Johnson Controls named to prestigious FT European Climate Leaders list

Johnson Controls announced that it has been named to the inaugural FT Climate Leaders in Europe list.

Europe's Climate Leaders 2021 is a list of companies across Europe that have shown the highest reduction of their emission intensity, i.e., core greenhouse gas emissions in relation to revenues, between 2014 and 2019. Johnson Controls was one of only 300 companies selected from 4000 across Europe. 

"We are extremely proud to be recognized by the Financial Times as a European climate leader," said George Oliver, chairman and CEO, Johnson Controls. "Sustainability has long been at the heart of everything we do and it is an honor to be included on this prestigious list. With COP26 approaching at this critical moment in the battle against climate change, it is important that companies continue to play their part in cutting emissions and delivering clean, sustainable solutions across the entire value chain." 

At the European level, Johnson Controls has been effectively supporting the EU's world-leading ambition to become carbon neutral by 2050. 

"The European Climate law is historic and an important step in Europe's pathway to net zero emissions by 2050. We also applaud the Commission on its leadership in the EU buildings renovation wave and its clear focus on energy performance in buildings. We're eager to drive harder and faster to cut the 40 percent of greenhouse gases that come from buildings," said Tomas Brannemo, vice president and president, Building Solutions Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America at Johnson Controls. "Digitalization has been recognized as a key enabler for the EU's renovation wave and we have the tools and services such as OpenBlue to cut building emissions by 50% and more."

Johnson Controls' OpenBlue platform for optimizing buildings sustainability is not only drastically improving the company's own environmental impact, it is also helping its customers and future generations to consume less energy, conserve resources, and identify pathways to achieving healthy, net zero carbon communities – ultimately creating an environment for healthy people, healthy places and a healthy planet. 

Johnson Controls is also helping meet the growing demand for energy efficient technologies in the European markets and beyond. It has provided heat pump solutions for more than a dozen district heating and cooling applications in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy and Norway. 

Heat pumps have an important role to play in decarbonizing both buildings and industry. They have long been in the DNA of industrial refrigeration – utilised in food and beverage, dairy and other process industries for reclaiming low temperature waste heat and turning it into low-cost, high-temperature heat. The breadth of the Johnson Controls portfolio – in terms of size, efficiency and temperature range – is world-class, and continues to help customers reduce their carbon emissions. 

As part of its environmental and sustainability commitments, Johnson Controls has committed to achieving net zero carbon before 2040, and announced science-based targets for 2030. It aims to slash its operational emissions by 55 percent and reduce customers' emissions by 16 percent in absolute terms before 2030. These ambitious reduction targets, which have been independently approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), are consistent with reductions required to keep warming to 1.5°C, the most ambitious goal of the Paris Agreement. 

As a leader in the buildings space for more than 135 years, Johnson Controls has been a pioneer in sustainability. It is ranked in the top 12 percent of climate leadership companies globally by CDP and was recently named again to the World's Most Ethical Companies Honoree List and one of Corporate Knights' global 100 most Sustainable Companies.