Whirlpool Corporation Team Drives Global Effort to Meet Materials Compliance

When it comes to sustainability, dreaming bigger is always better. By looking beyond regulatory requirements to achieve sustainable practices, Whirlpool Corporation is recognizing the value in protecting consumer health and trade customer priorities, as well as reduced eco-fees.

Materials compliance is a priority for the company, as it ultimately works toward full material transparency on 90% of all new parts by 2020. Whirlpool Corporation’s Global Critical Materials Management (CMM) team plays a critical role in meeting that goal.

The CMM team is standardizing incoming materials compliance data and paving the way for additional transparency and disclosure to ensure products meet compliance globally.

Currently, CMM - through a relationship with a third-party company - is rolling out a fully-automated system for collection, data management, and reporting needs. The system will assist Whirlpool Corporation in transitioning to international reporting standards - the Full Materials Disclosure (FMD) process - as well as centralizing global materials regulation monitoring and minimizing redundancies in the supply base.

The team has also partnered with product development to create a tool that categorizes food and water contact parts to verify the safety of product components and notify engineers and designers early in the development process. This will allow delivery of comprehensive compliance information in a timely manner.

CMM’s ongoing efforts provide project teams a snapshot into the future and the resources needed to navigate through an ever-changing regulatory landscape while continuing to deliver world-class products.

Whirlpool Corporation is committed to improving its sustainability practices and has made progress in regions around the world. To read more about our global initiatives, click here to access the complete 2016 Sustainability Report. The annual Sustainability Report is based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) model, an international independent standards organization that helps businesses, governments and other organizations understand and communicate their impacts on issues such as climate change, human rights and corruption.