Life at home has been at the heart of our business for 110 years—it is why we are committed to being the best global kitchen and laundry company and in constant pursuit of improving life at home. Over our long history, we have faced challenging environments, adapted our operating model and continued to drive positive results for all of our stakeholders. In 2021, we updated our long-term value creation goals that build on our strong foundation and reflect the fact that we are a very different Whirlpool than 100 years ago or even 10 years ago. Though we are operating in a very different world, we continue to make significant progress toward achieving our environmental and social goals.
Our resiliency and agility are rooted in Our Enduring Values and an unwavering commitment to social and environmental sustainability while creating value for our shareholders.
Beginning with our founders, to the everyday actions of our people, our resilience and agility are rooted in Our Enduring Values and an unwavering commitment to social and environmental sustainability while creating value for our shareholders. Our legacy includes a responsibility to our people, our consumers, our communities, our shareholders and our environment that continues today. At Whirlpool Corporation, we purposefully innovate based on what families and households really want and need. We put exceptional quality, functionality and reliability first for our consumers and are reimagining the consumer experience through advanced technology. As the largest employer in many of the communities where we operate, we understand the importance of driving sustainable operations, and we don’t take that responsibility lightly. We continue to listen to our stakeholders to understand and address impacts, risks and opportunities and drive action plans to reach our environmental and social goals. Through strong governance from our Board of Directors and our executive leadership team, we continue to set the bar, raise the bar and make progress on those goals as described throughout this report. I’m proud to share a few highlights on the actions we executed last year.
Demonstrating Action in 2021:
- We committed to reach a Net Zero emissions target in our global plants and operations by 2030 and developed climate transition plans to achieve it.
- We issued our first Sustainability Bond, enabling Whirlpool Corporation to attract investors who support our strong commitment to invest in projects that improve our communities and our environment.
- We accelerated our investments in renewable energy on and offsite that will offset over one-third of global operations emissions.
- We received numerous awards for our industry-leading innovation, such as the 2 in 1 removable agitator in our top load washer in North America and the launch of new products in EMEA, such as our new built-in refrigerator, which is the quietest built-in in the marketplace.
- We redefined our commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), through the launch of our House+Home CSR strategy.
- We contributed almost $4.5 million in 2021 to support United Way programming that positively impacts the health, education and financial stability of the communities in which we operate.
- We renewed our longstanding relationship with Habitat for Humanity, re-committing to our 22-year, more than $130 million collaboration that helps provide climate-resilient and energy-efficient homes and appliances to those in need.
- We took action on our pledge to Equality and Fairness for our Black Colleagues and made progress on our commitments. We launched robust unconscious bias and empathy training for all people leaders and broke ground on the building of a multi-family housing development in the city of Benton Harbor, Michigan, as part of our housing commitment to attract diverse occupants as residents of the community.
- We expanded our scope of limited assurance from our external auditor Ernst & Young, which now includes our disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions, diversity and inclusion, health and safety, and product safety metrics to provide further confidence in the quality of our reporting.
- We remain committed to being a participant in the United Nations (UN) Global Compact as we continue to expand our efforts to uphold sustainable and responsible business practices in our day-to-day global operations.
Our experience and results prove sound corporate citizenship and environmental performance are fundamentals of good business. Combined with our agile and resilient business model, we are well positioned to succeed in any operating environment. I look forward to sharing more updates on our progress as we continue our sustainability journey to create value.
Marc Bitzer
Chairman & CEO
Whirlpool Corporation