By Jennifer Mattes, Johnson Controls

What do an inspirational movie, a weight loss program and a puppet named Butch who plays guitar and has a bossy sister all have in common? Ready for this? They’re just three of the more than 750,000 things you can find online if you Google the phrase “walk the talk.” Amazing.

No one really knows where that saying “walk the talk” came from, or even who is credited with being the first person to use it, but there does seem to be general agreement on what it means: “back up your words with your actions.”

Wherever the expression came from, the words “walk the talk” symbolize something very important to all of us at Johnson Controls this week – something that’s spelled out in black and white in our just-released 2008 business and sustainability report.

Called “A World of Ingenuity,” the report is a rather ingenious way of letting our customers, employees, investors and the public know how we performed on the triple bottom line: our financial, social and environmental accomplishments from the first day of October 2007 until the last day of September 2008. Happily, it’s a story of how we truly “walked the talk” during those twelve months.

From a strictly economic perspective:

• It was another record year for sales and earnings
• Our Building Efficiency business unit expanded energy efficiency capabilities, focused on renewable energy initiatives and introduced new products and services – all promoted through the Efficiency Now movement.
• Power Solutions – already the world’s largest maker of automotive batteries – continued to increase market share and gain momentum in developing lithium-ion batteries for hybrid vehicles.
• And Automotive Experience doubled its margins in the declining North American market, while continue to gain share in Europe and Asia.
  

On the environmental front:

• Our products and services helped more than a million customers use less energy and shrink their carbon footprints.
• We introduced lighter weight components for car interiors that are made from recyclable materials.
• We reduced air emissions in our lead acid battery manufacturing process by 30%.
• And we renewed our commitment to Climate Leaders – the EPA’s partnership program – by advancing our efforts to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2012.

And from a social perspective:

• For the second time, the National Minority Supplier Development Council named us  Corporation of the Year for our supplier diversity initiatives.
• At 530 of our locations around the globe, some 13,000 employees volunteered more than 110,000 hours of their own time to help make their communities better places to live and work.
• We donated more than $12 million to non-profit and community organizations dedicated to the arts, the environment and social services.
  

Just as importantly, the format of the 2008 report demonstrates that we say what we mean and mean what we say. Available online at www.johnsoncontrols.com/bsr, the report is really engaging. Videos accompany the text to put names and faces on the stories of everyday heroes accomplishing real results. And it’s fully interactive: readers can browse by the words or topics that interest them most and build their own custom report that includes only the sections that they find most valuable.

The printed version is smaller to reduce waste during the printing process and is printed on 100% recycled paper. And while the online version will soon be available in a dozen different languages, the report will only be printed in English and a handful of Asian languages.

All in all, this year’s report is the clearest expression yet of how we’re delivering on our promise to help create a more comfortable, safe and sustainable world. For more than 140,000 of us at Johnson Controls, in more than 125 countries around the world, it’s how we walk the talk every day.

By Allen Martin, VP and General Manager – Systems, Johnson Controls, Inc.

Considering the way the economic breezes have been blowing lately, I wasn’t sure what to expect in the windy city of Chicago last week as those of us in the air conditioning, heating and refrigeration industry came together for the AHR Expo. But what I heard from the building contractors, engineers, facility managers and owners at the show was a breath of fresh air.

Are they concerned about the current economy? You bet – who isn’t? But they’re also more enthusiastic than ever before about greening their buildings. In the midst of the toughest business climate in decades, people in our industry still have their eyes on the ball: making our homes and buildings more energy efficient, reducing their impact on the environment, making them safer and more sustainable.

I think that’s why our booth was consistently crowded with people interested in knowing more about how we can work together to get there. Everything we featured at the Expo was about energy efficiency and sustainability. You can click here to check out the whole enchilada, but here are the highlights:

• The new Series 10 commercial comfort system that uses R-410A refrigerant, so it meets EPA standards for 2010. Plus it boasts the highest energy efficiency ratings of anything in its class.
• The 33-inch York Affinity gas furnace with its 98 percent Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE) rating – making it the industry’s most efficient gas furnace (and the winner of an AHR Innovation Award to sit alongside its 2008 Consumer Digest Best Buy Award).
• Our Metasys® Sustainability Manager – the perfect marriage between our building automation systems and the monitoring software we acquired from Gridlogix. This combo brings together data from multiple systems, in multiple buildings to give facility managers unprecedented control over their energy use, help them spot trouble early and enable them to make adjustments in real time.
• New Johnson Controls/PENN refrigeration controls that are our most reliable, flexible and efficient ever.

Oh, and did I mention a lot of people were also interested in saving money? One contractor told me the design of the York Affinity furnace would permit his crews to make installations in a lot less time – sending more dollars to his bottom line.

And I heard this great story about the durability of the Series 10 comfort system. Back in November, there was big hail storm in Oklahoma. Outside one commercial building, hail stones pounded two commercial HVAC units – one of them a Series 10 with its new micro-channel all-aluminum cooling fins. When the storm was over, you could see where the hail had slightly dented the fins on the Series 10, but they were otherwise intact and functioning. Not so with the other unit, where the old-style copper tubes were smashed and destroyed, requiring costly repairs.

One last thought about this year’s AHR Expo: I was encouraged by the attitudes of so many attendees. No question about it – these are tough times for all of us. But most of the people I talked with are very, very optimistic about the future.

The economy is certain to make a comeback – it’s just a matter of time. And when it does, there’s a widespread belief that it will be a strong recovery.

In the meantime, stimulus packages promise to pump new dollars into the economy. Let’s just hope that a big part of that new spending is focused where we all know it can work the fastest to create jobs and put us on the path to energy independence: Efficiency Now!