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Innovating—One Sustainable Product at a Time

To create sustainable products, it takes dedication, rigid adherence to best practices and a relentless passion for making the world a better place. So we’ve incorporated sustainable thinking into our Product Development Process (PDP). Along the way, we’ve developed some visual methods for helping homeowners and business owners find the products that will reduce their environmental impact and support their own sustainability goals.

Innovating—One Sustainable Product at a Time

To create sustainable products, it takes dedication, rigid adherence to best practices and a relentless passion for making the world a better place. So we’ve incorporated sustainable thinking into our Product Development Process (PDP). Along the way, we’ve developed some visual methods for helping homeowners and business owners find the products that will reduce their environmental impact and support their own sustainability goals.

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Sustainability Wheel

Our Sustainability
Strategy, Visualized

Every new product we design will go through our Product Development Process based on industry best practices. Early in the PDP, we gather key representatives from our R&D, Sourcing, Manufacturing and other teams for Sustainability Strategy Sessions. In these sessions, our teams consider eight factors focusing on the product’s impact on the environment, and four on its social impact.

Before any new idea makes it through the PDP, we consider its production, its use and its end of life—and our sustainability strategy wheel helps us explore ways to integrate sustainability into the final product.

Sustainability Standout Seal

While many Rheem products have sustainable features, certain products stand out as a cut above—and those products earn the Sustainability Standout® seal. It’s given based on a number of internally designated factors relating to product attributes like energy efficiency, longevity, CO2 reduction and more. We’re in the process of adding the seal in places including the product information pages, marketing and training materials—all to help professionals recommend responsible products and consumers make smart purchasing decisions.

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How The Seal is Earned

To determine which products stand out among our sustainable offerings and have earned the right to bear the Sustainability Standout seal, we created a proprietary point system. In our Sustainability Strategy Sessions during our Product Development Process, we look at the Earth-friendly and user-friendly attributes of the product—such as efficiency, packaging, performance, features and recyclability. We assign each sustainability attribute a point value, and products that earn enough points bear the seal. Those that haven’t earned enough points may still be very environmentally friendly. However, this seal is simply a way to make finding the best of the best easier.

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Sustainability Standouts

We’re working to bring the Sustainability Standout seal to all the products that qualify. Look for it on upcoming product pages, videos and other marketing materials to help you identify the product solutions that have earned a closer look.

CO2 Reduction Levels

One of the key considerations in the development of a sustainable product is how much it reduces the emissions of CO2, a greenhouse gas, into the environment. So we measure our products—both existing and in-development—against their baseline counterparts. The result is a CO2 reduction level, which we classify as good, better or brand best. As they start appearing on marketing materials, product pages and more, we hope these CO2 reduction symbols will help buyers find products that will help lower their own environmental impact.

How the Symbols Are Measured

The percentage of CO2 reduction specific to the product’s category determines the appropriate symbol for each product category. The chart below indicates the specific percentage ranges that are used to classify the products into levels across our product types.

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EcoMeter

Choosing sustainable products matters—together, our actions add up and make a difference. Our EcoMeter illustrates the positive environmental impact made to date by homeowners and business owners who have purchased our higher-efficiency products.

How the EcoMeter is Calculated

Rheem’s cumulative carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) emissions avoided figure is calculated based on Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s Technical Guidance for Calculating Scope 3 Emissions (version 1.0). The calculation compares the product use phase emissions from a growing subset of higher-efficiency products within the Rheem Family of Brands against minimum standard baseline products that provide similar functionality. Electricity, fuel and refrigerant emissions are estimated through each product’s consumption or loss rate using product performance data or standard industry emission factors provided by the US EPA or IPCC databases as applicable by product category. Individual emissions categories are converted to CO₂e units. Emissions avoided per unit of product are scaled according to product sales metrics and cumulated for the estimated time the product has been in use. Equivalencies are then calculated using the US EPA GHG Equivalencies Calculator.

HTPG’s cumulative carbon dioxide equivalent emissions avoided figure is calculated with the same methodology, comparing the product use phase emissions from higher-efficiency HTPG products against minimum standard baseline products that provide similar functionality.

Want do learn more about our sustainability commitments, goals and efforts?

Visit our A Greater Degree of Good™ page