WESCO Releases 2017 Sustainability Report, Signs United Nations Global Compact

PITTSBURGH, Pa. — WESCO International, Inc. released its 2017 Sustainability Report, outlining key programs and progress made in advancing economic, environmental and social performance priorities. 

Highlights from the 2017 Sustainability Report include:

• WESCO achieved its five-year improvement goals for waste, energy, emissions, and fuel efficiency through 2015 and established new five-year goals. 
         
• Silver-level recognition by EcoVadis for WESCO's commitment to corporate social responsibility, placing it in the top 30 percent of companies evaluated. 
     
• WESCO's U.S. operations are six times safer than the U.S. industry average, according to the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors' survey of 2016 total recordable incident rates at U.S. peer companies with over $1 billion in sales. 
           
• The report also contains many examples in which customers have leveraged WESCO's service offerings, technical expertise, and sustainable products to enhance their productivity, improve safety, reduce costs, minimize water usage and emissions, boost energy efficiency, and achieve positive bottom-line results.

In addition, WESCO formally announced that it has signed the United Nations Global Compact, the world's leading voluntary corporate citizenship initiative.  WESCO joins more than 12,000 signatories in 170 countries who, according to the organization, work to align their strategies and operations with universal principles on human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption, and take actions that advance societal goals.

John J. Engel, WESCO's Chairman, President and CEO, commented, “Sustainability is a strategic priority at WESCO International.  We strive for continuous improvement in our economic, environmental, and social performance, while maintaining a clear focus on running safe and reliable distribution operations.  We enable our customers to further embed sustainability into their own operations through our products and value-added services.  And, finally, we collaborate with our suppliers to ensure their approaches to sustainability are in alignment with ours.”