Caterpillar Gives the Gift of Power to St. Luke’s Foundation for Haiti
September 24, 2016
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Caterpillar Gives the Gift of Power to St. Luke’s Foundation for Haiti
To celebrate the anniversary of its 3500 engine, Caterpillar brings power to a Haitian hospital complex
PEORIA, Ill. – Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) is giving a generator set, powered by one of its most powerful engines, to St. Luke’s Foundation for Haiti to aid the local hospital’s work by providing reliable electricity.
This year, Caterpillar celebrates the 35th anniversary of one of its most powerful engines – the 3500. “While most people know Caterpillar for our construction or mining equipment, Caterpillar has a long history of quietly providing power and backup power for a large variety of customers around the world,” said Tana Utley, Caterpillar vice president with responsibility for the Large Power Systems Division. “When we were trying to decide how to celebrate this milestone for our gold-standard engine, we wanted to do something meaningful and to demonstrate the power of power.”
Tonight at the Global Citizen Festival in New York City, Caterpillar announced that it would be giving a 3500 generator to St. Luke’s Foundation for Haiti. St. Luke’s provides healthcare, education and dignified humanitarian outreach to the least served populations of Haiti, with programs that employ more than 1,000 Haitian staff members.
St. Luke’s Medical Director, Dr. Nathalie Colas, was at the Festival and spoke about how a reliable electricity supply will ensure the critical needs of Haiti’s most vulnerable populations can be met without interruption, and how the lifesaving work of St. Luke’s can be expanded to serve the broader Haitian population.
Caterpillar believes that women in particular illustrate the power of power, the power that energy has to shape families, societies, futures and the world. According to the United Nations (UN), “Empowering women fuels thriving economies, spurring productivity and growth. Yet gender inequalities remain deeply entrenched in every society.” One way to address gender inequalities is through access to energy. Girls and women are disproportionately impacted by the lack of energy access, and that has a significant impact on communities.
“We wanted to combine the sustainable strength of one of our most powerful engines with another large source of sustainable strength and power in a community: women,” said Michele Sullivan, President of the Caterpillar Foundation.
As the company works to build a stable societal infrastructure through its products and services, the Caterpillar Foundation is focused on building human infrastructure by investing in organizations and policies that help to alleviate the root causes of global poverty and put people on the path to prosperity. Recently, the Foundation has placed an increased focus on investments in policy, and specifically energy policy, to tackle a root cause of poverty and create sustainable solutions.
“We believe that access to safe and reliable energy is fundamental to disrupting the spiral of poverty,” said Sullivan. “Through investments in energy advocacy and policy with organizations like the ONE Campaign and the UN Foundation, we’re helping empower people to rise out of poverty.”
The company’s gift of a Cat 3500 generator will further that work. Manufactured in Lafayette, Indiana, and Tianjin, China, the Cat 3500 engine platform has been the industry standard for heavy duty diesel and gas engines worldwide for 35 years. With more than 190,000 engines in the field and more than 3 billion operating hours in mining, rail, electric power, oil and gas and marine applications, the 3500 exemplifies Caterpillar’s long standing commitment to technical innovation and continuous improvement in the interest of advancing economic growth and human progress.
“For so many, energy is life. Access to energy is fundamental to opportunity in this age. It’s the light that children study by; the energy that allows an idea to be transformed into a real business. It’s a lifeline for families to meet their most basic needs,” said Sullivan. “We’re proud that Caterpillar plays such an important role in bringing energy to the world.”
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 2015 sales and revenues of $47.011 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 Caterpillar Foundation
Founded in 1952, Caterpillar's philanthropic organization, the Caterpillar Foundation has contributed more than $650 million to help make sustainable progress possible around the world by providing program support in the areas of environmental sustainability, access to education and basic human needs. To learn more about the global impact of the Caterpillar Foundation, visit www.togetherstronger.com.