Uponor North America has a new (old) kid in town. The former director of operations Rusty Callier, who led the PEX manufacturer to award-winning status, has now taken on a new global role as the director of sustainability and corporate responsibility for Uponor Corporation.

Headquartered in Vantaa, Finland, the corporation oversees business in 30 countries and is looking to Callier to lead the mission of aligning each sector of the corporation towards sustainable growth.

"It’s a sign of the times – companies can’t get by with giving limited time to sustainability and corporate responsibility,” Callier said. “In order to balance the interests of shareholders, stakeholders, the environment and people you employ, there needs to be a message behind sustainability. It needs to be clear, it needs to be communicated and it needs to be practiced."

On a local-level, the company is striving to cascade the sustainable messages from the corporate offices in Europe to Uponor North America to help drive a smaller footprint in local communities.

Uponor North America is dedicated to modeling the triple-bottom-line approach to sustainability, focusing on people, planet and profits, where the key objectives provide a holistic approach to business. The solutions for Uponor North America’s plumbing, fire sprinkler, radiant heating/cooling, hydronic piping and pre-insulated piping systems are the backbone of Uponor’s sustainable values, ensuring every structure is more water-conscious and energy-efficient to bring comfort, safety and peace of mind to future generations.

"In order to be good stewards, we need to be taking responsibility for our actions, because we have the resources to do better and know better,” Callier explained. “When companies model good behavior, then employees and community neighbors will take sustainable action, too. In turn, sustainable companies will want to plant themselves near other sustainable companies, which ultimately improves everything and everyone around us."

There are eight key projects Callier and the Uponor team are spearheading between now and 2020 to continue to advance their environmental responsibilities.

One chief project is partnering with the World Wildlife Fund Green Office program. The program is an environmental management system that aids in reducing the office’s ecological footprint and greenhouse gas emissions. Uponor will track and annually report activities, such as waste and energy efficiency. Uponor and WWF will work together year after year to continuously improve sustainable habits.

"It isn’t enough to just understand why sustainability is so important – it is vital to put it into action,” Callier said. “At Uponor we want to remove obstacles, so that our company and the people who work here can easily live sustainably. Years ago, people didn’t recycle because it wasn’t easily accessible. Today, recycling bins are everywhere, so recycling has become second-nature to most people. If we adopt that idea on larger scales, then sustainable behaviors can be a part of our business and our everyday lives."