Our ESG Approach
Our ESG strategy is an integral part of our long-term, globally aligned strategic imperatives and operating priorities. It is deeply embedded in our vision, mission and values as an organization. We continuously seek to identify ways to broaden our commitments to ESG efforts and make progress on our goal of making life in our homes, our communities and our operations better today and in the future.
Sustainable Products & operations
Committing to Net Zero impact of our operations by 2030 and creating shared value throughout the product life cycle
Supporting our employees & our communities
Investing in resources to help care for our employees, consumers and communities
Doing the right thing
Holding ourselves accountable and maintaining robust policies, procedures and systems to ensure we live by our values
Our ESG Governance & Leadership
Our ESG Strategy is governed by our ESG Councils, which include a Social and Governance Council and an Environmental Sustainability Council, with three Executive Committee (EC) members on each council. To further strengthen our ESG governance structure and integration into our business, we named a Senior Vice President, Communications, Public Affairs and Sustainability to join the Executive Leadership team and report directly to our Chairman and CEO. Whirlpool Corporation’s Corporate Controller and Principal Accounting Officer is accountable for reporting to the EC and the Board of Directors on ESG matters. The ESG Councils are supported by the ESG Task Force, a cross-functional team that embeds individuals and leaders from all areas of the business. The Task Force is responsible for planning, communication, education, prioritization and reporting around all ESG matters.
ESG Leadership
I’m excited to bring my knowledge and global experiences in engineering, product development, and marketing to help advance our company’s sustainability efforts by bringing purposeful innovation to our consumers and improving the environment for our employees and our communities.
Pamela Klyn
Senior Vice President, Communications,
Public Affairs and Sustainability
To further strengthen our ESG governance structure and integration into our business, we named Pam Klyn as Senior Vice President, Communications, Public Affairs and Sustainability as a member of the Executive Leadership team reporting to our Chairman and CEO.
Klyn graduated from Michigan Technological University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering and earned a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, as well as a Master’s in Business Administration from Bowling Green State University. She is currently a Board member for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Benton Harbor and a Trustee for the Whirlpool Foundation. She serves on the Michigan Technological University External Advisory Board for the Dean of Engineering and on the Board of Directors for Patrick Industries.
Task Force Composition
We believe that ESG is fundamental to our strategy and business, so we expanded our ESG Task Force to include key individuals and leaders from all functional areas to support execution of our key ESG initiatives, including members from:
- Communications
- Compliance
- Environmental, Health
and Safety (EHS) - Global Information Systems
- Global Product Organization
- Global Product Quality,
Safety & Regulatory
- Government Relations
- Human Resources
- Integrated Supply Chain
- Investor Relations
- Legal
- Manufacturing
- Marketing
- Global Strategic Sourcing
- Risk Management
- Sustainability
- Tax and Treasury
Our Stakeholders
We want to know which ESG topics matter most to our business and to our stakeholders so we can be in a better position to understand and address impacts, risks and opportunities. Through formal and informal methods, we reach out to our employees, leaders, suppliers, investors and other key stakeholders for feedback in addition to our formal ESG materiality assessment process. Through our engagement with stakeholders, we aim to seek diverse perspectives and foster an environment where we take the time to listen first, be present and strive to make others feel welcomed, valued, heard and respected.
How We Engage
Employees
- Quarterly pulse surveys
- Performance management system
- Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) surveys
- Interactions with Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)
- Quarterly leadership meetings
Investors
- 1:1 meetings
- Investor Day
- Perception studies
Trade Customers
- Product line reviews
- Satisfaction surveys
consumers
- Satisfaction surveys
- Third-party report ratings
- Education and service support
Partnerships with local organizations and local governments
- Volunteerism
- Financial and community support
Non-Governmental Organizations/Academia
- Joint research (see ReNEWW House)
- Conferences
- 1:1 meetings
SUPPLIERS
- Continued dialogue and shared learnings
- Annual audits
- Conferences
- Sustainable innovation
GOVERNMENTS
- Policy meetings
- Public-private partnerships
Our Material1 ESG Topics
We have developed our assessment of ESG materiality in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Standards. Material topics, in accordance with the GRI Standards, represent an organization’s most significant impacts on the economy, environment and people, including impacts on their human rights. Through the Whirlpool ESG Task Force, we monitor industry trends, regulatory developments and emerging issues. This is supplemented by our engagement with our stakeholders and assessment of external frameworks such as the GRI Standards, Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework, Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), CDP and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We regularly assess the risks and opportunities of emerging issues and have formally integrated ESG topics into our Enterprise Risk Assessment survey. As we navigate the rapidly evolving and complex space of ESG frameworks, standards and guidelines, we continue ongoing dialogue and engagement with our stakeholders to understand and address impacts, risks and opportunities as they relate to material ESG issues.
Based on our ongoing dialogue and engagement with our stakeholders, we have added to the list of material ESG topics to ensure we reflect emerging topics beyond the results of our formal materiality assessment process that was conducted in 2019. The material ESG topics identified during this process enables our organization to set appropriate goals, prioritize our investments and actions and provide meaningful disclosures throughout this report.
1 Materiality, as used in this report, and our ESG materiality assessment process is different from the definition used in the context of filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
