At HARMAN, we treat every day like Earth Day! As one of our key strategic business pillars, sustainability is part of our DNA and we’re constantly on a journey to find new ways to innovate that have a positive impact on the communities where we live and work. From implementing new efforts to reduce waste to utilizing recycled materials in products across our brands and more, we’re taking action to achieve our goal of carbon neutrality by 2040. As Earth Month comes to a close, we want to share how we executed our commitment to a healthier, thriving planet throughout April.
Collecting E-waste in our offices around the globe
Remarkably, electronic waste accounts for 70% of our total toxic waste production. As members of the HARMAN family transitioned back to their offices this month, we encouraged our team members to participate in an e-waste recycling drive to reduce the amount of waste headed to landfills and prevent the environmental pollution caused by the toxins from the breakdown of electronics. Employees were asked to bring in three items of e-waste -- ranging from TVs and cellphones to stereo equipment and microwave ovens -- to be recycled. At the end of the month, we’ll tally the total amount of e-waste collected across our offices to calculate the reduction of our collective carbon footprint – stay tuned!
Testing our knowledge to better our commitment to the planet
This year, we put our employee’s sustainability knowledge to the test with a short, informational Earth Day quiz. HARMAN employees answered questions about Planet Earth and conservation and gained insight into our efforts as an organization that are making a difference. We also encouraged employees to share their stories about how they invest in the planet at home for a chance to be entered into a drawing for HARMAN product giveaways!
Reinforcing our Commitment to Net-Zero Carbon Emissions with The Climate Pledge
Sustainability is a year-round commitment at HARMAN, and in March, HARMAN joined like-minded leaders across industries, from Snap Inc. to SAP, Mercedes-Benz, Salesforce, HP and more, in the effort to turn the climate crisis into climate action by signing The Climate Pledge. The Climate Pledge is a cross-sector community of 300+ companies working together to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, a full 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement.
HARMAN’s Senior Director of Government Affairs and Sustainability Tom Mooney traveled to Austin, Texas, to participate in The Climate Pledge Roundtable at South by Southwest (SXSW). In a discussion led by Sally Fouts, Global Director of The Climate Pledge, Tom joined Alison Hill, CEO of Lifestraw, and Ashwin Dias, Uber’s Global Head of Vehicles and Electrification, to share the challenges, successes and goals regarding the future of sustainability and the innovative ways companies taking steps on their path toward net-zero.
Making strides with our renewable electricity strategy
This Earth Month, we also highlighted some recent sustainability successes at our HARMAN facility in Pune, India. In November of 2021, a 170 kWp-capacity solar-panel system was installed on its roof. The system can produce an impressive 162,000 kWh of electricity per year, which is more than 3% of the Pune site’s total annual energy consumption. This effort alone has the potential to save 119 tons of greenhouse gas emissions, equal to the emissions produced after driving almost 1 million km in a normal passenger car! This impressive development also aligns with our joining of the RE100, a group of 100 companies committed to 100% renewable electricity.