Progress towards targets Delivering on our promises

2020 marked the concluding year of the sustainability strategy adopted by ABB for the previous decade. We used 11 measures and targets to quantify ABB’s progress toward the nine sustainability objectives we set for ourselves in 2014. As an organization, we are pleased to report that by year-end 2020, we met or exceeded nearly all of our quantitative targets.

Notably, we exceeded our targets for greenhouse gas (GHG) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions, water consumption in water stressed areas, employee safety, and the closure of identified supplier risks. While these targets seemed ambitious at the time they were set, we have demonstrated that we have the capacity to outperform in these areas. We also exceeded our targets for integrity and human rights trainings and recognize that it is now time to adopt new ways of measuring our performance in these areas. Similarly, while we performed well against our gender diversity target, not only can we do more to drive progress in this area, we must also expand our work to encompass diversity in all its forms. This knowledge has been utilized in the design of targets for our next reporting cycle.

Our 2020 sustainability objectives covered three areas: leading technology, responsible operations and responsible relationships. Each area has a direct or indirect impact on ABB’s business success. For the final year of our sustainability strategy, the measures and targets associated with these objectives were once again deemed material to ABB’s business by our Executive Committee and reaffirmed by our external stakeholder panel.

In 2020, we reviewed our 2013 baseline data in order to track internally the environmental performance of each of ABB’s present divisions over the current reporting cycle, in a manner that reflects the organizational changes at our company, while maintaining the consistency of the reported information. The 2013 baselines for the environmental indicators have been updated in the target table to exclude the Power Grids business to provide a comparable basis with 2020 performance. Power Grids is not included in our sustainability reporting for 2020, except where specified. Given the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on some of our 2020 data, our 2019 data will form the baseline for the next reporting cycle.

Over the past year, we continued the extensive stakeholder engagement process that was launched in 2019 in anticipation of the closing of our measures and targets at the end of 2020. This engagement process guided the creation of our sustainability strategy and its associated targets for 2021–2030. For more information about ABB's 2030 sustainability strategy, please go here.