US: Owens Corning has announced more ambitious sustainability goals to reduce greenhouse gas and toxic air emissions, along with new renewable power initiatives that will continue to expand the company's impact through sustainability.
"Owens Corning has a history of promoting energy efficiency through our products, our suppliers and our operations," said Chairman and CEO Mike Thaman. "Today's announcements reflect a continuation of our company's history of being a good steward of the environment."
Owens Corning will execute power supply agreements of newly-installed capacity that reportedly represent the largest wind power agreements reported by an industrial company in the world. It will also dedicate a 2.4MW solar canopy at its headquarters in Toledo that is expected to supply approximately 30% of the facility's electricity needs and offset the equivalent greenhouse gases emitted from the commute of its local workforce. Finally, it is establishing new 2020 sustainability goals to reduce greenhouse gas intensity by 50% and toxic air emissions intensity by 75% from its 2010 baseline.
"Our new sustainability goals are ambitious and impactful. Importantly, they are made more achievable by these large scale renewable energy actions and by partnering with leading providers of solar photovoltaic systems to continue our leadership in this area," said Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer Frank O'Brien-Bernini. He said that the wind energy deal will generate the equivalent electricity to power more than 65,000 US homes and support the wind power industry by enabling the construction of new wind power assets, a market to which the company supplies high performance glass fibre reinforcements for wind turbine blades. "Our new greenhouse gas reduction goal is informed by science-based methodologies that are designed to reduce carbon emissions enough to limit global warming to less than 2°C compared to pre-industrial temperatures," said O'Brien-Bernini. "We have taken an important step in aligning our goals consistent with the scientific consensus on what's needed."
