A. O. Smith announced the release of its 2020 Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Report, which documents the company’s environmental, social and governance activities and performance over the past two years. It announced the company's first greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) reduction goal of 10% by 2025.

“The adoption of our first GHG emissions reduction goal is an important step for A. O. Smith to help further advance our innovation efforts as we work to mitigate the impact we have on the environment and be good stewards of the resources we use in our operations,” said Patricia Ackerman, senior vice president, investor relations, treasurer and corporate responsibility & sustainability. “The goal was developed through a strategic initiative to identify opportunities to further reduce and conserve water, natural gas and electricity consumption and associated GHG emissions.”

“As energy and water demand increases, our customers and communities also look to us to provide products that help reduce energy consumption and associated GHG emissions, conserve water and avoid single-use plastics,” Ackerman added. “Our commitment to innovation and engineering excellence has enabled us to be a leader in meeting our customers’ demands, while at the same time working toward providing water heating and water treatment solutions that reduce the impact on the environment throughout their lifecycle.”

In A. O. Smith’s North America Water Heating (NAWH) business, 17 out of 18 product development projects either “in development” or “pending resources” are either zero carbon or high-efficiency (condensing) gas products, which typically support a 50% improvement in energy efficiency.