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Diversity & Inclusion

Creating an inclusive and uplifting culture for all

We’re committed to cultivating a diverse and inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive. Since 2010, we’ve grown our offerings to include a variety of Employee Resource Groups and Inclusion Networks worldwide.

Diverse hands resting on a tree trunk

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We want to reinforce a sense of belonging and community at Trane Technologies with ongoing opportunities for learning, conversation, and celebration throughout the year. Our employees embody our leadership principles to create a safe, inclusive working environment every day.

We know that diverse teams are more innovative and collaborative, capable of solving problems, and best positioned to realize a better world for future generations. We enable Opportunity for All by prioritizing workforce diversity that reflects our communities, working towards gender parity in senior leadership roles, and cultivating an uplifting culture that is purpose-driven, inclusive, and engaging.

In 2021, we accelerated progress towards our 2030 Sustainability Commitments by linking the financial compensation of our top 2,300 leaders with our environmental and social sustainability goals, which include our commitments to advancing Diversity and Inclusion.

Diversity & Inclusion Governance

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Oversight of our Diversity & Inclusion strategy begins with our Board of Directors. Our Human Resources and Compensation Committee regularly reviews diversity, inclusion, and other human capital management matters and discusses these topics with the Board of Directors. Our internal Diversity Council is a broad, cross-functional group of global leaders representing each part of our business. Their input and involvement ensure that our Diversity & Inclusion goals integrate with our core business practices. Leaders at Trane Technologies have diversity goals and are responsible for inclusive hiring practices. Our Human Resources and Compensation Committee manages remuneration linked to Diversity & Inclusion goals.

Our Approach to Diversity & Inclusion

At Trane Technologies, we nurture an inclusive culture where people can bring their best selves to work every day. To cultivate inclusivity, we promote and enable employee-led networks that bring people together, create community, and build bridges of understanding. We strive to provide development opportunities that deepen compassion and understanding, and we work to remove systemic barriers to success with our policies and procedures.

Our plan for enhancing Diversity and Inclusion is organized into the following strategies:

Our approach to diversity and inclusion

Inclusive Culture

Our ERGs

Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)

We activate our inclusive culture through ERGs and Inclusion Networks that serve as a catalyst for our people to learn about other cultures, embrace differences, and appreciate the strength and value of our diverse workforce.

Our ERGs include several thousand members who organized 100 community engagement events for more than 11,000 people globally in 2021. Our ERGs include:

  • Women’s Employee Network
  • Black Employee Network
  • PRIDE: LGBT + Allies Employee Network
  • Global Organization of Latinos
  • InterGenerational Employee Network
  • Asian Employee Resource Group
  • Veteran’s Employee Resource Group
  • VisAbility Employee Resource Group

Having Courageous Conversations

Conversations about culture, diversity, and inclusion is an important way to highlight leadership commitment and create authentic connections for our employees. Throughout our journey to build a diverse and inclusive workplace, we’ve kept the need for these open, occasionally challenging, conversations at the forefront. We recognize that constructive discussions can foster an uplifting and inclusive workplace that will help transform the future. When people feel heard and respected, a sense of belonging and inclusion follows. We also know that diverse and inclusive teams are more successful and innovative.

Since signing the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion pledge in 2017, we have hosted an annual CEO Day of Understanding, which helps us strengthen the power of inclusion at Trane Technologies. The CEO Day of Understanding is an important way to create authentic connections for our employees. It highlights our progress toward our Diversity & Inclusion goals and empowers our people to share their own stories.

Through our Bridging Connections series, we create safe spaces for our employees to share, listen, and learn from one another. This series draws on our ability to discuss challenging topics in a respectful environment to create collective optimism and realize a better future. In 2021, our conversations focused on discrimination, immigration, and increasing awareness about mental health. Additionally, we encourage employees to hold smaller, more intimate discussions in their locations. Our Diversity & Inclusion team provides resources to help facilitate and lead these enriching conversations.

Accountable Leaders

Accountable Leaders

In May 2021, we announced that our annual incentive plan for leaders, historically based on financial performance metrics, would include an ESG factor based on several sustainability metrics. The incentive plan consists of an annual target for increasing women in management roles globally and increasing racial and ethnic diversity in the U.S. salaried workforce. These goals support our company’s 2030 Sustainability Commitments to achieve gender parity in leadership, a workforce diversity reflective of our communities, and community initiatives that support equitable education and pathways to green and STEM careers.

Diversity & Inclusion Development Programs

Sustaining a highly engaged and high-performance culture requires consistent employee learning and development investment. We curate experiences for growth and development to create an uplifting and inclusive culture that will shape the future we envision. Our diversity and inclusion learning experiences equip our people with the skills and resources to succeed in their current roles and prepare for future ones.

Inclusive Culture Learning Experience

We continue to lead our industry in advancing diversity and inclusion. The Inclusive Culture Learning Experience, launched in 2021, is a comprehensive learning path that enables heightened inclusivity through learning, self-reflection, and real-life inclusive leadership practices. We require participation from our people leaders but encourage all employees to engage in the program.

Women's Leadership Program infographic

Women's Leadership Programs

In 2021, we more than doubled participation in our women’s leadership programs, enrolling the largest volume of women to date, indicating meaningful value even as we shifted to virtual-only offerings. The majority of participants were satisfied with the programs and would recommend them. Program participants noted that they intend to apply the skills learned in their current and future roles, a strong indicator of program success and retention.

Our Women’s Leadership Program (WLP) is a five- to six-month immersive learning program to advance women leaders into senior positions. Approximately 200 leaders have completed the WLP since it began in 2012.

We offer the Women on the Rise program for those who aspire to more senior roles in the company. The eight-week virtual course focuses on self-awareness, personal branding, and strategic thinking. Since 2019, approximately 100 women have graduated from the Women on the Rise program.

As part of our 2030 Sustainability Commitments to achieve gender parity in senior leadership roles, and advance women’s career development at an even faster rate, we created the Women in Action (WIA) program. This program provides women in leadership with quick, convenient access to content that promotes the development of leadership skills and addresses the unique challenges faced by women in business. The program is delivered online through a series of short videos, book summaries, activities, reflective thinking exercises, and virtual connections that provide focused content in specific competency areas. Approximately 800 women have participated in the WIA program since its inception in 2020.

“The Women in Action program was great—especially the group sessions that we could come together and discuss. I also enjoyed my small accountability group and the discussions we were able to have. The course material was very relevant to my job and insightful.”

2021 WIA participant

Building a Diverse Workforce

We know that to lead the change we want to see in our business, industry, and world, we must commit to cultivating a workforce that reflects the communities where we live and work. To create a more diverse workforce by 2030, we aim to achieve gender parity in senior leadership positions, dramatically increase women in management positions, and increase the amount of racially and ethnically diverse people in our salaried U.S. workforce by 50%.

Our approach to attracting, hiring, and advancing diverse talent includes:

  • Expanding our network of recruiting partners.
  • Identifying high-performing yet often-overlooked talent.
  • Developing future employees through targeted learning programs.

Our Approach to Recruiting

As part of our efforts to increase diverse representation in our global workforce, we work to attract, interview, and hire a diverse slate of candidates. To foster this candidate pipeline, we’ve partnered with key industry and professional organizations to recruit early- and mid-level talent, such as:

  1. Society of Women Engineers (SWE)
  2. National Society for Black Engineers (NSBE)
  3. Society for Professional Hispanic Engineers (SHPE)
  4. HBCU Connect
  5. The Mom Project
  6. Corporate America Supports You

Social Impact

At Trane Technologies, we’re committed to contributing to the well-being of our communities and the health of our planet. Our Sustainable Futures citizenship strategy underscores the critical link between our company and the communities where we live and work. The approach focuses on three pillars designed to help underrepresented communities: enhance learning environments, advance student success, and create pathways to green and STEM careers.

We work to advance student success and build new pathways to green and STEM careers through our work with community partners. Our growing network of dedicated non-profit partners includes NC3, the Urban League of Central Carolinas, Project Scientist, Climate Generation, NSBE SEEK, and others. This collective supports our mission to bolster academic achievement among underrepresented students, increase diverse recruiting, and access a rich pipeline of diverse talent. In 2021, we provided Project Scientist with a three-year, $1 million grant to advance the non-profit’s STEM curriculums.

Our Partners

We aspire to achieve racial equity and social justice in the U.S. and around the world. In 2021, we continued to support and grow several industry initiatives aimed at equal representation in the workforce like the Paradigm for Parity and OneTen Coalition. These initiatives help us engage with stakeholders who can guide our Diversity & Inclusion policies, practices, and commitments.

CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion

We were among the first companies to join CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion in 2017. Today, nearly 2,000 CEOs have signed the pledge. As part of the commitment, each member company is urged to create open, trusting environments where they can have complex, sometimes difficult, dialogue about diversity and inclusion. Each year since signing the pledge, our CEO has proudly hosted the CEO-led Day of Understanding with our team. Each year, thousands of employees from across our organization meet to discuss diversity and inclusion topics.

NAM Pledge for Action

Our former Chair and CEO, Mike Lamach, introduced the National Association of Manufacturers’ (NAM) Pledge for Action. The pledge is an 11-point commitment for manufacturers to advance justice, equality, and opportunity for all people of color. Companies pledge to enhance advocacy for people of color, provide access to education and training opportunities, and increase diversity across the business value chain. Our commitments to Diversity & Inclusion initiatives, recruitment practices, and workforce development strategies align with the NAM Pledge for Action, which we continue to support.

Paradigm for Parity

In 2017, we became the first in our industry to enter the Paradigm for Parity Coalition, a pledge to bring gender parity to our corporate leadership structure by 2030. We underscored this commitment with our 2030 Sustainability Commitments.

Disability:IN

In April 2021, we signed Disability:IN’s CEO Letter to advance disability inclusion. Disability:IN envisions a global economy in which people with disabilities participate meaningfully and fully. The non-profit works to dismantle misconceptions about people with disabilities and advance inclusive business cultures. As one of the signatories, we are extending our commitment to advance disability equality and inclusion as we continue to build a sustainable future that empowers everyone.

Our 2021 Performance

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We set goals to ensure we meet our 2030 Sustainability Commitments for gender parity. Women now occupy five out of twelve seats on our Board of Directors, and representation of women in management roles increased from 21.7% in 2020 to 23.1% in 2021. Representation of women in senior leadership roles at Trane Technologies increased from 21.4% in 2020 to 24.6% in 2021. In total, women comprise 25.5% of our global workforce.

We aim to create a workforce reflective of our communities. By 2030, Trane Technologies is committed to increasing the racial and ethnic diversity of its U.S. salaried workforce to 36%, a 50% increase over 2019. In 2021, we increased racially or ethnically diverse salaried employees from 17.4% to 18.4%. See more metrics in ESG Data Center.

Gender Parity

Infographic showing gender parity with a 6% increase in women in managemnt positions and a 15% increase in women in senior leadership postions

2021 Racially & Ethnically Diverse Employees (U.S.)

Chart showing 36.4% of total employees who identify as racially or ethnically diverse

2021 Gender Parity Data

Gender Parity Data
Women
Men
Board of Directors
42.0%
58.0%
Governance body (Executive Leadership Team)
13.3%
86.7%
Leadership positions (director-level, vice president, and above)
24.6%
75.4%
All management positions
23.1%
76.9%
Workforce total
25.5%
74.5%

2021 Diversity Data

2021 Diversity Data
Workforce
Percent of Population
Racially & Ethnically Diverse1 (U.S.)
Overall
36.4%
Salaried
18.4%
Hourly
51.6%
Promotion rates
Overall (global)
6.5%
Women (global)
7.7%
Men (global)
6.1%
Racially & Ethnically Diverse (U.S.)
7.0%
White (U.S.)
7.5%

1 Classified into five minimum categories by the US Census: White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander

Looking Forward

At Trane Technologies, we’re committed to hiring a workforce representative of our communities and realize that creating an uplifting culture is paramount to our success. We actively invest in diverse hiring initiatives to inspire passionate and pioneering people to join our company. We know that transformative innovation occurs when people feel respected and heard.

As part of our inclusivity practices, we’re introducing voluntary self-identification for our employees in 2022 to help us better understand our workforce demographics. We want our employees to thrive in an environment where they feel accepted and show up as the best version of themselves.

It’s vital that everyone, starting at the top, takes responsibility for creating a diverse enterprise. Our senior leaders now have annual Diversity & Inclusion goals to support our 2030 Sustainability Commitments. These new goals demonstrate our dedication to advancing diverse and inclusive practices across our organization.