Caterpillar 2016 Sustainability Report | Letter from Caterpillar CEO Jim Umpleby

Caterpillar CEO Jim Umpleby highlights examples of how we’re building better through natural infrastructure, circular economy practices and energy access, as well as our sustainability practices within the company. 

For more than 90 years, caterpillar has been building better: better lives, better communities and, ultimately, a better world. Our customers use our equipment to develop infrastructure, energy and natural resource assets that improve living standards and make sustainable progress possible around the world.

Our dedication to building better is stronger than ever. Caterpillar, our customers and dealers are investing to help address the world’s persistent challenges, such as resource and energy scarcity, poor sanitation, unsafe water and poverty. This year’s report covers efforts in several of those areas. I’ll highlight a few in this letter.

NATURAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Cat® products build infrastructure – roads, dams, airports and schools – that support local, regional and national economies. Cat products are also at work restoring natural infrastructure – forests, prairies, farmlands, wetlands and coastal landscapes – that are essential for healthy economies, societies and environmental preservation.

Natural infrastructure removes carbon from the atmosphere and returns it to the earth as a valuable component of soils, plants and ecosystems. That returns land to a more healthy state, and when land is healthy, it’s productive for farming, recreation and many other uses.

Unfortunately, much of the world’s natural infrastructure has been lost or degraded.

We’re helping reverse this in three ways. First, our customers use Cat products and solutions at restoration job sites. Second, our company and the Caterpillar Foundation fund and support restoration projects. Third, we’re collaborating with public and private partners to raise awareness and advocate for policies that support natural infrastructure restoration.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY PRACTICES
Through remanufacturing and rebuilding our used machines and components, we are also an active participant in the circular economy. Every year, we extend the life of Cat equipment and components and divert millions of pounds of end-of-life material away from landfills.

Cat Reman recovers materials and restores engines and components to same-as-when-new specifications. These solutions are a win-win-win for our customers, the environment and Caterpillar.

We’ve been supporting the circular economy for decades. We’re committed to making these practices available to as many customers in as many countries as possible.

ENERGY ACCESS
Availability and access are also major sustainability goals for our energy businesses. We know affordable and dependable energy is essential for economic prosperity, growth and security, and we’ve been a leader in developing products to address these needs.

For example, we provide solutions that include combined heat and power, waste to energy, landfill gas to energy, coal mine methane to energy, and more. We’re also excited about the potential to bring a host of new innovations in renewable energy technologies for applications in both developing and developed regions.

A BETTER CATERPILLAR
As we contribute new solutions to solve global problems, we’re always working to be a better company. We’ve made progress, but know there is always room to improve. That’s why we are committed to safety, diversity and inclusion improvements for our employees, and sustainability practices in what we manufacture and how we manufacture it.

In 2016, we moved forward on these fronts in meaningful ways:

• We lowered our recordable injury frequency rate to 0.50, a 92 percent improvement since 2003.
• We reduced absolute greenhouse gas emissions from our operations by 7 percent from 2015.
• We set targets to increase the number of women to nearly a third of our workforce and 25 percent of our leadership by 2022.
• The Caterpillar Foundation invested $36.8 million dollars in global communities in 2016.

Our stakeholders can count on us to keep working to build a better world. It’s fundamental to our values, and who we are as a company and a global team.

Click here to read Caterpillar's full 2016 Sustainability Report.