Syracuse University

Environmental leader Carrier Corp. supports Sustainable Enterprise Partnership

Sara Miller
(315) 443-9038

Against the backdrop of Earth Day 2010, Carrier Corp. today demonstrated its continued leadership in environmental stewardship and ongoing support of the Sustainable Enterprise Partnership (SEP) with a donation of $35,000. The SEP, a collaboration among Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management, the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF) and the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems (SyracuseCoE), provides world-class education and research to encourage businesses to incorporate sustainability into their practices, products, services, supply chain, distribution, culture and management.

This third donation brings Carrier’s total support of the SEP to more than $100,000. Carrier Corp., a world leader in heating, air-conditioning and refrigeration solutions, is a unit of United Technologies Corp.

“It is particularly poignant that we announce this donation to support a sustainability curriculum on the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, which has strong origins as a nationwide ‘teach-in’ to encourage dialogue on environmental issues,” says John Mandyck, Carrier’s vice president for sustainability and environmental strategies. 

For more than 20 years Carrier has led the heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration industry with sustainable solutions to advance energy efficiency and ozone protection, all while minimizing the environmental impact of its manufacturing operations. From 1997 through 2006, Carrier doubled its revenues but held energy use flat. Starting in 2007, the company pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas footprint by 3 percent each year. In 2009, Carrier factories in Charlotte, N.C., and Huntington, Ind., became only the 10th and 11th in the world at that time to receive the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® green building rating for existing buildings. Extending its leadership to the global community, Carrier is the only company in the world to be a founding member of the U.S., China and India Green Building Councils.

“Solutions to today’s environmental challenges require new thinking that Syracuse University can deliver to students through sustainability partnerships like those with Carrier,”  Mandyck says.

“Carrier’s commitment to the Sustainability Enterprise Partnership is critical to our success,” says Elet Callahan, faculty director of the SEP and professor of law and public policy at the Whitman School. “In addition to financial support, Carrier subject experts have guest lectured as part of the curriculum, sharing their knowledge on critical issues such as public policy, building trends and emerging technologies. This involvement affirms the importance of our efforts to integrate business, science, policy and practice.”

Carrier will continue to serve as an environmental steward, finding both large and small ways to make the world a better place to live, Mandyck says. The company is focused on delivering environmentally responsible energy efficient systems, services and solutions to the world.

Carrier Corp., headquartered in Farmington, Conn., is the world’s largest provider of heating, air-conditioning and refrigeration solutions, with operations in more than 170 countries. Carrier is part of United Technologies Corp., a Hartford, Conn.-based provider of products and services to the aerospace and building systems industries worldwide.

The SEP is a collaborative effort involving faculty and researchers from the three partnering institutions–the Whitman School, SUNY-ESF and the SyracuseCoE–and provides world-class education and research on sustainable enterprise by leveraging the academic, public and private sector resources of Central New York and beyond to address this significant and growing area of concern for businesses and other organizations. A key component of the SEP is the development of trans-disciplinary curricula in sustainability.