Sustainability
At Comfort Systems USA, we recognize that while our work lends itself to sustainable best practices, there is more we can do to create a positive impact. We are committed to a continual improvement approach to sustainability.
Our sustainability mission: to provide the best value mechanical, electrical, and plumbing building systems to realize superior returns for our shareholders, while caring for our People, Partners, and Planet.
CODE OF CONDUCT
Our values set the foundation for our Code of Conduct, which applies to all employees, officers, and directors of the Comfort Systems USA family of companies. In addition, certain business partners, such as consultants, agents, suppliers, contractors, and other third parties, serve as an extension of Comfort Systems USA. They are expected to follow the spirit of our Code, all applicable laws, and any applicable contractual provisions when working on our behalf. The Code can be found here.
SUSTAINABILITY REPORT
Comfort Systems USA’s executive leadership team members, in addition to our Board of Directors, are pleased to release our 2022 Sustainability Report, available here. Our environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) goals are embedded in how we operate as a business – they are part of our very foundation and core values of being safe, honest, respectful, collaborative, and innovative – and we have diligently sought to develop transparent disclosures to support our ESG commitments. We are committed to a continual improvement approach to sustainability. This report was created to outline our commitment to not only our vision and values, but also our people, partners and the planet.
HEALTH AND SAFETY
Prioritizing health and safety is an integral part of everything we do. Each one of us is responsible for acting in a way that protects others and ourselves. Safe behavior is a condition of employment, and we expect the commitment of each director, officer, and employee to make Comfort Systems USA an accident-free workplace.
PEOPLE
We have one of the largest skilled workforces in the building construction industry. Our employees across our markets are the heart and soul of our company, and our ongoing success depends on attracting, retaining, and developing talented team members.
We provide opportunities for personal and professional growth and development, and invest in leadership training, mentoring and succession planning initiatives to equip our future leaders for generations to come. We have created in-house training courses specific to leadership, communication, relationship management, diversity and inclusion, ethics and conduct in the workplace and many more key competencies for our employees’ development.
BUSINESS PARTNERS
We understand that those with whom we choose to do business are a reflection of our company. We consider our business partners as an extension of Comfort Systems USA. We collaborate with our partners through mutual efforts to identify leading business practices and sustainable solutions in our industry.
INTEGRITY IN THE WORKPLACE
We believe that the way we conduct business is just as important as the business we do. Operating with integrity helps us deliver on the promises we have made to each other, our customers, and the communities where we live and work. It is also the basis for ensuring continued growth and success. Everyone at Comfort Systems USA shares a responsibility for doing business ethically and in a sustainable manner, preserving our good name. We ensure that this responsibility applies at every level in our organization, and everyone from corporate officers, to members of our Board of Directors, to our field personnel is responsible for overseeing these efforts.
OUR COMMUNITIES
We believe in making a positive difference in people’s lives and maintaining the health and welfare of the communities where we live and work. We promote, encourage, and support a diverse range of corporate social responsibility activities. Our employees’ involvement in the many initiatives we support is integral to the success of our impact in the communities where we operate.
HUMAN RIGHTS
It is our commitment and policy to conduct our business in a manner that respects the human rights and dignity of all, and we support international efforts to promote and protect human rights, including the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We have an absolute opposition to forced labor, child labor and human trafficking. This policy applies to all of our operations regardless of geographic location.
THE ENVIRONMENT
We recognize our environmental and societal responsibilities. We are committed to sustainability and to minimizing damage to the environment as well as any potential harm to the health and safety of employees, customers, and the public. We recognize an individual’s right to water as a fundamental human right. In addition, we are subject to the requirements of numerous federal, state and local laws, regulations and rules which promote the protection of the environment. Examples of federal statutes that apply to our business include the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, the Clean Air Act, the Water Pollution Control Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. It is our policy to comply with both the letter and the purpose of all environmental laws and regulations.
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
We believe that the work we perform to optimize and upgrade systems and to enable wise controls allows Comfort Systems USA to optimize energy use and fundamentally reduce our nation’s carbon footprint.
At Comfort Systems USA, our emphasis on environmental stewardship and improving productivity drives our efforts to become more energy efficient. Replacing an aging building’s existing systems with modern, energy-efficient systems significantly reduces a building’s energy consumption and carbon footprint while improving cost, air quality, and overall system effectiveness.
We strive to minimize our environmental impacts through board oversight, regulatory compliance, ongoing improvement investments, local specialists, and community group involvement. Our Board of Directors supplies high-level oversight of our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance through the Governance and Nominating Committee, which reviews and advises on updates from our corporate management team on at least a bi-annual basis.
Comfort Systems USA is committed to developing and adopting leading technologies. We are improving productivity by increasing use of innovative techniques in prefabrication, project design and planning, as well as in coordination and production methods. We have invested in the refinement and adoption of prefabrication practices. Our additional investments in design and building information modeling enable us to collaborate with our customers to achieve reliable and energy efficient construction outcomes and to eliminate unnecessary waste.
We work to identify, develop, and implement new materials, products and methods that can achieve greater productivity and more efficient and sustainable outcomes. Above all, we have concluded that as technology develops in our industry the fundamental prerequisite for leadership in adopting such opportunities is the quality, accuracy, and buildability of our designs.
Accordingly, we have invested in the experts, training, and internal and external knowledge transfer to ensure that we are properly scaling, achieving true buildability, and continuously improving our design capabilities to meet our customers’ evolving requirements.