Building solutions, reducing footprint, and being transparent

We're using new technologies and processes to make our manufacturing plants around the world more energy efficient. Many of our aerospace, hydraulics, electrical and vehicle plants in North America upgraded their facilities with energy-saving projects. Overall, Eaton completed 21 projects that included lighting upgrades, building shell insulation, equipment upgrades, heat recovery, compressed air installation, ventilator control and energy management. These projects will eliminate about 6,474 metric tons of GHG emissions per year at a capital cost of $1.63 million and annual savings projected at $860,000. Eaton's R&D efforts are focused on our customers' needs for innovative products and solutions that improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. In 2011, the company opened a new Innovation Center in Prague – our fifth center, complementing facilities in the U.S., China and India. We estimate that new technologies being developed at Eaton's innovation centers have the potential to reduce the CO2 emissions of our applications by up to 60 percent by 2050. Eaton spent $417 million in 2011 for R&D to develop products and solutions that improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. Eaton's "Gamechangers" awards honor employees who drive breakthrough innovation, including emissions reduction activities. In 2011, one of the awards was given for a project that made 80 percent improvement in key environmental performance indicators in Eaton's industry leading Uninterruptible Power System (UPS). Eaton is a partner in the U.S.Dept. of Energy's 21st Century Truck Partnership whose vision is to ensure that our nation's trucks and buses move larger volumes of freight and greater numbers of passengers while emitting little or no pollution and reducing dependency on foreign oil.