Owens Corning
For the period ended Dec 31, 2023. Filed Feb 14, 2024.
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FY2023 · Filed Feb 14, 2024
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General
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GENERAL
Intellectual Property
The Company relies on a combination of intellectual property laws, as well as confidentiality procedures and contractual provisions, to protect our intellectual property, proprietary technology and our brands. Through continuous and extensive use of the color PINK® since 1956, Owens Corning became the first owner of a single color trademark registration. In addition to our Owens Corning and PINK® brands, the Company has registered, and applied for the registration of, U.S. and international trademarks, service marks, and domain names. Additionally, the Company owns numerous U.S. and international patents and patent applications, covering certain of our proprietary technology resulting from research and development efforts. Over time, the Company has assembled a portfolio of intellectual property rights including patents, trademarks, service marks, copyrights, domain names, know-how and trade secrets covering our products, services and manufacturing processes. Our proprietary technology is not dependent on any single or group of intellectual property rights and the Company does not expect the expiration of existing intellectual property to have a material adverse effect on the business as a whole. The Company believes the duration of our patents is adequate relative to the expected lives of our products. Although the Company protects its intellectual property and proprietary technology, any significant impairment of, or third-party claim against, our intellectual property rights could harm our business or our ability to compete.
Environmental Control
Owens Corning has established policies and procedures to ensure that its operations are conducted in compliance with all relevant laws and regulations and that enable the Company to meet its high standards for corporate sustainability and environmental stewardship. Our manufacturing facilities are subject to numerous foreign, federal, state and local laws and regulations relating to the presence of hazardous materials, pollution and protection of the environment, including emissions to air, reductions of greenhouse gases, discharges to water, management of hazardous materials, handling and disposal of solid wastes, use of chemicals in our manufacturing processes, and remediation of contaminated sites. All Company manufacturing facilities are either ISO 14001 certified or deploy environmental management systems based on ISO 14001 principles. The Company’s 2030 Sustainability Goals include targets related to significant global reductions in energy use, water consumption, waste to landfill, and emissions of greenhouse gases, fine particulate matter, and volatile organic air emissions, and protection of biodiversity. The Company is dedicated to continuous improvement in its environmental, health and safety performance and to achieving its 2030 Sustainability Goals.
The Company has not experienced a material adverse effect upon its capital expenditures or competitive position as a result of environmental control legislation and regulations. Operating costs associated with environmental compliance were approximately $49 million in 2023. The Company continues to invest in equipment and process modifications to remain in compliance with applicable environmental laws and regulations worldwide.
Our manufacturing facilities are subject to numerous national, state and local environmental protection laws and regulations. Regulatory activities of particular importance to our operations include those addressing air pollution, water pollution, waste disposal and chemical control. It is possible that new laws and regulations will specifically address climate change, volatile organic compounds, ozone forming emissions and fine particulate matter. New environmental and chemical regulations could impact our ability to expand production or construct new facilities in geographic regions in which we operate. However, based on information known to the Company, including the nature of our manufacturing operations and associated air emissions, at this time we do not expect any of these new laws, regulations or activities to have a material adverse effect on our results of current operations, financial condition or long-term liquidity.
Owens Corning is involved in remedial response activities and is responsible for environmental remediation at a number of sites, including certain of its currently owned or formerly owned plants. These responsibilities arise under a number of laws, including, but not limited to, the Federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and similar state or local laws pertaining to the management and remediation of hazardous materials and petroleum. The Company has also been named a potentially responsible party under the United States Federal Superfund law, or state equivalents, at a number of disposal sites. The Company became involved in these sites as a result of government action or in connection with business acquisitions. At the end of 2023, the Company was involved with a total of 22 sites worldwide, including 10 Superfund and state or country equivalent sites and 12 owned or formerly owned sites. None of the liabilities for these sites are individually significant to the Company.
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Remediation activities generally involve a potential range of activities and costs related to soil, groundwater and sediment contamination. This can include pre-cleanup activities such as fact finding and investigation, risk assessment, feasibility studies, remedial action design and implementation (where actions may range from monitoring to removal of contaminants, to installation of longer-term remediation systems). A number of factors affect the cost of environmental remediation, including the number of parties involved in a particular site, the determination of the extent of contamination, the length of time the remediation may require, the complexity of environmental regulations, variability in clean-up standards, the need for legal action, and changes in remediation technology. Taking these factors into account, Owens Corning estimates the costs of remediation to be paid over a period of years. The Company accrues an amount on an undiscounted basis, when a liability is probable and reasonably estimable. Actual cost may differ from these estimates for the reasons mentioned above.
At December 31, 2023, the Company had an accrual totaling $4 million for its environmental liabilities, of which the current portion is $1 million. Changes in required remediation procedures or timing of those procedures at existing legacy sites, or discovery of contamination at additional sites, could result in material increases to the Company’s environmental obligations.
Additional Government Laws and Regulations
In addition to environmental laws and regulations, we are subject to various laws and regulations around the world. For example, trade regulations, including tariffs or other import or export restrictions, may increase the cost of some of our raw materials or cross-border shipments, and limit our ability to do business in certain countries or with certain individuals. Our business is also subject to competition laws in the various jurisdictions where we operate, including the Sherman Antitrust Act and related federal and state antitrust laws in the United States, as well as similar foreign laws and regulations. These laws and regulations generally prohibit competitors from fixing prices, boycotting competitors, or engaging in other conduct that unreasonably restrains competition, and such laws and regulations may impact potential business relationships or transactions with third parties in the future. In addition, health and safety regulations have necessitated, and may continue to necessitate, increased operating costs or capital investments to promote a safe working environment. The Company is also required to comply with increasingly complex and changing laws and regulations enacted to protect business and personal data in the United States and other jurisdictions regarding privacy, data protection and data security, including those related to the collection, storage, use, transmission and protection of personal information and other consumer, customer, vendor or employee data. Further, an increasing number of laws and regulations focused on product and chemical hazards, including regulations concerning the impact of product manufacturing and use on climate change, and resulting preferential product selection could also impact our ability to manufacture and sell certain products or require significant research and development investment and capital expenditures to meet regulatory requirements. With respect to the laws and regulations noted above, as well as other applicable laws and regulations, the Company’s compliance programs, may under certain circumstances, involve material investments in the form of additional processes, training, personnel, information technology andcapital. For a discussion of the risks associated with certain applicable laws and regulations, see Item 1A, “Risk Factors.”
Sustainability
As a worldwide leader in our industry, our goal is to be at the forefront of corporate sustainability efforts. It is our ambition to be a net-positive company, that is, one whose positive impact of our people and products, is greater than the negative impact of manufacturing our products. We work to continually increase the good our people and products do while we concurrently strive to reduce the negative environmental impact of our operations.
Our climate-related sustainability efforts have led Owens Corning to develop a range of strategies and tactics that have had a significant impact on the way we conduct our business. We strive to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions released throughout the entire life cycle of our products by improving the use-phase impacts of our products, making our manufacturing processes more energy-efficient, sourcing more renewable electricity, improving our supply chain logistics, increasing recycled content, and developing end-of-life recycling solutions. Together, this work helps to reduce the environmental impact of our operations and lowers the embodied carbon in our products – an attribute of growing importance to our customers.
Many of Owens Corning’s products are made using heavy, industrialized manufacturing processes. While we strive to continue our progress to reduce our impact, our factories produce various emissions, including greenhouse gases. Owens Corning is subject to or has chosen to voluntarily participate in Emissions Trading Schemes around the world. Broad and gradual tightening of national, regional, and state government limits on emissions could disrupt our access to energy sources or specific raw materials, which in turn could disrupt the manufacturing of products dependent upon them. Owens Corning invests in research and development on climate-related risks and opportunities.
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Human Capital Resources
The Company’s long-term success is dependent upon its access to and development of management and primary employees who are sufficiently skilled and capable of the work necessary to achieve the Company’s short-and long-term business objectives. To maintain employee engagement, Owens Corning strives to ensure its people feel valued, included, and engaged – from recruitment to retirement. That is why Owens Corning is dedicated to fostering an environment of learning and growth within a supportive, caring culture. We are committed to providing a safe, healthy workplace and a meaningful, engaging employee experience.
As of December 31, 2023, Owens Corning had approximately 18,000 employees, of which approximately 9,000 were located outside the United States. Approximately 8,200 (46%) of hourly employees are subject to collective bargaining agreements. The Company regularly engages its salaried, non-represented and represented primary employees to collect feedback and based on that feedback believes employee engagement and relations are good. In 2023, the Company also engaged in an Employee Value Proposition survey and considered employee feedback in formulating its value proposition, including changes to compensation and benefits offerings such as sick leave enhancements for primary employees and improvements to our facilities, including the roll-out of personal dignity spaces.
Safety and Well-Being
One of our primary objectives is the safety and well-being of our employees. Working safely is an unconditional, organization-wide expectation at Owens Corning, which we believe directly benefits employees’ lives, improves our manufacturing processes and reduces our costs. The Company maintains comprehensive safety programs focused on identifying hazards and eliminating risks that can lead to severe injuries. In the fall of 2023, the Company kicked off its employee-developed “Safer Together” initiative, intended to increase employee focus and collective engagement on safety. One of our primary safety measures is the Recordable Incident Rate (“RIR”) as defined by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. For the year ended December 31, 2023, our RIR was 0.60, compared to 0.65 as reported in the same period for the prior year.
Additionally, with our Healthy Living platform, we provide a multifaceted well-being program designed to drive sustainable, long-term change, improve the health and lives of employees, and strengthen the culture and work experience.
Employee Performance and Related Objectives
We also focus on evaluating and managing employee performance, development, succession planning, and turnover. Our goal is to create a high-performance culture and teams that are diverse, capable and engaged. We strive to have clear objectives, effective performance management, and a structure that includes regular feedback, talent reviews, succession planning, development, and compensation analysis.
Corporate Culture
Another objective we pursue is maintaining a corporate culture focused on inclusion and diversity, ethics and compliance, training and positive employee relations and engagement. The Company believes its success and sustainability are enhanced by an inclusive and diverse workforce. We believe that inclusion and diversity add value to the business by fostering an environment that leads to high engagement and innovative thinking in the workplace. Five years following the Company's pledge to diversity & inclusion, there is more work to be done, and the Company continues to pursue diversity in its workforce through diverse candidate slates, diversity on hiring committees, and development programs, and the continued focus on development of management skills needed to sustain progress in this area through the roll-out of inclusive leadership training across the organization. Owens Corning operates programs that foster gender and ethnic diversity as well as equality within its workforce, including supporting various employee-led affinity groups, so its employees feel valued and appreciated for the distinct voices they bring to the team.
As of December 31, 2023, the composition of our Board of Directors was 60% demographically diverse, which includes gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, national origin or other elements of one’s identity. Leadership positions were comprised of approximately 29% women globally and 18% people of color in the United States. Our 2030 diversity goals set targets for our leadership positions of 35% women globally and 22% people of color in the United States.
The Company has a robust pay equity system, which includes multiple processes and controls to prevent pay equity gaps from occurring. We perform a biennial pay equity review with the assistance of a third-party vendor who utilizes a strong, statistical analysis of pay equity across our global salaried workforce. We promptly remediate all identified and substantiated pay gaps through pay increases.
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Ethics and compliance efforts include our support of the Owens Corning Code of Conduct (“Code of Conduct”), which is dedicated to encouraging compliance with a range of legal guidelines and our corporate values. Our training efforts encompass the Code of Conduct and other areas of compliance and development as relevant to employees. We also seek to foster positive and productive relations with the labor organizations representing them.
Owens Corning employees contribute service hours to boards, special causes and nonprofit organizations in the communities where they live and operate. These programs aim to enable the Company’s employees to connect with the community, further improve its reputation locally and globally, and instill a sense of pride in the workforce.
Owens Corning is a recognized leader on advancing social issues, including issues related to diversity, equity and inclusion and human rights. Select awards and honors earned by the Company include:
Earned a Top 50 ranking on the Fair 360 survey as leaders in workplace fairness;
Earned a Top 10 ranking on the 100 Best Corporate Citizens in 2023 by 3BL Media for the sixth year in a row; and
Recognized as one of the “2023 World’s Most Ethical Companies” by Ethisphere Institute for the sixth year in a row.
More information about Owens Corning’s approach to human capital and other social issues can be found in our Sustainability Report on our website.1
The text of this filing, as the company filed it with the SEC, without its images or exhibits. This is not investment advice.