Our Approach

Environmental Strategy

At Whirlpool Corporation, we strive to improve life at home. Our environmental sustainability approach drives at the heart of addressing the major challenges our planet and our consumers face. As our former CEO Elisha Gray II said in 1969, “We cannot separate our business from the communities in which we operate, and hope to grow and prosper.” With climate change expected to impact many aspects of our lives for years to come, we take our responsibility seriously. This idea of contextual sustainability is at the center of our efforts to drive areas of sustainability focusing on our material issues. These focus areas include:

Enabling
net-zero
sustainable living
zero
impact operations
Designing for the Environment
Fully understanding the impact of climate on our enterprise
Investing
in the circular economy

Designing for the Environment

We work hard to address plastic waste and eliminate hazardous materials in our products and packaging by creating demand for recycled materials, developing new alternatives and creating value from our products throughout and at the end of their useful life. We have set voluntary commitments, with internal targets on recycled content, sustainable packaging, and phaseouts of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS), Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC). We expect that this full life cycle thinking and our innovation will together create better and more sustainable products. Additionally, we are looking to create new interactions and functionalities for our connected appliances to be able to play a bigger and better role in making homes more self-sufficient and resilient. We expect that these new home ecosystems will also allow expanded use of renewable energy both on residential and utility scales and offer new ways for consumers to manage their emissions and resources.

SASB: Environmental Impact >> CG-AM-410a.3
Our first VPPA is expected to cover
50%

of our Scope 2 emissions in the U.S. and help reduce our overall operations’ carbon footprint by nearly

15%

Zero Impact Operations

Our approved science-based targets represent our commitment to keep global warming below the 2 degree Celsius target prescribed by the Paris Climate Agreement and drive significant emissions reductions across Whirlpool Corporation’s supply chain. In 2020, we continued on our accelerated path to lower carbon emissions. While COVID-19 temporarily impacted production at some of our manufacturing facilities, we continue to be on a strong trajectory toward exceeding our goals. In order to accelerate our progress, we made a significant commitment and investment in renewable energy through our entry into a VPPA, a first for Whirlpool Corporation. The VPPA is expected to cover 50% of our Scope 2 electricity emissions from U.S. plants and help reduce our overall global carbon footprint in operations by nearly 15% starting in late 2021. We also made on-site solar installations with new capacity in India and procured utility renewable energy in Mexico. Looking forward, we will continue to invest in on-site renewables, utility-provided green energy, and other clean energy solutions in furtherance of our carbon reduction commitments.

We continue to make investments in both the efficiency and innovation of our products to improve lives at home and in our communities. In addition to driving efficiency in individual products, we will begin to drive efficiencies through more dynamic interactions with the grid through connected appliances. We are also investing in innovations that automate water levels, utilize cold water settings as default, and auto dose detergents to further lower our environmental impacts and save consumers time and money. These innovations and engagement with our consumers have the ability to drive significant gains in the emissions of our products in use to exceed our 2030 goals, while providing savings on consumer utility bills. Additionally, they will open new consumer loyalty and services growth opportunities. This is equivalent to saving over 2.5 million U.S. homes’ electrical usage in a year.

Additionally, we continue to expand our product portfolio to help first-time consumers and address economically disadvantaged populations with innovative products that replace manual, and oftentimes more carbon- and time-intensive, processes.

Dishwashers
that use approximately three
gallons of water and are 3 to 4 times more carbon- and water-efficient than conventional handwashing.1
True ventless
heat pump dryers
with the highest efficiency rating in EMEA.
An affordable
twin-tub washer
developed for India.

By designing for efficiency, we strive to help consumers decrease their energy and water use, while saving them time and effort. We innovate for homes and people with real needs.

Roberto Campos
Senior Vice President,
Global Product Organization

1 Based on comparison of KitchenAid Model No. KDTM354ESS to manual handwashing among 40 study subjects using conditions and assumptions set forth in Gabriela Y Porras et al 2020 Environ. Res. Commun. 2 021004.

Whirlpool Europe has committed to include 18%
recycled plastic in our EMEA products by 2025.

Circular Economy: Tackling Plastic Waste

In order to make a circular economy possible, we are working to address plastic waste in collaboration across the industry and public entities. We use various types of high-performance plastic in our products, sometimes varying from 2% to 35% depending on the appliance category. Since our products touch water and food, we seek solutions for reformulated plastics materials that maintain our high standard of quality and safety. And we are always looking for new innovations that improve recycling beyond traditional take-back programs.

Whirlpool Corporation has been a leader in EMEA in introducing EPS-free packaging for some of our cooking and dishwasher appliances.

Given the ongoing challenges with recycling, we are also looking at plastics from a life cycle perspective. We start with how we develop products to enable using higher percentages of recycled plastics. Then we analyze how we can improve our service and maintenance solutions to keep products longer in use, while reviewing how we can participate in collective programs to better manage products’ end of life (collection, sorting, treatment) on an ongoing basis. We are bolstered in our optimism by the fact that in the U.S., over 90% of major home appliances are collected and recycled at the end of life*, including piloting multiple voluntary programs to drive more efficient and comprehensive recycling.

*Source: AHAM and the Steel Recycling Institute