Quick links Business Practices Ombuds/Dialog

Instilling ethical behavior across our culture

The aim of corporate governance at UTC is an ethical culture in which 100 percent compliance with laws and regulations is standard. Our 14 member Board of Directors includes 12 independent members. Each committee (Audit, Nominations & Governance, Compensation & Executive Development, Executive, Finance and Public Issues Review) includes independent directors, and four of the six committees are exclusively independent. The Public Issues Review Committee has oversight for UTC’s corporate responsibility efforts.

UTC’s Code of Ethics is the foundation of our culture. It was created in 1990 and relaunched in 2006 with improved ethics training and a mandatory ethics component to annual performance appraisals. The objectives of every UTC business leader include requirements to mitigate compliance risks and improve ethics scores on UTC’s biennial employee survey. We’ve also increased the number of business practices officers (BPOs) from 14 full-time and 250 part-time positions in 2005 to 27 and 378 positions, respectively, in 2007. BPOs communicate standards, provide guidance, investigate allegations and insist on employee accountability. They are also responsible for ethics and compliance training.

In 2007, we upgraded our EH&S compliance management program and issued new company standards to support our goal of eliminating government notices of violation and permit exceedences. New standards require each UTC operation to implement stronger compliance management processes, assessments and control measures.

Implemented in 1986, UTC’s Ombudsman/DIALOG program allows employees to raise questions or concerns confidentially. Since inception, we’ve received more than 81,000 inquiries and almost half have resulted in change.

UTC’s governance activities also include participation in government and international affairs, congressional testimony and industry organizations. We actively support public policy that leads to clean energy technologies and high efficiency buildings and have a political action committee (PAC) funded entirely by voluntary employee contributions that contributes to political candidates and organizations aligned with UTC interests. By the end of 2007, UTC’s PAC contributed $380,000 to 2007-2008 election cycle candidates running for federal elective office and national party committees.

For more on UTC's political contributions, click here.