Kohler Co. was recognized as a 2017 Green Master by the Wisconsin Sustainable Business Council and the Green Master Program at the organization's annual conference.

Green Master recognizes Wisconsin businesses for their commitment to sustainability and provides benchmarks to track their progress. The program measures efforts in nine sustainability categories: energy, carbon, water, waste management, transportation, supply chain, outreach, workforce and governance. By providing businesses of all sizes and sectors objective criteria, Green Master allows companies to compare sustainability performance against peers.

"This recognition is a tribute to all Kohler associates who are investing their energy to help us operate more sustainably," said Davor Grgic, chief information officer and vice president/sustainability. "Kohler is committed to environmental sustainability, strengthening communities and addressing critical social needs while growing our business to meet the needs of our customers."

Kohler Co.'s sustainability journey began with the creation of its first water-conserving products in the 1970s. In 2008, Kohler committed to a goal of sending no solid waste to landfills, reducing or offsetting 100 percent of its greenhouse gas emissions and reducing water usage by 2035. The company drives toward these goals by developing products that have lower environmental impacts over their entire life cycle and incorporating sustainability into the product development process itself.

This recognition caps a year in which Kohler was awarded the U.S. Water Prize by the U.S. Water Alliance, the U.S. Green Building Council's Ray Anderson Radical Industrialism Award, a fifth Sustained Excellence Award from the Environmental Protection Agency's WaterSense Program, and launched its first ever public Sustainability and Stewardship Report.

The Wisconsin Sustainable Business Council is a network of Wisconsin businesses and organizations that are responding to the challenge of sustainability. The organization provides businesses with the tools they need to both understand sustainability progress and strive for continuous improvement.