Earth Day 2024: Celebrating HARMAN’s Sustainability Journey
Originally published on HARMAN Newsroom
At HARMAN, we’re committed to developing innovative solutions in a responsible way that benefits society, our customers, partners and communities. During Earth Month, we are reaffirming our commitment to advancing sustainable business practices – after all, sustainability is one of our strategic pillars, embedded within HARMAN’s DNA and guiding every decision we make. Our commitment to sustainability extends year-round and is a crucial element of our purpose-led mission to make life more connected, entertaining, personalized and productive for everyone. Guided by our Sound Purpose global ESG platform, we have set ambitious sustainability goals and set forth on an actionable plan to reach them.
Take a closer look at some of our recent sustainability achievements as we continue our journey toward a healthier, more sustainable future for generations to come:
Renewable Energy in Operations
To accommodate growth while supporting our sustainability goals, we manufacture our reliable products in technologically advanced facilities with reduced impact to our environment. We recently celebrated the grand opening our new HARMAN Professional Solutions manufacturing plant in Pécs, Hungary, which furthered our momentum toward achieving our environmental goals over the next decade with its use of geothermal energy for heating and cooling and solar powered electricity.
We also purchase renewable energy for our manufacturing plants as we progress towards our goal of 100% renewable electricity.
Our HARMAN Mexico manufacturing plant in Queretaro and HARMAN India manufacturing plant in Pune have also taken steps to help reduce emissions across manufacturing operations by installing solar panels in both facilities. In Queretaro, this initiative propelled renewable energy to cover 9% of the site’s overall electricity consumption, leading to an annual reduction of 960 tonnes CO2e in greenhouse gas emissions. The efforts of our Pune facility also gained recognition as an exemplary sustainable manufacturing site when our team was honored as an “Energy Efficient Unit” by a panel of judges at the 23rd National Award for Excellence in Energy Management.
Highlighting Our Carbon Reduction Initiatives
In an exciting development, through our partnership with DSV, we have achieved a significant environmental milestone by reducing 10 tonnes of CO2e emissions for our air freight transport using biofuels derived from sustainable sources.
Planet v Plastics: Sustainable Packaging & Products
We are also proud of the significant progress we’ve made over the past few years to further our sustainable packaging initiative. Our product development and packaging practices now use soy ink printing and avoid the use of virgin plastic whenever possible. We have also implemented measures that reduce power consumption, weight and heat generation during the packaging process.
Our teams are constantly innovating to make our products more sustainable while optimizing the high standard for performance and quality that our customers expect from HARMAN. The Harman Kardon Aura Studio 4 is one recent example of our commitment to quality products that merge premium sound with sustainable design to help protect our planet.
During the development process, our design team looked to nature for inspiration and their appreciation of its innate power inspired them to create the Aura Studio 4. The Aura Studio 4 is elegantly crafted in part with recycled materials, blending a unique modern design with superior sound quality and a multi-sensorial experience.
The first in the range to be made in part with recycled materials, the speaker grille fabric is woven from 100% recycled polyester yarn, all aluminum is 100% recycled and the speaker housing is crafted from 85% post-consumer recycled plastic. It is also packaged in FSC-certified paper that has been printed with soy ink.
Additionally, HARMAN upgraded our popular JBL line of portable speakers so that the JBL Xtreme 4, JBL Clip 5 and JBL Go 4 now made with recycled fabric and plastic and equipped with upgraded Bluetooth capabilities. Built with the environment in mind and equipped with upgraded Bluetooth capabilities, these latest portables feature even better sound and new color options for an enhanced listening experience.
Sustainability remains a year-round focus at HARMAN. During Earth Month, Earth Day, and beyond, we are committed to embedding sustainable and responsible practices within our operations and having a positive impact on the communities in which we live and work. We have made great progress, but the journey isn’t over. Stay tuned later this year for more updates on our sustainability efforts, progress and new initiatives as we continue on our sustainability journey.
