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.

• Previous Entry: How Tax-exempt Organizations Can Still Benefit From Tax Breaks for Solar Energy
• Next Entry: Performance Contracting: Speeding Stimulus Dollars for Energy Programs into Local Economies