George Oliver will address the role of the American business community in tackling ambitious climate policy, as well as job creation and economic growth
“I am honored to accept President Biden’s invitation to join him and other world leaders calling for urgent climate action. It is especially important to establish a roadmap to limit the rise in global temperatures as we approach the conference. on COP26 climate scheduled for November in Glasgow, “said George Oliver, President and CEO of Johnson Controls. “The transition to a lower carbon economy is an opportunity for reconstruction and the best option when it comes to recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic. Providing clean, sustainable and energy efficient solutions creates jobs of work while building strong and resilient world economies. “
According to the White House, one of the main themes of the summit will be the broad economic benefits of climate action, with a strong focus on job creation. During the event, both the economic benefits of long-term ecological recovery and decarbonization will be explored, as well as the importance of ensuring that all communities and workers benefit from the transition to a clean energy economy.
Representing the Business Roundtable and Johnson Controls, Oliver will address these issues at the April 23 session, as well as the role that buildings can play in reducing both emissions and costs.
Business Roundtable is an association of CEOs of America’s leading companies. Oliver was appointed Chairman of the Energy and Environment Committee of the Business Roundtable in January of this year. The Committee is dedicated to promoting policies that foster innovation and support an environmentally and economically sustainable future.
The vast majority of the 223 CEOs of the Business Roundtable have publicly committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the carbon footprint of their companies, making great progress in this direction. Almost half of those commitments are net zero carbon emissions by 2050, if not sooner.
Members of the Business Roundtable are playing an important role in driving ambitious climate action and the policy needed to stimulate low-carbon economic growth. Last September, the organization backed the goals of the Paris Agreement and proposed aggressive policies to achieve them.
Johnson Controls ‘ambitious emission reduction targets were recently approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative, an independent organization that evaluates companies’ sustainability claims. As part of its environmental sustainability commitments, Johnson Controls aims to reduce operating emissions by 55% and reduce customer emissions by 16% by 2030.
Johnson Controls believes that its OpenBlue platform for optimizing the sustainability of buildings will be critical to meeting these goals and ultimately creating environments with healthy people and places and a healthy planet.
The company has also recently joined the Business Ambition for 1.5 ° C campaign and is part of The Climate Pledge, an initiative of business leaders co-founded by Amazon and Global Optimism. The signatories of the document commit to achieving net carbon emissions by 2040, ten years before the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement.
As a leader in the buildings industry for more than 135 years, Johnson Controls has pioneered sustainability and is ranked in the 12% of the world’s leading climate companies by the CDP. It is on the World’s Most Ethical Companies® honor list and has been named one of the 100 Most Sustainable Companies in the World by Corporate Knights.