Caterpillar moved its headquarters from Illinois to Irving in 2022 and is looking ahead to the company's future. Caterpillar's chief sustainability and strategy officer spoke at the Irving/Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting this week.
"We just moved here," George Moubayed says. "It's a bit of learning. It's a bit of finding out what's in the community and what the community has to offer."
Caterpillar makes construction and mining equipment along with engines, turbines and locomotives. Moubayed says the company is also looking at how its equipment can support energy reliability.
"Think about the energy requirements from data centers, the energy requirements from artificial intelligence. That puts a lot of pressure on utilities, that puts a lot of pressure on the electricity side," he says. "How do we use our equipment to support energy reliability?"
Moubayed says all of the company's engines can now run on biodiesel. He says Caterpillar makes different equipment to meet requirements in different parts of the world, saying Norway has different standards than Africa, which would have different standards than the United States.
Moubayed says Caterpillar has also produced 600 autonomous vehicles for use in mines, and he says the equipment has had zero safety issues in the ten years it has been in use.
"If I had the choice, I'd want to be around them because they won't be running. They're going to stop in a nice, controlled stop right next to me, and I can just walk by," he says.
As technology advances, Moubayed says Caterpillar is also working with high schools in Dallas ISD to help train the workforce that will be needed in the future.
"We're working very closely with high schools on STEM, some of those programs where we could do digital fabrication," he says. "That learning is very important to develop that talent."
He says the company is working to take advantage of autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence and how to use new sources of energy. Moubayed says the idea of an "energy transition" can make people uncomfortable, but that can lead to innovation.
"Be curious," he says. "As I take a look at it from a strategy perspective, I love asking questions. It drives my team absolutely nuts, but I love asking questions. It's not because I'm challenging them or trying to poke. I'm trying to learn, and that intellectual curiosity is critical for anybody."
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