A message from our Chairman

Climate events of 2022 have given us a glimpse of what this will look like for the planet and its people. According to the World Economic Forum, the planet saw 10 natural disasters in the year that cost society approximately $3 billion each. But these figures don’t capture the human cost of these events; it’s the lives impacted – and those lost – that speak to the devastating and incalculable impact of climate change.

At Eaton, we understand the irreversible losses that come with inaction. We embrace the tremendous responsibility we have – and the urgency we face – to act now. And we are. We continue to push forward in our journey to pursue our bold environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals – a focus that’s reflected in our progress in the last year:

• We reduced our carbon footprint, decreasing our GHG emissions by 3% in the year and bringing the total reduction to 27%, or more than 50% of our 2030 goal.
• We met a milestone in our zero waste-to-landfill goal, with 75% of our manufacturing sites now holding this certification against our 2030 goal of 100%. Also, by the first quarter of 2023, we had certified 10% of our manufacturing sites as zero water discharge, meeting our 2030 target seven years ahead of our goal. 
• In the year, we delivered sustainable solutions for our customers and the world that represented 71% of our net sales, a 6% increase over 2021.
• We continued to build engagement among our employees, achieving an 83% engagement rate among our teams and meeting our target of delivering an average of 12 hours of training for every Eaton employee.
• And we prioritized doing business right for ourselves and our suppliers, ensuring that suppliers representing 93% of our total supplier spend affirmed our code of conduct.

Also in the year, we issued our first sustainability-linked bond, establishing a financial incentive for our company to meet our emissions reduction goals, a decisive step toward achieving our 2030 science-based targets and helping to mitigate climate change.

As we accelerate our efforts to deliver on our sustainability goals inside of Eaton, we continue to make power safer, more sustainable and more efficient for our customers and partners. We’re helping our customers reduce emissions by designing low-carbon technologies and solutions that allow them to add more renewable energy sources, storage and electric vehicle infrastructure to their operations.

We’re also collaborating with governments globally to accelerate the energy transition. In the U.S., we’re working with state and federal leaders to advance the adoption of electric vehicle infrastructure, to modernize the power grid to facilitate the deployment of more distributed energy resources, and to support programs to electrify homes and achieve new levels of energy efficiency. In Europe, we’re advocating for new regulations and legislation to eliminate SF6 gas in switchgear and to help the EU achieve its goal to become climate neutral by 2050.

Finally, we remain committed to transparently reporting on our sustainability progress, policies and performance in our 2022 Sustainability and Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures reports. As governments worldwide continue to increase sustainability disclosure requirements, we stand ready to provide the nations where we operate and all our stakeholders visibility into the work we’re doing to halt the crippling impacts of climate change.

Despite our progress, climate science is showing that we have much work ahead of us. But it’s work that can be done. Scientists indicate that we still have time to act to avoid the catastrophic consequences ahead. At Eaton, we’re not wasting a moment. We’re leveraging the full resources, expertise and passion of our teams around the world to ensure we keep the promise we’ve made to society: to protect the environment and improve the quality of life for people today and for the generations that will follow.