CEO letter

I am pleased to share our latest sustainability report, which highlights the progress we have achieved in meeting our Higher Standard 2025 strategy sustainability goals. At our company, we believe that sustainability is not just a responsibility, but a core value and critical component of our enterprise strategy that drives business decisions, operations, and is ultimately a competitive advantage for the organization. It is also tied to our purpose of operating by a higher standard to help our customers build a better world.

Over the past year, one of my key priorities has been safety. Safeguarding our employees is critical to how we operate and deliver superior value to our stakeholders. We have enhanced our safety initiatives with new investments in safety programs that proactively identify and manage potential risks and are engaging employees in new ways to improve safety performance. Together, we have been making significant strides as highlighted in our latest safety metrics.

We also remain committed to reducing the energy intensity of our operations. Capital investments in more energy efficient systems within our facilities and a focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions continues to lower our carbon footprint and advances us towards our Higher Standard 2025 Strategy targets.

This year, we completed our first Environmental, Safety & Governance (ESG) materiality assessment, as well as a climate scenario analysis and disclosure that aligns to the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). These efforts have helped us better understand our stakeholders’ most relevant issues, and our findings reinforce a strong alignment with current initiatives and key performance indicators. Our climate scenario analysis identified five key areas of risks and opportunities, which we have incorporated into our enterprise risk management process and are developing strategic responses to ensure the resilience of the organization and best position the company to capitalize on growth opportunities.

All of these achievements would not be possible without the focus and commitment of our employees, whose diverse talents, expertise and hard work continue to drive operational excellence, innovation and teamwork across the company.

We recognize that there is still much more work to be done, and we remain committed to advancing our initiatives and continuously improving our sustainability performance. We believe that by working together with our stakeholders, we can create a more sustainable future for all.

Thank you for your continued support and partnership

Sincerely,
Steve Hedlund