Caterpillar Convenes Thought Leaders on Degraded Lands Restoration

PEORIA, Ill., Oct. 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) announced today it will host the first national summit focused on catalyzing the industry of natural infrastructure restoration on Wednesday, November 4, 2015 from noon to 5 p.m. at the Grand Hyatt in New York City.

Caterpillar will convene leaders from the engineering, construction and financial sectors, as well as thought leaders from academia, non-government organizations and government officials to engage in a discussion on the need for and the benefits of restoring degraded natural infrastructure – such as forests, prairies, agricultural lands, estuaries, coastal landscapes and wetlands – as well as the opportunities it offers with respect to the global sustainable development goals. The outcomes from the dialogue will drive significant recommendations for both the public and private sectors.

"Our deep relationships with a wide range of infrastructure businesses – from traditional construction to sustainable building to agriculture to energy and transportation – put us in a unique position to give this sustainability topic the focus it deserves," said Karl Weiss, vice president with responsibility for Caterpillar's Earthmoving Division. "We believe this could represent new opportunities for Caterpillar and our customers. But, more importantly, we recognize that preserving and restoring our natural assets just makes sense for our business and our global community."

The Summit will focus on establishing both the science and business cases for restoring natural infrastructure, a critical component of the recently adopted United Nations' sustainable development goals. Recognizing the benefits of healthy natural infrastructure – including improved storm resiliency for cities and regions, increased land productivity for a growing population and a productive carbon capture and storage option – participants will identify actions that both public and private sector organizations can take to preserve and restore natural infrastructure with the goal of expediting growth of this important emerging global industry.

"Caterpillar is taking early action toward the UN sustainable development goals, especially Goal #15, which seeks to protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems and halt and reverse land degradation," said Dr. Thomas Lovejoy, Senior Fellow at the United Nations Foundation. "It is critically important for corporations such as Caterpillar to engage with diverse partners in developing and driving solutions to these global challenges."

Later that evening, Caterpillar Inc. will be recognized by Keep America Beautiful as the recipient of the national nonprofit's prestigious "Vision for America" Award. This national award recognizes a U.S. company's accomplishments in leading sustainability initiatives in communities across the country. Caterpillar is being recognized for its corporate commitment to sustainability and its significant progress toward aggressive sustainability goals.

For more on the Summit, contact Caterpillar's Sustainable Development staff at [email protected]. 

For more on Caterpillar's focus on sustainability, read the 2014 Sustainability Report at caterpillar.com/sustainability-report.

About Caterpillar
For 90 years, Caterpillar Inc. has been making sustainable progress possible and driving positive change on every continent. Customers turn to Caterpillar to help them develop infrastructure, energy and natural resource assets. With 2014 sales and revenues of $55.184 billion, Caterpillar is the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives. The company principally operates through its three product segments - Construction Industries, Resource Industries and Energy & Transportation - and also provides financing and related services through its Financial Products segment. For more information, visit caterpillar.com. To connect with us on social media, visit caterpillar.com/social-media.

About Keep America Beautiful
At Keep America Beautiful, we want to ensure that beauty is our lasting signature. A leading national nonprofit, Keep America Beautiful inspires and educates people to take action every day to improve and beautify their community environment. We envision a country where every community is a clean, green, and beautiful place to live. Established in 1953, Keep America Beautiful provides the expertise, programs and resources to help people end littering in America, increase recycling in America, and beautify America's communities. The organization is driven by the work and passion of more than 600 community-based Keep America Beautiful affiliates, millions of volunteers, and the support of corporate partners, municipalities, elected officials, and individuals. To learn how you can donate or take action, visit kab.org. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, like us on Facebook, or view us on YouTube.

Forward-looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release relate to future events and expectations and are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "believe," "estimate," "will be," "will," "would," "expect," "anticipate," "plan," "project," "intend," "could," "should" or other similar words or expressions often identify forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding our outlook, projections, forecasts or trend descriptions. These statements do not guarantee future performance, and we do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements.

Caterpillar's actual results may differ materially from those described or implied in our forward-looking statements based on a number of factors, including, but not limited to: (i) global and regional economic conditions and economic conditions in the industries we serve; (ii) government monetary or fiscal policies and infrastructure spending; (iii) commodity price changes, component price increases, fluctuations in demand for our products or significant shortages of component products; (iv) disruptions or volatility in global financial markets limiting our sources of liquidity or the liquidity of our customers, dealers and suppliers; (v) political and economic risks, commercial instability and events beyond our control in the countries in which we operate; (vi) failure to maintain our credit ratings and potential resulting increases to our cost of borrowing and adverse effects on our cost of funds, liquidity, competitive position and access to capital markets; (vii) our Financial Products segment's risks associated with the financial services industry; (viii) changes in interest rates or market liquidity conditions; (ix) an increase in delinquencies, repossessions or net losses of Cat Financial's customers; (x) new regulations or changes in financial services regulations; (xi) a failure to realize, or a delay in realizing, all of the anticipated benefits of our acquisitions, joint ventures or divestitures; (xii) international trade policies and their impact on demand for our products and our competitive position; (xiii) our ability to develop, produce and market quality products that meet our customers' needs; (xiv) the impact of the highly competitive environment in which we operate on our sales and pricing; (xv) failure to realize all of the anticipated benefits from initiatives to increase our productivity, efficiency and cash flow and to reduce costs; (xvi) additional restructuring costs or a failure to realize anticipated savings or benefits from past or future cost reduction actions; (xvii) inventory management decisions and sourcing practices of our dealers and our OEM customers; (xviii) compliance with environmental laws and regulations; (xix) alleged or actual violations of trade or anti-corruption laws and regulations; (xx) additional tax expense or exposure; (xxi) currency fluctuations; (xxii) our or Cat Financial's compliance with financial covenants; (xxiii) increased pension plan funding obligations; (xxiv) union disputes or other employee relations issues; (xxv) significant legal proceedings, claims, lawsuits or government investigations; (xxvi) changes in accounting standards; (xxvii) failure or breach of IT security; (xxviii) adverse effects of unexpected events including natural disasters; and (xxix) other factors described in more detail under "Item 1A. Risk Factors" in our Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 17, 2015, for the year ended December 31, 2014.

SOURCE Caterpillar Inc.

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