PPG Issues 2009 Update To Corporate Sustainability Report

The update is a supplement to the full 2008 report, the company’s first, which gives an overview of PPG’s status and progress throughout the past year on economic, environmental, safety and social-involvement initiatives.
 
“The difficult economic conditions of 2009 did not detract from or deter our efforts toward driving the concepts of sustainability throughout everything we do at PPG,” said Charles E. Bunch, PPG chairman and CEO. “Over the course of our more than 125-year history, PPG has grown and thrived by making sound business decisions, and we are no stranger to the concepts of sustainable business practices. We hope that our sustainability reports and updates encourage our stakeholders to engage in a dialogue with our company that results in improved performance and greater mutual understanding.”
 
The 12-page update is posted along with the 2008 corporate sustainability report on PPG’s website at www.ppg.com/csr, and it is self-declared to meet Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G3 Application Level C requirements. The update reflects new activities and information for 2009 regarding the company’s recent business performance, environmental metrics such as greenhouse gas emissions and energy use, safety statistics, and information on the company’s philanthropic activities. It is designed to be read in conjunction with the original report.
 
The update highlights several sustainable products PPG’s performance glazings business launched in 2009. Three highly-transmissive Solarphire® glasses for solar energy applications include features such as proprietary anti-reflective and sodium-barrier thin-film coatings to enhance the efficiency of solar energy collection. New Sungate® 400 glass builds on PPG’s global leadership in low-emissivity (low-e) glass technology, offering a passive, low-e product that helpshomes and buildings in northern climates collect more solar heat and reduce fuel consumption for winter heating.
 
PPG intends to issue another full sustainability report in 2010.