SWORDS, Ireland - Ingersoll-Rand plc will participate for the second consecutive year in the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) Climate Corps program. According to EDF, the Climate Corps program puts top energy-focused MBA students to work at Fortune 1000 companies throughout the United States. This collaborative program gives students practical experience, enables companies to connect with and learn from universities on the forefront of research and technology, and helps EDF build a bridge between business and environmental interests.

“It is through working with influential companies like Ingersoll Rand that we can build a movement for energy efficiency in corporate America,” said Rachel Hinchliffe, project manager with the Corporate Partnerships Program at EDF. “The goal of EDF Climate Corps is to capture cost savings and efficiencies today, while putting companies on a path to lasting and systemic reductions in energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.”

Students are methodically matched with companies and work on projects that address energy efficiency, sustainability, and business challenges. Hosted by the Center for Energy Efficiency and Sustainability (CEES) at Ingersoll Rand, students from the Case Western Reserve University Weatherhead School of Management and Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management will spend this summer working on projects such as energy audits, developing energy standards, and generating business cases for energy-efficiency investments.

EDF said that, in 2010, Climate Corps fellows successfully worked with a team of Ingersoll Rand experts to help identify significant cost saving opportunities, as well as ways to reduce energy usage and minimize greenhouse gas emissions.

“Last year, the level of effort and knowledge provided by the fellows far exceeded our expectations,” said W. Scott Tew, executive director, CEES. “This initiative also allows us to look inward as we continually strive to improve our own operations in environmentally meaningful ways. In addition to the extensive knowledge-sharing opportunities that Climate Corps affords our business, we are pleased to support EDF on the global issue of helping businesses manage energy more effectively.”

EDF said that, to date, the Climate Corps program has helped participating companies to identify opportunities to:

• Save $439 million in net operational costs over the project lifetimes;

• Cut the equivalent of 958 million kilowatt hours of energy use annually - enough to power 85,000 homes per year; and

• Avoid the emission of more than 557,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually.

Ingersoll Rand operates more than 80 manufacturing sites worldwide and has a goal to reduce energy use by 25 percent by 2019 as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Save Energy Now Leader program. For more information, visit www.ingersollrand.com.

Publication date:07/04/2011