(Photo Credit: Alessandro Imbriaco / Whirlpool Corporation)[/caption] Whirlpool Corporation announced that the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has approved the company’s Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. They are the first appliance manufacturer in North America to join the initiative.
The company committed to reducing absolute Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions 50% by 2030 from a 2016 baseline, a target that Whirlpool and the SBTi said is consistent with the reductions required to keep global warming to well below 2°C.
Last year Whirlpool reported achieving its lowest levels of absolute plant emissions for Scopes 1 and 2 in more than a decade, reducing them by 18% through investments in efficiency and renewable energy, which the company said should continue into the future.
Renewable energy remains an important part of the manufacturer’s approach. “Our strategy is a little different from most,” Ron Voglewede, Whirlpool’s director of global sustainability, told Environment + Energy Leader in 2019. “The idea is to maximize the resources onsite, potentially extend that offsite, and then look at a purchasing agreement as a last resort.” That meant adding solar to facilities in India, Southern China, and California, and installing wind turbines for onsite generation in the Midwestern United States.
Collaborations with other organizations have also led to emissions reductions, according to Whirlpool. For example, the company uses Honeywell’s Solstice Liquid Blowing Agent in an energy-efficient, environmentally responsible insulation for refrigerators and freezers.
Whirlpool Corporation also committed to reducing absolute Scope 3 GHG emissions from the use of sold products 20% by 2030, also against a 2016 base year, the Science Based Targets initiative noted. In 2005, those emissions totaled 155.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). Last year that number was 67.6 million metric tons of CO2e, with a goal of 57.8 million metric tons of CO2e by 2030.
“Our global emissions management system for Scope 3 emissions improves our ability to act strategically to lower the footprint of our product portfolio,” the company said in its latest sustainability report. Their greenhouse gas emissions management system (GEMS) covers more than 250 million products made since 2016, providing useful data that encourages improvements around energy and water efficiency, according to Whirlpool.
“As a company, we have made considerable progress on our sustainability efforts, but we know there is more to be done,” Voglewede said publicly this week.
