What's New
Sustainability at HARMAN
By Lou Schruers
HARMAN Luxury Audio
Sustainability has become the seventh strategic pillar for HARMAN International. Let me share our sustainability journey to date with you.
The Climate Pledge
An Environmental Social and Governance Committee has been created to drive this important subject forward. As a company we became a member of The Climate Pledge Organization where we committed to be Carbon Neutral by 2040, 10 years ahead of the Paris agreement.
Impressive steps have been taken to achieve that goal. To name a few, we are actively reporting into the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and are a member of RE100 (RE100 is a global initiative bringing together the world's most influential businesses committed to 100% renewable electricity), where we publicly committed to only use renewable energy for all our operations and factories. 200 of our suppliers have committed to support us with the transition towards renewable energy.
Science Based Targets Initiatives will help to underpin actions towards Carbon Neutrality. Additionally, we became members of the Responsible Business Alliance. Ecovadis audited us and rated us SILVER for 2022.
Life Cycle Assessment
A lot of initiatives have been started throughout the company to reduce our Carbon Emissions towards our 2040 goal.
One element is our Life Cycle Assessment of products which helps to understand our Cradle-to-Grave Carbon emissions. Understanding the drivers is guiding the teams to work on reductions. In Consumer Audio we launched this year four products built from Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) plastics. 11 speaker products will use PCR fabric. And almost all new product introductions are using recycled paper and printing is done with more environmentally friendly Soy Ink. Plastic has been banned!
Power Efficiency has also gotten a lot of attention. This year 13 products have already been certified with an EPA Energy Star Label.
In order to step up on Circularity we are also addressing things like repairability, longevity and facilitation of easy disassembly/recycling. A lot is ongoing, and we are moving the organization towards greater environmental awareness across all divisions.
Great steps are being taken on our journey towards 2040 Carbon Neutrality. Here is a visual summary of 2022 achievements:
