Trane Technologies’ Gigaton Challenge

For Trane Technologies, integrating an ESG means successfully meeting all three parts of the roadmap as well as setting audacious goals for going carbon neutral.

Trane Technologies has made the bold commitment to achieve carbon neutral operations by 2030. “As a global climate innovator, Trane Technologies has clear ambitions,” notes company Chair and Chief Executive Officer Dave Regnery. “But ambition alone is not enough—we take action every day to enhance our positive impact.” For Trane Technologies, that everyday impact materializes in the form of ESG considerations.

The company has developed a strategic environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) roadmap to ensure sustainability and social concerns are embedded in the decision-making process. The integration of ESG enables Trane Technologies to make substantial progress on its 2030 commitments.

Trane Technologies has a reputation as a global climate innovator, with a portfolio of environmentally responsible products and services that bring efficient and sustainable climate solutions to buildings, homes and transportation. Courtesy Trane Technologies

While a 2030 deadline for carbon neutral operations is ambitious for any manufacturer, Trane Technologies has upped the ante with the “Gigaton Challenge”–a commitment to remove 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from its customers' carbon footprints.

In 2020, Trane recognized that emissions from product usage were 20 times that of its operational footprint. With this knowledge and its desire to be an industry leader for climate mitigation, Trane has superseded industry standards and developed a three-prong approach to tackle these more impactful emissions.

The strategy includes updating product design to be more energy efficient, using electricity as the main fuel source, and switching to lower global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants. Trane has already made substantial progress by removing 93 million tons of emissions, the equivalent of 9.3 percent of total target emissions since 2019.

To help the Neiman Marcus Group improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions at its historic Bergdorf Goodman building, Trane Technologies replaced the structure’s inefficient absorption chillers with electric units. This reduced CO₂ emissions by 642 metric tons, the equivalent 138 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles driven for one year. One of the protectively wrapped e-chillers is shown here, prior to installation. Courtesy Trane Technologies

Trane Technologies’ extensive ESG strategy utilizes the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) along with principles from leading ESG reporting frameworks, such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), to implement social and governance policies within its organization.

Just as seen with its environmental commitments, Trane Technologies has ambitiously set social and governance targets for 2030—most notably, a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) target that increases the number of racially diverse salaried employees to 50 percent of the company’s entire salaried U.S. workforce by 2030.

Trane Technologies is equally committed to gender parity, with 5 out of 13 board positions being held by women.&

Many companies will choose to focus on the first pillar of ESG, environmental concerns, instead of crafting a robust ESG strategy equally concerned about the E, S and G material risks. Unlike those companies, Trane Technologies continues to exemplify what a true ESG leader is, with its attention to all three pillars of ESG.

Maintaining a technical workforce is difficult. Trane Technologies addresses the issue through actions such as educational boot camps, scholarships for dependents, and managerial employee engagement workshops. Courtesy Trane Technologies

Leading by example, Trane Technologies continues to push the boundaries of ESG commitments to transform the manufacturing industry and progress to a low carbon economy.