LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa.,
Oct. 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As
part of its publicly stated goal of being the most diverse
industrial gas company in the world, Air Products (NYSE: APD) is
taking another measurable, transparent step towards achieving that
objective. Today, the company announced its goals to further
increase the percentage of females and U.S. minorities in
professional and managerial roles.
By 2025, Air Products aims to achieve at least 28 percent
female representation in the professional and managerial
population globally, and at least 20 percent minority
representation in that same population in the United States. These measures are
increases from 25 and 17 percent representation (2020 baseline),
respectively.
With a broad operating scope and cultural landscape of more than
17,000 employees in over 50 countries, Air Products established
these new targets following analysis of its global employee
representation metrics and future talent needs, as well as
assessing industry benchmarks and peer companies.
"This is another example of Air Products putting
its values into action," said Seifi
Ghasemi, Air Products' chairman, president and
CEO. "Our higher purpose includes bringing people
together to collaborate and innovate solutions to the world's
energy and environmental challenges. In order to realize this, we
want to further increase representation of diverse talent in our
managerial and leadership positions and continue building an
inclusive culture where all employees feel they belong and
matter."
Air Products plans to share progress towards these goals both
internally and externally. In its 2020 Sustainability
Report for the first time, Air Products published 2019 metrics
on the representation of U.S. minorities, and added an additional
level of metrics for females in Executive roles.
"We believe that by being transparent about our goals and our
progress against them, we can visibly demonstrate our genuine
commitment to diversity, inclusion and belonging and bring everyone
along on the journey with us," Ghasemi said.
The goals to increase the percentages of global female and U.S.
minorities in professional and managerial roles are the latest in a
series of actions and programs to build an even more diverse and
inclusive workplace at Air Products, including:
- An enhanced Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging company
policy;
- Publishing company diversity metrics internally and externally
for transparency and accountability to drive progress;
- Accountability of senior leaders companywide to create and
execute Diversity Action Plans, including diverse succession
planning;
- Leadership Development Programs for diverse talent (women,
minorities);
- Monthly "Inclusion Moment" topics for discussions
companywide;
- Manager training on unconscious bias;
- An expanding Inclusion Network, which is focused on attracting
and retaining talent, raising cultural awareness, developing
colleagues, and contributing to the company's overall diversity,
inclusion and belonging objectives;
- Numerous Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), including: AERO
(Asian Employee Resource Organization), BERG (Black Employee
Resource Group), EDGE (Ethnically Diverse Gulf Employees), Enable
(Valuing employees of ALL abilities), HOLA (Hispanic Organization
of Latinos and Amigos), ISERO (Indian Subcontinent Employee
Resource Organization), Spectrum (LGBTQ+ Resource Group), Spectrum
EU (LGBTQ+ Europe), WSN (Women's
Success Network), WSN Houston (WSN Chapter for Houston), WSN Operations (WSN Chapter for
Operations), WSN EU (WSN Chapter in Europe), UDAAN (Women in India), KWS (Korean Women's Success Network),
and the company's newest and soon to be launched ERG in the
Middle East (MEERG).
- Four Diversity and Inclusion Councils in Asia in China, Korea, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia.
Air Products' new diversity goals come on the heels of other,
recently-announced sustainability commitments. Last month, the
company announced its "Third by '30" goal to reduce
carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) intensity (kg
CO2/MM BTU) by one-third by the year 2030. Air Products
set this new target as it closes in on successfully attaining a
series of 2020 Sustainability goals.
About Air Products
Air Products (NYSE:APD) is a
world-leading industrial gases company in operation for 80 years.
Focused on serving energy, environment and emerging markets, the
Company provides essential industrial gases, related equipment and
applications expertise to customers in dozens of industries,
including refining, chemical, metals, electronics, manufacturing,
and food and beverage. Air Products is also the global leader in
the supply of liquefied natural gas process technology and
equipment. The Company develops, engineers, builds, owns and
operates some of the world's largest industrial gas projects,
including gasification projects that sustainably convert abundant
natural resources into syngas for the production of high-value
power, fuels and chemicals.
The Company had fiscal 2019 sales of $8.9
billion from operations in 50 countries and has a current
market capitalization of about $65
billion, making it the largest American chemical company by
market capitalization. More than 17,000 passionate, talented and
committed employees from diverse backgrounds are driven by Air
Products' higher purpose to create innovative solutions that
benefit the environment, enhance sustainability and address the
challenges facing customers, communities, and the world. For more
information, visit airproducts.com or follow us
on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.
NOTE: This release may contain forward-looking statements
within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are
based on management's reasonable expectations and assumptions as of
the date of this release regarding important risk factors. Actual
performance and financial results may differ materially from
projections and estimates expressed in the forward-looking
statements because of many factors not anticipated by management,
including risk factors described in the company's Form 10K for its
fiscal year ended September 30,
2019.
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SOURCE Air Products