Responsible Operations
Vertiv embraces responsible business practices that we believe are in the best interests of our employees, customers, shareholders and the communities we serve. We strive to implement processes and programs aimed at reducing energy use and minimizing our carbon and waste footprints through ongoing enhancements and improvement initiatives in our facilities and operational processes. To keep us on the path toward improvement, we harness the Vertiv Operating System, a holistic approach to educate and empower employees to identify and eliminate waste within our production processes.
To track our progress toward more efficient operations, we monitor important metrics such as carbon emissions, energy use, water consumption, waste, recycling, safety management and environmental management practices. The core tenets of this operational strategy include:
Environmental Management
Vertiv implements environmental management systems across our manufacturing facilities worldwide. These systems are designed in accordance with globally recognized standards established by ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, and we are actively working toward obtaining ISO certification for all significant sites and business units.
A considerable number of our sites have already attained ISO 14001 certification, which is widely regarded as the premier accreditation for the responsible administration of an environmental management system. We continue to conduct thorough assessments to identify relevant certifications for each site and have developed a strategic roadmap prioritizing certification efforts at key locations.
Operational efficiency
Throughout 2023, we collaborated with an environmental consultant to continue our efforts to track and monitor our primary environmental impacts. Together, we refined processes to streamline the collection of environmental impact metrics, encompassing carbon emissions, energy consumption, water usage, and waste generation and recycling. This strategic partnership enhances the credibility of our reporting by ensuring a high level of data integrity and consistency in our processes. By leveraging the expertise of environmental professionals, we reinforce our commitment to transparent and accurate environmental reporting practices.
In 2023, we implemented several energy- and carbon-efficiency projects across our global operations:
- Vertiv officially unveiled its new Customer Experience Center in Delaware, Ohio, to showcase Vertiv™ Dynamic Power, an innovative solution that demonstrates the power of modern microgrids.
- Throughout 2023 Monterrey, Mexico, has been plagued by severe water stress. Vertiv’s Monterrey facility took action to help reduce its reliance on the city water supply by installing an innovative water reclamation system that collects water from the air conditioning units used to cool the facility and turn that water into usable and drinkable water.
Partnering for Progress
Vertiv believes in collaborating with customers, peers, and other industry leaders on environmental matters regarding critical digital infrastructure. Therefore, we participate in many initiatives seeking to reduce the environmental impact of our operations and the industry at large. Examples of these efforts include:
- Eco Edge Prime Power (E2P2) Project - E2P2 is a European Union-funded research program that aims to develop and demonstrate low environmental impact fuel cells that provide economic and resilient prime power solutions for the data center environment.
- The Sustainable Digital Infrastructure Alliance (SDIA) - The SDIA brings together stakeholders from across industries and fields, both public and private, to realize its roadmap to sustainable digital infrastructure by 2030.
- The European Data Centre Association (EUDCA) - EUDCA is contributing to the development of the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact, a self-regulatory initiative setting guidelines to help meet the European Commission’s goal of climate-neutral data centers by 2050.
- RISE Partnership Program - Vertiv is a founding partner in RISE, a research institute overseeing a program to help advance sustainability in the data center industry.
- Sustainable Tropical Data Centre Testbed (STDCT) - STDC is a program that aims to understand and address the cooling needs of tropical data centers to meet challenges pertaining to power and cooling consumption, carbon footprint, and increasing rack density.
- U.S. Department of Energy ARPA-E COOLERCHIPS - This initiative aims to develop novel high-performance, high-reliability cooling systems for compute electronics, enabling a new class of power-dense computational systems and data centers and potentially driving next-generation cooling technologies that will reduce the environmental impact of cooling for data centers.
Responsible Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) Practices
Safety remains a cornerstone of Vertiv's values. We firmly believe that businesses and organizations have a responsibility to create a safe working environment for their employees. We design and enforce policies and practices intended to safeguard individuals and the communities in which we operate.
Corporate EHS Policy
Our Corporate Environment and Safety Policies establish comprehensive requirements and standards for Environment, Health and Safety practices throughout our organization. These policies apply to all Vertiv employees, contractors and visitors present on our premises or working elsewhere on our behalf.
The importance of Environment, Health and Safety is evident throughout all levels of our organization. Our EHS performance scorecard incorporates both leading and lagging key performance indicators and is reviewed monthly by our CEO and executive leadership team, informing our EHS reporting to the Vertiv Board of Directors.
For more information, read our Safety Policy Statement and Environmental Policy Statement.
Occupational Health and Safety Management System
We have implemented a comprehensive global occupational health and safety management system to oversee our Environment, Health and Safety practices. This management system encompasses employees, temporary associates, contractors and subcontractors, and aligns with ISO 45001:2018, an internationally recognized standard aimed at mitigating risks and fostering safer working environments.
Learn more about our Quality Policy & Certifications.
EHS Risk Management for Protecting All Individuals
Vertiv has established robust procedures to regularly identify and mitigate work-related hazards and assess risks. Through our Incident Reporting Safety Program, we report injuries and incidents to the relevant supervisors and managers, conduct thorough investigations to identify root causes, share findings and implement corrective actions to prevent future occurrences. Additionally, Vertiv’s Hazard Communication Safety Program ensures that employees, visitors, customers and service providers have access to safety, health and emergency information pertaining to chemicals utilized at Vertiv facilities or job sites.
Vertiv maintains many other programs, policies and systems designed to mitigate EHS risk. These include:
- Confined space entry
- Contractor safety
- Control of hazardous energy
- Emergency planning
- Environmental management
- Ergonomics
- Facility management
- Fall protection
- Fire protection
- Hazard communication
- Hazardous materials
- Incident reporting
- Industrial hygiene
- Job safety analysis
- Management systems
- Material handling and storage
- Machine guarding
- Medical and first aid
- Personal protective equipment
- Safe behavior observations
- Signs and marking of physical hazards
- Support committees
- Training systems and records
- Walking-working surfaces
- Vendor management
