A. O. Smith Corporation has announced the release of its 2020 Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Report, which documents the company’s environmental, social and governance activities and performance over the past two years. It details the positive impact of A. O. Smith’s highly efficient products, highlights the company’s commitment to its employees and communities in which it operates and announces its first greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) reduction goal of 10 percent by 2025.

“The adoption of our first GHG emissions reduction goal is an important step for A. O. Smith to help further advance our innovation efforts as we work to mitigate the impact we have on the environment and be good stewards of the resources we use in our operations,” said Patricia Ackerman, senior vice president, investor relations, treasurer and corporate responsibility and sustainability. “The goal was developed through a strategic initiative to identify opportunities to further reduce and conserve water, natural gas and electricity consumption and associated GHG emissions.”

Operating manufacturing and distribution facilities responsibly is a priority and a strength for A. O. Smith. Over the past 10 years, A. O. Smith and its subsidiaries have invested heavily in capital improvement projects that have lessened the energy intensity and water use at many of the company’s facilities.

“As energy and water demand increases, our customers and communities also look to us to provide products that help reduce energy consumption and associated GHG emissions, conserve water and avoid single-use plastics,” says Ackerman. “Our commitment to innovation and engineering excellence has enabled us to be a leader in meeting our customers’ demands, while at the same time working toward providing water heating and water treatment solutions that reduce the impact on the environment throughout their lifecycle.”

In A. O. Smith’s North America Water Heating (NAWH) business, 17 out of 18 product development projects either “in development” or “pending resources” are either zero carbon or high-efficiency (condensing) gas products, which typically support a 50-percent improvement in energy efficiency.

Other highlights from the 2020 A. O. Smith Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Report include the following:

• Products with a positive environmental impact represented 28 percent of total 2019 sales.
• Twenty-nine percent of 2019 sales in our NAWH business were ENERGY STAR qualified products.
• Over 1.2 billion single-use plastic bottles of water were displaced through the sale of water filtration systems and replacements in North America.
• Sales of high-efficiency water heaters and boilers from our North America business units offset GHG emissions of 222,790 tons and 289,110 tons, respectively.

The full report can be accessed at www.aosmith.com/2020-CRS-Report/.