducing environmental degradation and raising living standards. Reliable and affordable world supplies of energy are essential for meeting these challenges.
 

Although we support actions to address climate change, we recognize that there is a range of views and preferences about the policy tools that will best achieve that objective. Some support mandatory approaches; others do not. Eaton supports an open and constructive dialogue about the principles that should shape climate policy and the pros and cons of various options. As a starting point for this dialogue, we focus on the following objectives:
 

  • Taking Action and Reporting Progress:  Eaton participates in the Business Roundtable’s Climate RESOLVE program, in which we pledge to reduce GHG emissions from major manufacturing facilities by 18 percent (indexed for sales), by 2012. Progress is audited by a third party and reported on the Eaton.com public web site and in the company’s Annual Report. Additionally, in early 2010, we joined the Department of Energy’s Save Energy Now LEADER program, pledging to reduce our energy use by 25 percent, indexed for sales, by 2016.
     
  • Improving Energy Efficiency: Eaton is improving its manufacturing processes to become more energy efficient, thereby reducing GHG emissions. At the same time we are developing innovative products and processes for use by our customers and suppliers to allow them to be more energy efficient and produce products with a smaller carbon footprint.
     
  • Managing Business Continuity Risks: Eaton has included the potential impacts of climate change in its ongoing analysis of potential business risks. For example, Eaton is enhancing its worldwide emergency response capabilities through the company’s Enterprise Risk Management system to identify and deal with physical risks such as increased storm activity, hurricanes, floods, etc. 
     
  • Work with Suppliers and Vendors: Eaton is committed to working with our suppliers and vendors to ensure they adhere to our principles of sustainability, including efforts to minimize GHG emissions. 

Eaton’s goal is to achieve superior financial results while focusing on fundamental values for “doing business right.” As a power management company, Eaton is committed to minimize the environmental impact of our operations and products wherever we do business. Eaton applies a standard group of policies worldwide for ethics, energy and water consumption, waste generation, product quality, employee safety, business continuity and more.
 

The Eaton Board of Directors Governance Committee has oversight regarding significant public policy issues with respect to our relationships with shareholders, employees, customers, competitors, suppliers and the communities in which we operate. These issues include environmental concerns such as climate change and emissions reductions.