Beyond Today, Shaping Tomorrow: 20 Years of Sustainability at Owens Corning
Leaders from around the company offer their perspective on the work that brought us this far, and the work that lies ahead.
Originally published in Owens Corning's 2020 Sustainability Report
Frank O’Brien-Bernini
Senior Vice Presidentand Chief Sustainability Officer
"Two decades, three CEOs, one CSO, 19,000 employees in 33 countries, with one purpose – our people and products make the world a better place. As I reflect on our journey, and our impact, there are so many things to be proud of, and even more ahead to challenge and excite us. What began with a focus on footprint reduction, quickly expanded to designing and manufacturing products with differentiated sustainability attributes. We collaborated with customers and suppliers for even bigger impact, and then expanded our scope to include safety, wellness, community engagement, inclusion and diversity and most recently, embodied carbon and circular economy. What I’ve learned along the way is that the most critical competence of sustainability talent, all across our company, is the ability to lead change.
The skills and capabilities to set ambitious aspirations that matter, have the bold nerve to say them out loud, publicly, before having a defined path-to-achieve, put in place the resources with resilient resolve to make the necessary hard-fought progress today, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year and many years to come…and to then have the confidence and integrity to transparently report progress, year after year, whether you are proud or disappointed (and most often, a mix of both).
There is so much to be proud of in what our people have accomplished. I am particularly proud of our progress on climate action. We have cut our absolute GHG emissions by over half since our peak year, despite adding several acquisitions along the way, and we are now committed to cut it in half again with our Science Based Target of -50% for 2030, in line with the 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels pathway. As we, and other great companies around the world, look to imagine a decarbonized future, I am massively energized by all levers yet to pull on the path to carbon neutrality. The promise of a future with a robust circular economy is one of those climate-action bright spots of underappreciated opportunity… let’s go!"
Julie Childers
Director, Corporate Sustainability
"When we started publishing annual sustainability reports in 2006, we wanted to give our stakeholders an idea of how we were approaching environmental sustainability in our operations. Over the years, our sustainability goals have gotten bolder and cover a wider range of activities, and our stakeholders are more interested in the details. The need for transparency in sustainability reporting will continue to increase, especially as stakeholder expectations evolve. At the same time, we’re developing better metrics and better ways of collecting and analyzing data, so over the next ten years I’m sure our annual reporting process will continue to evolve. The amount and depth of disclosure we’re doing now makes the report a complex undertaking, but we believe it’s the right thing to do. We continue to work to share our story in other ways, too, and we track the questions we get from investors, customers, and others as an indication of where we can provide additional data or explanations to clarify. I think knowing that our results will be shared openly helps our teams stay focused on making sure we can be proud of what we’re doing, even in cases where we may not be getting the results we want yet."
