Graham Corporation is a global business that designs, manufactures, and sells mission-critical, highly engineered heat transfer equipment for the defense, energy, chemical/petrochemical, aerospace/space, medical, and technology industries. To help maintain our culture of precise engineering solutions, we aim to provide continued transparency as we further enhance our performance in Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”). Graham Corporation has transformed from a highly cyclical refinery and petrochemical equipment supplier towards a well-diversified, multi-market company providing complete life cycle mission-critical equipment to defend our nation, ensure sustainable energy supply, and enable space commercialization while fostering deep relationships with customers, engaging and regarding employees and embracing communities.
Sustainability
Commitment to Sustainability
Oversight
We enhanced our ESG strategy to align with the broader transformation of our business. Our executive management team recognized the importance of embedding environmental and social priorities within our business operations. The team approved an enhanced and modernized ESG strategy to drive additional progress on initiatives promoting sustainability and increased transparency. Continuing to ensure our accountability and improvement, Mr. Thoren, Graham’s Chief Executive Officer, is the lead officer responsible for overseeing and advancing the Company’s efforts concerning ESG initiatives. In such a capacity, Mr. Thoren reviews our ESG efforts with the Board and the various Board committees as appropriate.
We have ESG working groups at each company responsible for leading our ESG strategy and monitoring our corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability initiatives. This group includes cross-functional subject matter experts from across the firm. Against this backdrop, we have assessed key indicators with outside ESG expertise and engaged with our internal and external stakeholders on ESG topics to help further inform our future direction and tenets. These ESG working groups oversee Graham’s sustainability strategy and subsequent disclosures, including our 2024 Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Factsheet production: 2024 Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Factsheet.
Environment
We believe that a focus on environmental stewardship is fundamental and integral to the work we do every day to serve our customers, create value for our stockholders, and benefit our global community. We have taken steps at our business units in Batavia, New York, and Arvada, CO, to improve energy efficiencies and air quality to lessen our environmental impact. Our Board of Directors approved our new Enterprise Environmental Policy, available on our website here. We support clean energy initiatives of our customers, including hydrogen, nuclear, biodiesel, and geothermal power. Here are some highlights of our environmental sustainability efforts lately:
- Installed new Electro Chemical Machine (ECM) reducing hazardous
waste generation over 50%. - Received four additional Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations to
install in 2024. - Installed scrubber/handlers in plate burn area, improving air
quality. - Developed NextGen steam nozzle to reduce steam use and CO2
emissions by up to 10%.
Each facility diligently controls hazardous waste and ensures wastewater and storm sewer discharges are monitored to support greater access to clean water. We help minimize the sources of pollution in our communities with “Adopt-A-Street” activities, factory recycling programs, electric car charging stations, and energy-saving initiatives like LED lighting, motion sensors for lighting, smart compressors to manage energy loads, and installing programmable thermostats in our facilities.
Our People
At Graham, we believe our most important asset is our people. We continually strive to use our knowledge, talents, and resources to improve the quality of life of our workforce. Our success depends on a highly skilled, properly motivated, and valued workforce.
A diverse, transparent, fair, and friendly environment is critical to us at Graham. Our commitment starts with our goal of attracting, retaining, and developing a diverse workforce in background, knowledge, skill, and experience. As such, we are committed to providing equal employment opportunities and making all recruiting, payment, performance, and promotion decisions based on merit without discrimination. In 2023, we started a Women in Manufacturing group to attract and promote women. As of December 31, 2023, women represented approximately 20% of our workforce, and self-identified racial and ethnic minorities represented 9.4%.
Our leadership recognizes that a diverse workforce and a culture of equity and inclusion help us compete more effectively, sustain success, and build long-term shareholder value. We encourage every one of our team members to form deeper relationships with those around them based on mutual respect, dignity, and understanding. Graham has non-discrimination and anti-harassment policies as outlined in our employee handbook and a formal Code of Business Conduct and Ethics. Furthermore, we continued to act on employee engagement survey results to encourage productive conversations within our organization. We rolled out a new human resource information system to provide easy access to pertinent information and ensure training for our managers and employees while encouraging effective communication.
Our Community
We believe investing in local communities to create social and economic outcomes is at the heart of generating social impact. We believe that to be successful, we need to push ourselves to do our best for our customers, our stockholders, the Company, ourselves, those around us, and the world we all share. We are committed to supporting the communities in which we do business by leveraging the power of our Company through donations, scholarships, education, and participation with specific charitable organizations. We strive to use our capabilities, reach, and resources to make a lasting difference. Namely:
- We are proud to have continued working with several local schools to help teach students about careers and
opportunities in engineering and advanced manufacturing. - Graham participated in the Genesee, Livingston, Orleans, and Wyoming (“GLOW”) Corporate Cup. The goal of
this event is for local businesses to form racing teams, compete in a fun atmosphere, and crown a winner of the
Corporate Cup. With the proceeds raised from this event, the YMCA can fulfill its mission of youth
development, healthy living, and social responsibility in the GLOW region. - We implemented a United Way Day of Giving, the largest community-wide volunteer event across our region
serving Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Wayne, and Wyoming counties. - We donated time and resources to several charities including Special Olympics, Habitat for Humanity,
Family Tree, Community Table Food Bank, National Foundation to End Child Abuse and Neglect, Cystic Fibrosis
Foundation, Outdoor Labs, Puppy Rescue, and Adopt-A-Street Clean-ups.
We believe it is our responsibility to respect human rights in our operations, including opposing human trafficking and the exploitation of children. Accordingly, we have a Human Rights Policy Statement to emphasize our strong commitment to human rights. As another part of being a good corporate citizen, we have a Conflict Minerals Policy to support our commitment to sourcing components and materials from companies that share our human rights and ethics values.
Corporate Governance
Graham is committed to achieving excellence in our corporate governance practices. We emphasize a culture of accountability and conduct our business fairly, ethically, and responsibly to earn our stakeholders’ trust. The Company has comprehensive corporate governance, sustainability policies, and structures to foster accountability and transparency. These policies reflect our underlying commitment to maintain the highest standards of ethics and integrity and to operate our business in compliance with all applicable anti-corruption, anti-bribery, and anti-trust laws and regulations.
We routinely engage with our stakeholders to better understand their views on ESG matters, carefully considering the feedback we receive and acting when appropriate.