Thread by @bopinion

At the start of 2020, @blsuth took an informal poll asking which CEO deserved more attention.

The result was almost unanimous: Mike Lamach of Trane Technologies
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📈The numbers show why: Since Lamach became CEO in 2010, the company’s market value has tripled to more than $30 billion.

During the pandemic, he was able to turn an air conditioning company into a juggernaut, all while keeping things sustainable twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1…

As the weather gets colder, the safety of indoor air is on a lot of people's minds.

What can companies or individuals do to make sure that their heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems can be a tool in fighting the spread of infection? trib.al/ioV9y3Q

According to Lamach, worldwide, there’s:

🏡1.7 trillion sq ft of indoor space
🏢400 billion sq ft of communal space

Frequent outdoor air exchanges are crucial. If you don’t introduce that, HVACs can contribute to airborne contamination trib.al/ioV9y3Q

When improving air quality, there’s a risk that other goals like sustainability could backslide.

A lot of the safety measures taken on during the pandemic require 15-40% more energy. Energy conservation methods are needed in order to mitigate that rise trib.al/ioV9y3Q

When the financial crisis struck, Trane pledged to reduce its customers’ emissions by one gigaton of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030. That’s essentially the annual emissions of these countries combined:

🇬🇧 U.K.
🇫🇷 France
🇮🇹 Italy
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“I think about it as a system of things,” Lamach, 57, said in an interview this summer.

“You can’t pull the productivity lever and think that doesn’t affect innovation. Employee and social responsibility aren’t different than customer focus” trib.al/ioV9y3Q

Trane reported a surprise overall increase in third-quarter sales on Wednesday, thanks to a summer surge in demand for air conditioners from stuck-at-home consumers and increasing corporate interest in air-quality control trib.al/ioV9y3Q

Lamach is no stranger to hard work: He was raised in the Detroit area by a single mother juggling multiple jobs.

He paid his own way through college, despite suffering a stroke just a few months into his freshman year at Michigan State University trib.al/ioV9y3Q

Lamach understood that HVAC systems accounted for 40% or more of a building’s energy consumption and that by 2030 they would be responsible for 25% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

He set out to find solutions trib.al/ioV9y3Q

Trane invested millions of dollars developing technology that contributes less to global warming.

It was the first HVAC company to do so, and had no revenue to show for it until the first products — now labeled EcoWise — hit the market in 2013 trib.al/ioV9y3Q

This combination of returns and environmentally friendly products got Lamach named one of Harvard Business Review’s top-performing CEOs in 2019.

As it turns out, people like working for a company that’s helping the environment and that cares about them trib.al/ioV9y3Q

Some companies will weather the pandemic based on pure luck:

🍪Baking supplies
🧼Lysol
🏋🏽‍♂️Home-fitness equipment

But in this moment when many businesses are facing a reckoning, Trane's story is a reminder that there's no replacement for good leadership trib.al/ioV9y3Q