Company: AOS
Filing Date: 2025-02-27
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001193125-25-037641
Chunk: 29

Company: SMITH A O CORP
Filing Date: 2025-02-27
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 29
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 fourth report, the 2024 Sustainability Report in December 2024, documenting our sustainability activities over the two years prior to the report. This report details the positive impact of our highly efficient products, highlights our company’s commitment to employees and the communities in which we operate, and reports on our progress toward our goals. We are proud to have been recognized in 2024 as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere®, a global leader in defining and advancing corporate ethical standards.   In 2024, we continued to report on our greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal of 10% by 2025 and also announced our first public water stewardship goal: an annual water savings of 40 million gallons by 2030. Our scorecard reflecting our progress is available on our website.   To hold ourselves accountable, we have established sustainability oversight at the Board and management levels. Our Company formed an Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) Council comprised of a cross-section of leaders from operations; product engineering; environment, health and safety; legal affairs; investor relations; human resources and supply chain. The Council makes recommendations about sustainability priorities and goals, key performance indicators and potential reporting enhancements, while also identifying improvement areas regarding our sustainability activities. Our director of ESG manages the Council and reports directly to our executive vice president and chief financial officer, who chairs the ESG Council. Our ESG Council is accountable to our chief executive officer and our Board. The Board provides oversight of the company’s sustainability efforts, receives annual sustainability updates, and reviews the company’s sustainability efforts, including its periodic Sustainability Reports. In 2024, the Board received one comprehensive briefing on sustainability reporting and initiatives.   Starting in 2023, the Board added an element to the executive long-term incentive compensation program to reward our executives for performance against critical strategic issues facing our company. For 2023, that measure was the greenhouse gas emission reduction goal established in our 2020 Sustainability Report. For 2024, the measure was progress towards the water reduction goal announced in our 2024 Sustainability Report. For 2025, the waste reduction goal is based on achievement of a landfill diversion target.   Our Sustainability Reports are available on our website, www.aosmith.com, the contents of which are not incorporated by reference into this Proxy Statement. |

22 A. O. Smith Corporation

Governance of Our Company

Public Policy and Regulatory Advocacy

As a leading, global water technology manufacturing company, we believe we have a responsibility as