SOURCE: Owens Corning
SUMMARY:
The following issues serve as Owens Corning’s Material Sustainability Topics. They were selected after close review of the company’s prior work on sustainability and materiality, research into best practices, examination of peer companies within our industry, and interviews with subject matter experts. Each topic is discussed in more detail in the corresponding chapter of this report.
DESCRIPTION:
Air Quality Management
As a manufacturer, we have the opportunity to improve our processes and, in doing so, reduce our impact on air quality in the areas where we operate.
Biodiversity
Biodiversity describes the variety of life that keeps nature’s ecosystems in balance. Owens Corning is committed to preserving and enhancing biodiversity and the natural habitats that surround our operations around the world. We seek to understand and manage the biodiversity impact of all our own operations, as well as gain insights into the impacts of our supply chain on biodiversity.
Circular Economy
A circular economy is one in which virgin raw materials, waste, energy, and emissions are minimized through intelligent design, renewable and recycled inputs, energy-efficient production, and enabling the recyclability of products at the end of their life cycles. We are committed to supporting the global transformation to a circular economy.
Combating Climate Change
Owens Corning understands the importance of climate action, and we take our role in the fight against climate change seriously. We have embraced a Science-Based Target for our greenhouse gas emissions in line with the most stringent standard, designed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. We also have a target to reduce our Scope 3 emissions, representing emissions from our supply chain.
Community Engagement
Owens Corning strives to contribute to thriving communities where we work, where we live, and where we have the potential to make a positive impact.
Employee Experience
We believe our employees should grow as people and as professionals while working at Owens Corning. We seek to attract the best people and provide every employee with the opportunity to develop and reach their full potential, in a work environment full of both challenge and optimism.
Energy Efficiency & Sourcing Renewable Energy
We are determined to continue decreasing our dependence on fossil fuels, both by improving efficiency in our operations and by meeting more of our energy demands through renewable sources.
Health & Wellness
We promote a healthy and tobaccofree lifestyle for all our employees and their families. We are committed to ending lifestyle-induced disease in our employees, as well as promoting mental, physical, and financial wellbeing.
Human Rights
Owens Corning has the privilege of working with people all over the world. We believe that this privilege comes with the responsibility to treat all people with dignity and respect and to protect their fundamental rights. We are committed to being a leader in setting and upholding the highest standards for safeguarding human rights.
Inclusion & Diversity
We aim to foster an environment which represents people with various racial, ethnic, gender, religious, language, socioeconomic, family and cultural backgrounds, as well as people with different lived experiences, lifestyles, and interests, engaged and working together to create a fair, healthy, and high-performing organization. Inclusion enables employees to feel valued, understood, and inspired to bring their whole selves to work.
Living Safely
As a company, we are committed to promoting safety for all. We believe that all accidents are preventable, at work and at home.
Product Innovation & Stewardship
We utilize innovation and the principles of product stewardship to ensure that our products are fundamentally safe and sustainable in their design, creation, use, and eventual disposal. We also seek to drive continual improvement in the sustainability of the products we offer, both in their creation and in their ability to help the world meet its sustainability needs.
Responsible Water Sourcing & Consumption
We are committed to using water in an intelligent, sustainable way across the company. We operate in a number of different regions across the world, some of which are in areas of higher water stress than others. Through reuse, recycling, and efficiency, we strive to consume less water in our operations. We also must understand where our water use is most impactful, to set informed targets for water reduction.
Supply Chain Sustainability
We strive to hold our suppliers to the same high standards we hold ourselves. We see our suppliers as key contributors to our overall sustainability vision, and we seek to ensure all our suppliers fully comply with all applicable legislation, regulations, and legal requirements on human rights, labor, the environment, anticorruption, and trade and customs.
Waste Management
Our ambition is to mitigate the waste that we produce by redesigning the process to avoid its creation, then repurposing it whenever possible. We are committed to redefining waste, continuously looking for beneficial uses for our byproducts and other waste materials.
Our Material Topics represent our stakeholders’ priorities with consideration of our impacts, and they’re informed by the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. This report is organized by these topics to show how our efforts, our goals, and our stakeholders’ priorities align.
Read the full 2020 Sustainability Report here
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