Green Builder Media CEO Sara Gutterman interviews Ron Voglewede, global sustainability director at Whirlpool, about the company's ESG strategy. He covers its net zero operations commitment, wind power purchase agreements, water efficiency gains in washers and dishwashers, and its zero waste to landfill goal.
00:00:07:06 - 00:00:27:23
Sara Gutterman: Sarah, CEO of Green Builder Media. And I'm here with Ron Vogel, lead the director of global sustainability at whirlpool. And whirlpool has really been a leader in corporate sustainability for many, many years. Can you tell us, Ron, about the evolution of whirlpools, corporate sustainability and S.G. strategies and initiatives?
00:00:27:25 - 00:00:46:23
Ron Voglewede: Absolutely. Thanks. And if you look at our history, it actually goes way back. We started our office. I sit in office for the Environment and Sustainability back in 1970. So it's been a long standing attribute. And as far as our s, we had a whirlpool foundation as early as 1950s. So this is nothing new to whirlpool, quite frankly.
00:00:46:23 - 00:01:15:26
Ron Voglewede: And I think it's it's great that we're seeing a lot of people start to, to address the societal needs, as we have been doing for, for over 110 years. As we look to improve life at home. So it really is part and parcel to our mission here at whirlpool is to do just exactly that is how do we evolve and continue to support people where they live and help improve that both for themselves, the planet, and society as a whole?
00:01:16:03 - 00:01:21:23
Sara Gutterman: Thanks, Ron. Tell us about some of your current ESG initiatives. What are you most excited about?
00:01:21:26 - 00:01:44:04
Ron Voglewede: What we're most excited about? Just this last year, we really committed to net zero in our operations, really getting after the what is the environmental impact of what we do across the globe. And, you know, in our manufacturing sites and large operations, we're making significant progress. And it's through a lot of different levers on energy retrofits, but also renewables.
00:01:44:05 - 00:02:10:09
Ron Voglewede: You know, for us, what you'll see is continued investments. We have new off site virtual power purchase agreements. So really designed to do over 400,000 megawatt hours. So massive wind farms in Texas, two of them, one is already operational, as you may or may not know. We're also one of the largest on site user behind the meter of wind energy in the US among fortune 500 companies.
00:02:10:09 - 00:02:37:01
Ron Voglewede: With our wind farms that we have on directly on site feeding directly with plants in Ohio. So, you know, we've been doing that since the mid teens here in the 2000. And I think you'll see a lot more of that. We do have additional goals on our scope three. So what our products do in use. So the category 11 emissions there, which is pretty aggressive when you think about the massive gains we have had up to date.
00:02:37:01 - 00:02:51:05
Ron Voglewede: So since 2005 we've done over 60% reduction in emissions in our products and use. And that's massive considering it is the majority of our emissions profile, our carbon footprint for us as a as an enterprise.
00:02:51:08 - 00:02:59:27
Sara Gutterman: So can you tell us a little bit more about what whirlpool is doing to address our urgent and increasing water issues?
00:02:59:29 - 00:03:20:05
Ron Voglewede: Water is kind of a natural consequence of climate change in our products usable by 20. And so it is a huge portion of what we've done and focused on. And a lot of those energy and emission savings have gotten been gotten through. How we manage water in our products, know matching reductions and in our in our water usage.
00:03:20:05 - 00:03:44:23
Ron Voglewede: If you look at a typical deep fill washer you've had in the past, or a new horizontal, it's a 4 to 1, you know, you see 40 gallons. Now we're in the 1211 gallon range. You look at dishwashers, it's three times less water than hand washing, you know, 3 to 4 times less on emissions because of that. So this is that energy, water nexus, our climate and water issue that we're trying to solve.
00:03:44:23 - 00:04:06:20
Ron Voglewede: And I think, you know, as we look at even our manufacturing record year after year of reductions in water intensity, we had some of our records and rainwater collection and reuse. And you'll see some exciting news coming out here around how even some of our facilities provide water services for even the city they're working in. And so, you know, but is going to be a collective effort.
00:04:06:23 - 00:04:39:14
Ron Voglewede: There's going to need to be policy changes. Water is highly subsidized infrastructure. We've all seen those stories, you know, water quality and water access. Those are huge changes. That and we applaud water being added to the infrastructure bill. And you know, we've even taken leadership roles ourselves. I'm the chair now of the board for the Alliance for Water Efficiency to start advocating for those those policies and changes and working with water utilities on how we can better look at the whole ecosystem of water and make it more resilient, more accessible and affordable over time.
00:04:39:20 - 00:04:49:29
Sara Gutterman: Are there any specific metrics that whirlpool has set that you want to call out with respect to just overall resource use reduction or carbon emissions?
00:04:50:02 - 00:05:14:19
Ron Voglewede: We have a zero waste and landfill goal where we want to go above across our plants, and we made significant progress there. We're at 90% now, so we're very excited about hitting that goal this year. And we have very high recycling rates over 95%. When we talk about is not just about eliminate waste, but doing the right thing and finding those usages to reduce our, you know, natural resource depletion.
00:05:14:22 - 00:05:34:17
Ron Voglewede: And you'll see more from recycled content. You're starting to eliminate things that are hard to recycle, like EPs. We successfully launched a large and a large, large product in Europe, several of them that are EPs free completely. It is a kind of all fronts. It can be somewhat daunting for the team, but that's where we're taking a different approach.
00:05:34:18 - 00:05:56:04
Ron Voglewede: We're looking at solutions and integration into how we design. Fundamentally, it's not sustainability over here anymore, and I think that's what is really focusing on is not just all these things in a silo, not even the end, the silo anymore. It is really integrating across all our functions and will accelerate that by putting that ESG lens on. How do we start to prove it?
00:05:56:04 - 00:06:06:11
Ron Voglewede: Because as we see a lot of pressure on greenwashing, are you really doing the right things the right way? And I think that's what we're really proud of here, because that's been a part of our culture for over ten years.