house
Our House initiatives focus on ensuring everyone can have a place to live that is comfortable and nurturing. A place where families can make healthy choices in their efforts to build their best life.
HOME
Our Home initiatives focus on developing resilient, vibrant communities through education and community development. When we can help improve life at home in our communities, there is an added benefit: our employees and potential employees have a great place to live, too.
House+Home
Since our inception, Whirlpool Corporation has been committed to maintaining strong, lasting connections in the communities in which we do business. Most of our operations are located in small towns, and we believe it is our responsibility to support these communities. We utilize a global collective impact model that centers around improving life at home. Accordingly, our giving priorities focus on the areas of house and home as important levers to create thriving communities.
Improving life at home by making a real, positive difference in our communities by building strong foundations and unlocking potential. We believe that the four walls around us have the power to unlock immense opportunity for the people who dwell within. It starts with decent and affordable housing: the foundation of a stable life and bright future. Having the courage to be inclusive, removing bias and focusing on leveling the playing field for everyone. That’s why Whirlpool Corporation gives purposefully of our time, funds and products to the communities where we live and work. Because everyone deserves a comfortable house to nurture dreams.
What makes a house truly special lies in the personal touches; the gathering spaces for friends and family; the feeling of security knowing you have a place to call your own. And, a house provides the blueprint for success in life: where you prepare meals, get ready for work, study after school, raise children, care for aging parents and conjure plans for the future.
Once that sanctuary is in place, one can look outside those walls to their home community. That’s why we invest in initiatives that support educating people at all steps in the journey of life where they unlock their potential and make a positive difference in our communities—playing an important role in improving life at home.
To Whirlpool Corporation, a home is so much bigger than a house itself. It’s the community where we live—the place where people of all ages connect; children are mentored and coached; open space and gardens grow; and small businesses bustle. Stable neighborhoods offer the employment and quality of life amenities that are the bedrock of inclusive communities.
Whirlpool Corporation is proud to work with our employees, their loved ones and our communities to help make sure everyone has a house to dream in that’s part of a resilient, flourishing and sustainable village, district or dale that they feel proud to call home.
House+Home includes many programs around the world. Along with many local and regional programs, we expanded our Habitat for Humanity programming to be more global than ever before. It includes regional housing forums in three regions and global builds in 7 countries.
House+Home World Tour
To embed the House+Home strategy, we created the World Tour, a campaign that would include many of the House+Home programs around the world. We created a global, marquis moment-in-time to officially launch the House+Home strategy and are using the World Tour to nurture the critical connections needed to build the One Whirlpool momentum behind our shared mission of globally Improving Life through House+Home. This campaign also allows our consumers to understand our social and sustainability efforts.
The House+Home World Tour will provide more than $6 million in funding and home appliances over the next year to Habitat for Humanity organizations worldwide.
Habitat for Humanity
Our vision to be in constant pursuit of improving life at Home is why we have made our relationship with Habitat for Humanity International a priority for over 22 years. 1.6 billion people live in substandard housing around the world today, and one in 10 people worldwide live in “distressed communities,” experiencing a perpetual cycle of low-wage jobs, education instability, inadequate transport and racial inequality.
In the past 22 years, Whirlpool Corporation has donated more than $130 million to Habitat and supports programs in 45 countries. As part of these efforts, the company has also donated and installed nearly 212,000 ranges and refrigerators in new Habitat for Humanity homes in the U.S. and Canada, serving more than 120,000 families. Whirlpool Corporation has sponsored more than 190 homes; donated products to 76,000 Habitat families in Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and engaged thousands of employee volunteers in Habitat builds alongside future homeowners.
As part of an expansion of the Habitat relationship, Whirlpool is supporting additional Habitat programs that advocate more energy-efficient homes and innovation in each region to address specific housing challenges in their area.
Habitat for Humanity BuildBetter with Whirlpool Initiative—U.S.
The three-year “BuildBetter with Whirlpool” initiative expands upon Habitat for Humanity’s current efforts. The initiative will build more than 250 climate-resilient and energy-efficient homes over the next three years with hundreds of Americans in need of affordable housing.
Regionally, specific methods and materials will be used to meet or exceed regional and national verification program requirements. This may include increased insulation and air sealing, higher efficiency heating and cooling equipment, fire resilient materials and fixtures that reduce water consumption.
Whirlpool Corporation has donated more than $130 million to Habitat and supports programs in 45 countries.
In the past two decades, Whirlpool has donated ranges and refrigerators to be used in more than 110,000 new Habitat homes, which amounts to $24.6 million in potential homeowner savings on energy over the life of the partnership, based on a recent Habitat study* on energy efficiency and homeowner usage.
Through this initiative, we’re not only making some predictable changes that we can calculate, Habitat is working with their research and measuring team to evaluate how homeowners are living in the home. This will inform how we can make design changes in the future so that a Habitat home is good for the environment and for the homebuyer.
*Per Habitat for Humanity for Humanity “Whirlpool Donated Product Energy Efficiency Study”, issued in October 2021.
Habitat Global Housing Forums
As part of the House+Home World Tour, Whirlpool Corporation is sponsoring three Habitat global housing forums. The forums bring together a spectrum of leaders and experts to spur innovation aimed at meeting the housing needs of the planet’s growing population, while also addressing challenges related to increasing severe weather events and changing climate norms. Each initiative is individual to their country, such as Poland and the U.K.’s support of Habitat for Humanity’s Safe Places program where empty buildings are rehabilitated into multi-family housing units.
Habitat for Humanity Brazil
In collaboration with Consulado da Mulher and Habitat for Humanity, we provided 18 critical home repairs related to the prevention of COVID-19 in the community of Heliópolis in São Paulo. This resulted in 64 people living in rehabilitated homes. Forty women participated in the Consulado da Mulher entrepreneurship training, directly impacting jobs and sales of local businesses in communities.
Habitat for Humanity Argentina
Whirlpool Corporation worked with Habitat for Humanity to identify and execute 125 home repairs (electrical, water, sanitation, roof) in Pilar, Buenos Aires. In addition, repairs were made to three community centers that are responsible for providing food assistance to the community and education to the younger population.
Habitat et Humanisme in Whirlpool France
In France, Whirlpool Corporation celebrates 11 years of partnership with Habitat et Humanisme. Whirlpool Corporation collaborates with the association to provide access to decent, low-cost housing in the city and to contribute to social diversity by choosing housing in mixed culture neighborhoods within urban areas. In the last 11 years we have supported nearly 3,000 families and donated over 2,500 appliances.
In 2021, Whirlpool Corporation expanded their work with Habitat et Humanisme by delivering 310 appliances to 13 housing units for more than 250 families. In addition to supplying household appliances, employees volunteer by offering live cooking workshops for more than 50 residents.
Habitat et Humanisme in Whirlpool France:
in support for nearly 3,000 families, donating over 2,500 appliances.
CARITAS, Spain
In April 2021 we worked with a local organization, CARITAS, in Barcelona to provide appliances for a housing project. CARITAS provides education and training, access to work and housing for the most disadvantaged people, allowing them a dignified life. This project was a new home, rehabilitated from a building donated by a local church. The house provides housing for up to six at-risk individuals as part of an existing social housing park run by Caritas.
Mahesh Gupta becomes an earning member of his family through the Whirlpool Corporation training program.
Asia Region
Skilled Training Changes Lives
Well-structured training programs provide the required catalyst to skill people and impact society. The Whirlpool CSR Retail Training Program in India is a training program for local youth with a blended learning mode. It uses classroom, online and on-the-job training based on job market requirements.
Mahesh Gupta comes from a marginalized community—his father runs a cycle repair shop and single-handedly manages the family’s daily needs. Mahesh completed his graduation and started searching for a job that would help support his family. Unfortunately, a lack of vocational skill set and zero work experience worked against him and he could not find a job. This further deteriorated his family’s living conditions, and it was becoming increasingly difficult for him to meet the basic needs of his family.
Mahesh entered the Whirlpool CSR Retail training program—a vocational training program with a blend of classroom training and on-the-job training. He joined the program in January 2021 studying retail. The program also provided a stipend equivalent to minimum wage for his on the job training. Mahesh completed the training program successfully and is now a permanent employee with a fixed monthly salary with performance-based incentives.
North America Region
United Way
Whirlpool works with United Way across the U.S. to fund thousands of organizations and causes within our communities that focus on education, income, health and basic needs. In 2021 our employees contibuted more than $2.2 million and the Whirlpool Foundation matched that amount to support United Way programming with almost $4.5 million.
This campaign also serves as important employee engagement around serving our communities.
Local United Way Impact1
Basic Needs
- 515,382 meals provided
- 64,346 individuals served food
- 892 individuals provided shelter or safe environment
- 4,394 emergency financial assistance
- 2,900 bills were paid valued
at $1.7 million - Contribution from Whirlpool Corporation almost $4.5m United Way Annual Campaign
Health Services
- 10,461 individuals obtained access to health care services and supports
- 1,725 people participated in physical activity or food access/nutrition programs
- 3,346 individuals were assisted with financial issues
- 924 people maintained their ability to live at home
- 491 received job skills training
Source: United Way of Southwest Michigan
1 Impact metrics for the year-ended December 31, 2021
As a Board member of United Way Worldwide, I see the collective impact being made to fight for the health, education and financial stability of every person in every community.
Marc Bitzer
Chairman & CEO
Whirlpool Corporation
Care Counts
According to teachers nationwide, one in five1 students struggles with access to clean clothes. The stigma and shame of not having clean clothes can lead students to miss school, and students who miss school are seven times more likely to drop out. The Care Counts laundry program by Whirlpool brand is committed to helping remove one small but important barrier to attendance— access to clean clothes—by installing washers and dryers in schools.
Now in its sixth year, the program has expanded to 134 schools in 36 states across the country and is providing access to clean clothes to thousands of students. The Care Counts™ laundry program by Whirlpool brand has expanded its presence to 16 new schools across five new states in the 2021-2022 school year: Idaho, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma and South Carolina. It will continue to work with schools that are participating in a second year of the program in five regions: Alabama, Arkansas, District of Columbia, Kentucky and Massachusetts.
In addition to the program’s introduction into the five new states, Whirlpool brand recently announced an arrangement with Benton Harbor Area Schools to bring the program to the company’s hometown. A first in the history of the Care Counts™ laundry program, the expansion to Benton Harbor is an effort to help maximize K-12 attendance and support education equality in the Benton Harbor community. Working hand-in-hand with the Benton Harbor Area School Board and superintendent, Whirlpool brand installed washers and dryers in every school within the district and developed a customized program to collect anonymized data to study the impact that the program made on student attendance, grades, graduation rates and engagement.
1 Based on a 2019 Braun Research survey conducted by phone within the United States among 600 public school teachers (18 years or older)
Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA)
Over the past decade, Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Maytag have presented 114 exceptional Boys & Girls Clubs mentors with a Maytag Dependable Leader Award and $20,000 grant to create or expand youth programs. Maytag plays an intricate part in making sure Boys & Girls Clubs members have opportunities to explore their passions. Throughout the partnership, Maytag has provided nearly $9.5 million to help deserving youth reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens. Almost 6,000 Whirlpool Corporation employees have volunteered their time at various Clubs across the U.S. Together, Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Maytag celebrate dependability—a quality that is at the core of what the Clubs do every day and is central to the Maytag brand.
Whirlpool Corporation Community Charity Golf Event
The 2021 Whirlpool Corporation Community Charity Golf Event (WCCGE) was once again cancelled due to concerns around COVID-19. Despite the event not being held for the second year in a row, our participants still showed their support, and Whirlpool Corporation was able to issue checks to local organizations to help with their missions in the community.
In past years, the annual event has been hosted on six golf courses, raising funds for local charities with a focus on youth education. The WCCGE began as a way to help our headquarters’ local Boys & Girls Club with some of their costs and increase their programming. It then expanded to raising money to build the Boys & Girls Clubs Teen and Youth Centers in Benton Harbor, with additional support for the Benton Harbor First Tee program, local school foundations and other youth education-related activities such as FIRST Robotics and Junior Achievement.
Since its inception in 2004 by Whirlpool Corporation’s former Chairman and CEO Jeff Fettig, the event has raised over $26 million.
Since its inception in 2004 by Whirlpool Corporation’s former Chairman and CEO Jeff Fettig, the event has raised over $26 million.
2021 Contributions Made From Participant Generosity
Public Schools
Schools Foundation
Foundation
Schools Foundation
Latin America Region (LAR)
Instituto Consulado da Mulher
Since 2002, Whirlpool Corporation has supported women entrepreneurs with Instituto Consulado da Mulher, which works to improve and empower the lives of socially vulnerable women, eradicate poverty and promote gender equality in Brazil.
In 2021, Consulado da Mulher conducted research with women who have gone through the programs between 2016 and 2019 to understand the impact of our efforts three to five years later.
The results were very positive:
Over 80% of the program participants are still in business.
Over 70% were able to afford
home improvements.
89% continued to increase their income.
58% have become Consul brand consumers.
Core Program
Our core program became 100% online. We have benefited 346 people directly and over 1,000 indirectly with a 15-month program in which the women learn about the basics of business administration, finance, gender, sustainability, ethnicity and race, and entrepreneurial behavior, and receive small investments to leverage their businesses. In 2021 we supported 252 “nano” businesses and they had an average income increase of 85%, as well as revenue increase of 86%.
Instituto Consulado da Mulher Impact1
1 Impact metrics for the year-ended December 31, 2021
Programs from Consulado
Instant Message Program
In 2021, we held two editions of the course #Empreendenozap, which uses the WhatsApp app as a tool, transforming the recognized methodology of the Instituto Consulado da Mulher into short videos and exercises about entrepreneurial education in order to reach women from the most distant areas of the country who do not have a stable internet connection. Over 50% of the population in Brazil uses WhatsApp, which allows content download to watch offline.
In the First Edition, we partnered with two other companies: Itaú and Ultragaz and received 1,325 applications, 1,056 were selected to participate in our training. We achieved 30% engagement, 7% higher than the average engagement of free online courses. Those with the best results during the training were selected for a mentorship program with Whirlpool Corporation volunteers, which lasted for six weeks. They had an income increase of 59%. With the learnings of this first edition we launched a new class in partnership with Nestlé, in which 389 women were selected. This second training achieved an even greater engagement with 53% completing the course.
Maria do Perpétuo participated in #Empreendenozap and reported her experience in the video.
Uma Mão Lava a Outra Project
Only 34% of households have washing machines in the northeast of Brazil1. The reasons vary, but one of them is cultural: people are used to outsourcing this job to women who have been doing it for generations—at first in rivers and lakes and presently at their homes or community centers. These women are called “lavadeiras” and they usually live in very vulnerable situations, making little money from washing clothes.
Consul brand, a stand-out in the laundry category for their easy-to-use machines, joined with Zenir—Consul’s product dealer—to launch a unique project for the lavadeiras, offering an entrepreneurship course from Instituto Consulado da Mulher to 20 lavadeiras to teach them how to make a profit from the service they are providing. The top 10 participants received guidance with the Consul washing executives along with a washing machine to optimize their work.
Programa Elas Reparam—Women Repair Program
The authorized technical assistance shops in Brazil have less than 5% of women on their staff1. As part of a diversity initiative, Consulado created a program to select and train women so they can be hired by our service organization, as a way to increase the number of women technicians of the company’s products.
There were 35 applications and 10 were selected and trained in customer service, people management and personal growth, as well as technical knowledge.
Brand Development Project
This project is a partnership between the Consulado da Mulher Institute and Univille—University of Joinville. Design students develop brands and packages, benefiting women entrepreneurs supported by the Institute. For six months, the students communicate with entrepreneurs and create appropriate brands and packages for them. The project benefited more than 30 female entrepreneurs in 2021.
Brazil Corporate Social Responsibility
We launched the Brazil Corporate Social Responsibility Strategic Committee in 2021. We invested R$7,545,516 in 18 social responsibility projects through tax incentives and direct funding. Of these, 11 projects have been completed or started in 2021 and 7 will be started in 2022. Our work this year impacted 1,705,343 people indirectly and our direct impacts included 18,666 students participated, 2,851 teachers trained, 240 trees planted, 381 local suppliers hired, and 346 new jobs created. In addition, participation in the projects was 51.5% women and 48.5% men, with 50.94% of the projects being led by women.
Mexico—Mission Water
For World Water Day 2021, Whirlpool LAR North implemented a campaign to raise awareness about the responsible use of water in the countries of the region.
Donations were made in Mexico and Guatemala, benefiting more than 800 people who do not have access to water, delivered 10 washing machines with Xpert System technology to the Casa de la Mujer Indígena Yoltika (CAMI) in the Sierra Norte de Puebla, Mexico, and 10 washing machines to the San Juan Bautista Jutiapa, Fray Rodrigo de la Cruz, María Guirola and Virgen del Socorro homes in Guatemala.
Xpert System technology washing machines
Latin America and the Caribbean have about one-third of the world’s drinking water sources. Realizing we could still be affected by the water scarcity that affects four out of 10 people2 in the world, the campaign is accompanied by an invitation to take care of this resource at home with products we interact with daily, such as washing machines and dishwashers.
Employees were invited to participate, sharing on social media ways to conserve water with our Whirlpool products, inviting more people to join the mission through our official website misionagua.whirlpool-latam.com with the aim of raising awareness about the growing problem of the lack of drinking water on Earth.
CAMI Yoltika—Laundry Center (México)
Through Hábitat México, Whirlpool Corporation donated 10 energy-efficient washing machines to the CAMI Yoltika organization in Tlaola, Puebla. They will be used to implement a community laundry center to promote more free time for women and more efficient use of water through energy- and water-efficient appliances.
Robotics Tigres 6652—ROBOTICS TEAM Mexico
Whirlpool Corporation, in collaboration with Tigres 6652, sponsored a FIRST Robotics Competition team. FIRST develops K-12 and university students advocating for social impact in their community through STEM-related projects.
This initiative will develop young talent through 72 hours of mentoring from 14 Whirlpool Corporation employees in various areas of expertise, 50 hours of training from 20 employee volunteers on multiple topics, model shop support to help create prototypes and manufacturing of their designs for their robot and field parts. Additionally, Whirlpool Corporation sponsored the team’s construction materials.
Europe, Middle East & Africa
FIRST Lego League U.K.
Despite the lockdown, Whirlpool U.K. continued working with 35 primary schools to help develop STEM skills in primary school children by sponsoring the FIRST Lego League. The winning schools won a visit to our U.K. Yate manufacturing plant and Peterborough U.K. headquarter operation.
Disaster Relief
Whirlpool Corporation donated 600 home appliances to support hundreds of families affected by the flooding in Ahrweiler, Germany, in July. The company partnered with the German Red Cross Organization to distribute and install the appliances in emergency shelters.
Whirlpool Corporation also donated a total of 500 Whirlpool home appliances and 800 KitchenAid appliances to support the hundreds of families affected by the catastrophic flooding in Belgium in July 2021 and helped with their new housing.
Electrão and Hotpoint Clean Area Where 2,500 Trees Were Planted in Portugal
Electrão—Waste Management Association and Hotpoint brand in Portugal joined the Plantar uma Árvore Association for a project to control and remove invasive species in the Sintra Cascais Natural Park. More than 2,500 trees were planted in February as part of a joint campaign.
The cleaning and preparation of the area, which involved more than two dozen volunteers, took place in May. This collaboration draws attention to the need to recycle used electrical equipment to help protect the environment and keep forests, beaches and cities cleaner.
The campaign aims to promote the native forest and reinforce its sustainability by planting native plant species to enhance biodiversity and resilience to forest fires. Strawberry trees, myrtles, mastic trees, hawthorn trees, narrow-leaved heels, whiteoak, black oak, cork oak and foliage are growing among the vegetation of the Natural Park of Sintra Cascais thanks to this initiative.
Most of our headquarters and plants hosted vaccine on-site clinics.
Moments Not to Be Wasted
Moments Not To Be Wasted is an edutainment project, targeted to primary schools, whose aim is promoting, among children and their families, a widespread reflection on the social and environmental value of food in order to increase their awareness about its selection, preservation and consumption.
During the school year 2020-2021 the project reached its fifth edition involving kids in Italy, Poland, Slovakia and the UK. Despite the pandemic, we were able to engage around 2,000 schools, involving in our activities and online laboratories more than 1 million people among teachers, students and their families.
COVID-19
Pandemic related donations and assistance programs were still very prevalent during 2021. As communities struggle to find a new normal, Whirlpool Corporation continued to be generous with donations across the globe.
Whether the product donations to many local community organizations, donations to seven states in Brazil of 20 ultra-freezers to store RNAm vaccines, to the 80 freezers donated in Sienna, Italy in collaboration with the Tuscany Region Lions Club, to support the Banco Alimentare’s initiative providing food to the people most in need, Whirlpool Corporation continued to help improve life in our communities.
Additionally, Whirlpool Corporation regions created unique programs to make it easier for their employees to keep track of the latest COVID-19 information in their region. For example, in Argentina, along with a vaccination campaign, a health committee was created, made up of employees from diverse areas of the company. It meets weekly to analyze and execute actions considering any changes in COVID-19 issues. In Taiwan, we created a COVID-19 employee well-being intranet page in Chinese language. Materials are direct translation from global Whirlpool WeLearn and/or well-being sites to make it easier for non-English-speaking employees. And in Mexico, to raise awareness, motivate and invite employees to get the vaccine, they created songs and videos to entice employees to attend the Whirlpool Corporation hosted vaccine clinics.
1 Based on internal research performed by Whirlpool.
2 Per World Health Organization (WHO.int).