A Message From Judy Marks, Chair, Chief Executive Officer and President at Otis Worldwide
Originally published in Otis 2022 ESG Report
Our vision, as industry leader, is to give people freedom to connect and thrive in a taller, faster, smarter world. We embrace the responsibility to honor the generations that came before us, to deliver for the generations of today and to sponsor the generations that come after us. It is about doing the right thing for our planet, customers, colleagues, shareholders, and the communities where we live and work.
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) is part of our culture, integral to setting our vision in motion and embedded in our long-term strategy. It is no coincidence that the principles of ESG align well with the foundation of our business: our Absolutes of Safety, Ethics and Quality.
Safety was core to our beginnings 170 years ago and remains a top priority in our work today – for colleagues who design, install or service our elevators and escalators and for the 2 billion passengers who ride on them daily. Our reputation is paramount, and we uphold the highest standards of Ethics through strong governance and a spirit of integrity – always doing business the right way. We believe that all of us “own” Quality. We deliver quality results at every turn across our production, installation, and maintenance and repair processes as well as sales, marketing and financial reporting.
Our business success requires continuous growth and improvement, and ESG is an area where we and our stakeholders rightly expect progress. Last year, in our inaugural ESG report as an independent company, we made clear our dedication to the four pillars that are fundamental to our ESG strategy: Health & Safety, Environment & Impact, People & Communities, and Governance & Accountability. We hold ourselves accountable with the added step of tying executive short-term incentive compensation to ESG goal performance – specifically, achieving gender parity among executives and managing our environmental footprint to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. ESG advancement is embedded in our success through strong financial results and the impact we make in the communities where we do business.
In this report, we are pleased to share initiatives and progress toward our 13 ESG goals and our commitment to foster a more sustainable, inclusive world. We aim to transparently provide updates toward our goals while celebrating important milestones.
Among the updates in this report:
- Health & Safety: We remain committed to achieving a zero-harm workplace and launched Field Standard Practices to identify, track and rectify areas of high-risk work activities. If an incident does occur, we perform extensive root-cause analyses to make improvements and help prevent recurrence.
- Environment & Impact: In a first for the elevator industry, our Florence, South Carolina, U.S., facility achieved gold-level TRUE certification for its zero-waste efforts. And we built a new factory in San Sebastian, Spain, that used certain sustainable construction materials and is powered by electricity generated from 100% renewable resources.
- People & Communities: We launched a set of programs to support us in accelerating development of diverse talent, female leadership and our culture of inclusion. These programs are helping us ensure that our workforce reflects the communities we serve. We are on a responsible and sustainable path to reach gender parity in our executive ranks by 2030, having increased female executive representation from 36% in 2021 to 39.2% in 2022.
- Governance & Accountability: Members of our Board of Directors are deeply experienced senior executives across sectors that include asset management, automotive, consumer products, manufacturing and professional services. We seek to enhance Board diversity in other dimensions as well. With the addition of our newest Board member in October 2022, six of our 10 members are women, racially/ethnically diverse or both.
As we continuously work to advance our strategy, culture and ESG goals, we are doing so from a position of strength. I am confident that in this report you, our stakeholders, will see tangible progress toward limiting carbon emissions, reducing and reusing energy, promoting equity, inclusivity and diversity, and providing opportunities for all. We look forward to continuing our ESG journey alongside you.
