Why We're Committing to Science-Based Targets

The future is sustainable innovation, and we have committed to set science-based targets to help further reduce our environmental impact – building on the pledge we made in 2021 to be carbon neutral in our facilities and operations by 2035.

Here’s what to know about the initiative.

What are science-based targets?

Science-based targets are designed to help prevent impacts of climate change. The targets are set based on guidelines determined by climate science, placing them in alignment with the Paris Agreement, the international agreement on climate change adopted at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2015.

What is our commitment?

By committing to develop a science-based target with the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), we will further quantify our scope 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and will work closely with SBTi to determine an appropriate reduction target for those emissions.

The SBTi is a partnership among the nonprofit organization CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

The SBTi helps companies who have committed to the initiative by assessing and validating their targets and providing expert resources and technical assistance in line with the latest climate science.

What are scope 1, scope 2 and scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions?

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines scope 1 GHG emissions as direct emissions from owned or controlled sources, such as vehicles and facilities. Scope 2 GHG emissions are indirect emissions from purchased electricity and steam.

The EPA defines scope 3 as GHG emissions that an organization indirectly impacts in its value chain. Oftentimes, scope 3 emissions represent the majority of an organization’s total GHG emissions.

How will we work toward a science-based target?

We’ll take a multi-faceted approach, including investing further in energy savings projects, adopting renewable energy sources, improving Honeywell sites, utilizing credible carbon offsets if necessary and permitted and using Honeywell technologies wherever possible.

Product innovation – including developing new technologies and upgrading existing solutions to have reduced emissions – will also continue to play a key role in how we address our scope 3 emissions. In 2021, about 60% of our research and development of new products was centered on environmental, social and governance (ESG) outcomes.¹

As of February 2022, we’ve also taken another step forward in our sustainability commitments by joining the United States Department of Energy’s Better Climate Challenge.

Through the Better Climate Challenge, we’ve pledged to reduce US scopes 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 50% and improve energy efficiency by an additional 10% by 2030, from a 2018 baseline. We’ve also pledged to share our progress and solutions with other organizations and report on the data of our scopes 1 and 2 GHG emissions throughout the next 10 years.

“Since we started our sustainability program in 2004, we have improved our own greenhouse gas intensity by more than 90%,” said Evan van Hook, Honeywell’s chief sustainability officer. “With our enhanced sustainability commitments, we’ll continue to innovate solutions to help our customers reduce their impact on the environment, and we’ll leverage those technologies to continuously improve our decarbonization efforts.”

From sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to plastics recycling technology, we're investing in sustainable innovations to help your business and the planet.

¹ Methodology for identifying ESG-oriented solutions is available at investor.honeywell.com (see “ESG/ESG Information/Identification of ESG-Oriented Offerings”).