Johnson Controls International 10-K 2023-09-30

UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

For the Fiscal Year Ended September 30, 2023

OR

For the Transition Period From _____ To _____

Commission File Number 001-13836

JOHNSON CONTROLS INTERNATIONAL PLC

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Exchange Act:

Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Exchange Act: None

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes þ No ¨

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act. Yes ¨ No þ

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes þ No ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes þ No ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of "large accelerated filer," "accelerated filer," "smaller reporting company," and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting

under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report þ

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐ No þ

As of March 31, 2023, the aggregate market value of Johnson Controls International plc Common Stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant was approximately $41.2 billion based on the closing sales price as reported on the New York Stock Exchange. As of November 30, 2023, 680,673,839 ordinary shares, par value $0.01 per share, were outstanding.

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. þ

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the definitive Proxy Statement to be delivered to shareholders in connection with the annual general meeting of shareholders to be held on March 13, 2024 are incorporated by reference into Part III.

JOHNSON CONTROLS INTERNATIONAL PLC

Index to Annual Report on Form 10-K

Year Ended September 30, 2023

CAUTIONARY STATEMENTS FOR FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

Unless otherwise indicated, references to "Johnson Controls," the "Company," "we," "our" and "us" in this Annual Report on Form 10-K refer to Johnson Controls International plc and its consolidated subsidiaries.

The Company has made statements in this document that are forward-looking and therefore are subject to risks and uncertainties. All statements in this document other than statements of historical fact are, or could be, "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In this document, statements regarding the Company’s future financial position, sales, costs, earnings, cash flows, other measures of results of operations, synergies and integration opportunities, capital expenditures, debt levels and market outlook are forward-looking statements. Words such as "may," "will," "expect," "intend," "estimate," "anticipate," "believe," "should," "forecast," "project" or "plan" and terms of similar meaning are also generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. However, the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. The Company cautions that these statements are subject to numerous important risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors, some of which are beyond the Company’s control, that could cause the Company’s actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including, among others, risks related to: The Company's ability to develop or acquire new products and technologies that achieve market acceptance and meet applicable quality and regulatory requirements; the ability to manage general economic, business and capital market conditions, including the impact of recessions, economic downturns and global price inflation; fluctuations in the cost and availability of public and private financing for our customers; the ability to innovate and adapt to emerging technologies, ideas and trends in the marketplace, including the incorporation of technologies such as artificial intelligence; the ability to manage macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility, including shortages impacting the availability of raw materials and component products and the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Hamas; managing the risks and impacts of potential and actual security breaches, cyberattacks, privacy breaches or data breaches, including business, service, or operational disruptions, the unauthorized access to or disclosure of data, financial loss, reputational damage, increased response and remediation costs, legal, and regulatory proceedings or other unfavorable outcomes; our ability to remediate our material weakness; maintaining and improving the capacity, reliability and security of the Company's enterprise information technology infrastructure; the ability to manage the lifecycle cybersecurity risk in the development, deployment and operation of the Company's digital platforms and services; changes to laws or policies governing foreign trade, including economic sanctions, tariffs, foreign exchange and capital controls, import/export controls or other trade restrictions; fluctuations in currency exchange rates; changes or uncertainty in laws, regulations, rates, policies, or interpretations that impact the Company's business operations or tax status; the ability to adapt to global climate change, climate change regulation and successfully meet the Company's public sustainability commitments; the outcome of litigation and governmental proceedings; the risk of infringement or expiration of intellectual property rights; the Company's ability to manage disruptions caused by catastrophic or geopolitical events, such as natural disasters, armed conflict, political change, climate change, pandemics and outbreaks of contagious diseases and other adverse public health developments; the ability of the Company to drive organizational improvement; any delay or inability of the Company to realize the expected benefits and synergies of recent portfolio transactions; the ability to hire and retain senior management and other key personnel; the tax treatment of recent portfolio transactions; significant transaction costs and/or unknown liabilities associated with such transactions; labor shortages, work stoppages, union negotiations, labor disputes and other matters associated with the labor force; and the cancellation of or changes to commercial arrangements. A detailed discussion of risks related to Johnson Controls’ business is included in the section entitled "Risk Factors" (refer to Part I, Item 1A, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K). The forward-looking statements included in this document are made only as of the date of this document, unless otherwise specified, and, except as required by law, Johnson Controls assumes no obligation, and disclaims any obligation, to update such statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this document.

PART I

General

Johnson Controls International plc, headquartered in Cork, Ireland, is a global leader in smart, healthy and sustainable buildings, serving a wide range of customers in more than 150 countries. The Company’s products, services, systems and solutions advance the safety, comfort and intelligence of spaces to serve people, places and the planet. The Company is committed to helping its customers win and creating greater value for all of its stakeholders through its strategic focus on buildings.

Johnson Controls was originally incorporated in the state of Wisconsin in 1885 as Johnson Electric Service Company to manufacture, install and service automatic temperature regulation systems for buildings and was renamed Johnson Controls,

Inc. in 1974. In 2005, Johnson Controls acquired York International, a global supplier of heating, ventilating and air-conditioning ("HVAC") and refrigeration equipment and services. In 2014, Johnson Controls acquired Air Distribution Technologies, Inc., one of the largest independent providers of air distribution and ventilation products in North America. In 2015, Johnson Controls formed a joint venture with Hitachi to expand its building related product offerings. In 2016, Johnson Controls, Inc. and Tyco International plc ("Tyco") completed their combination (the "Merger"), combining Johnson Controls' portfolio of building efficiency solutions with Tyco’s portfolio of fire and security solutions. Following the Merger, Tyco changed its name to “Johnson Controls International plc.”

In 2016, the Company completed the spin-off of its automotive business into Adient plc, an independent, publicly traded company. In 2019, the Company closed the sale of its Power Solutions business, completing the Company’s transformation into a pure-play building technologies and solutions provider.

The Company is a global leader in engineering, manufacturing and commissioning building products and systems, including residential and commercial HVAC equipment, industrial refrigeration systems, controls, security systems, fire-detection systems and fire-suppression solutions. The Company further serves customers by providing technical services, including maintenance, management, repair, retrofit and replacement of equipment (in the HVAC, industrial refrigeration, security and fire-protection space), and energy-management consulting. The Company's OpenBlue digital software platform enables enterprises to better manage their physical spaces by combining the Company's building products and services with cutting-edge technology and digital capabilities to enable data-driven “smart building” services and solutions. The Company partners with customers by leveraging its broad product portfolio and digital capabilities powered by OpenBlue, together with its direct channel service and solutions capabilities, to deliver outcome-based solutions across the lifecycle of a building that address customers’ needs to improve energy efficiency, enhance security, create healthy environments and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Business Segments

The Company conducts its business through four business segments:

• Building Solutions North America which operates in the United States and Canada;

• Building Solutions EMEA/LA which operates in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America;

• Building Solutions Asia Pacific which operates in Asia Pacific; and

• Global Products which operates worldwide and includes the Johnson Controls-Hitachi joint venture.

The Building Solutions segments:

• Design, sell, install and service HVAC, controls, building management, refrigeration, integrated electronic security and integrated fire-detection and suppression systems; and

• Provide energy-efficiency solutions and technical services, including data-driven "smart building" solutions as well as inspection, scheduled maintenance, and repair and replacement of mechanical and controls systems.

The Global Products segment designs, manufactures and sells:

• HVAC equipment, controls software and software services for residential and commercial applications;

• Refrigeration equipment and controls;

• Fire protection and suppression; and

• Security products, including intrusion security, anti-theft devices, access control, and video surveillance and management systems.

The Company’s segments provide products and services to commercial, institutional, industrial, data center, governmental and residential customers.

For more information on the Company’s segments, refer to Note 19, "Segment Information," of the notes to consolidated financial statements.

Products, Systems, Services and Solutions

The Company sells and installs its commercial HVAC equipment and systems, control systems, security systems, fire-detection and fire suppression systems, equipment and services primarily through its extensive direct channel, consisting of a global network of sales and service offices. Significant sales are also generated through global third-party channels, such as

distributors of air-conditioning, controls, security and fire-detection and suppression products. The Company’s large base of current customers leads to significant repeat business for the maintenance, retrofit and replacement markets. The Company is also able to leverage its installed base to generate sales for its service business. Trusted building brands, such as YORK®, Hitachi Air Conditioning, Metasys®, Ansul, Ruskin®, Titus®, Frick®, FM:Systems®, PENN®, Sabroe®, Silent-Aire®, Simplex® and Grinnell®, together with the breadth and depth of the products, systems and solutions offered by the Company, give it what it believes to be the most diverse portfolio in the building technology industry.

The Company has developed software platforms, including on-premises platforms and cloud-based software services, and integrated its products and services with digital capabilities to provide data-driven solutions to create smarter, safer and more sustainable buildings. The Company's OpenBlue platform enables enterprises to better manage their physical spaces delivering sustainability, new occupant experiences, safety and security by combining the Company’s building expertise with cutting-edge technology, including artificial intelligence and machine learning-powered service solutions such as remote diagnostics, predictive maintenance, workplace management, compliance monitoring and advanced risk assessments. The Company leverages its digital and data-driven products and services to offer integrated and customizable solutions focused on delivering outcomes to customers, including OpenBlue Buildings-as-a-Service, OpenBlue Net Zero Buildings-as-a-Service and OpenBlue Healthy Buildings. These services are generally designed to generate recurring revenue for the Company as it supports its customers in achieving their desired outcomes.

In fiscal 2023, products and systems accounted for 76% of sales and services accounted for 24% of sales.

Competition

The Company conducts its operations through a significant number of individual contracts that are either negotiated or awarded on a competitive basis. Key factors in the award of contracts include system and service performance, quality, price, design, reputation, technology, application engineering capability, availability of financing and construction or project management expertise. Competitors for HVAC equipment, security, fire-detection, fire suppression and controls in the residential and non-residential marketplace include many local, regional, national and international providers. Larger competitors include Honeywell International, Inc.; Siemens Smart Infrastructure, an operating group of Siemens AG; Schneider Electric SA; Carrier Global Corporation; Trane Technologies plc; Daikin Industries, Ltd.; Lennox International, Inc.; GC Midea Holding Co, Ltd. and Gree Electric Appliances, Inc. In addition, the Company competes in a highly fragmented building services market. The Company also faces competition from a diverse range of established companies, start-ups and other emerging entrants to the buildings industry in the areas of digital services, software as a service and the Internet of Things. The loss of any individual contract or customer would not have a material adverse effect on the Company.

Business Strategy

The Company’s business strategy is to sustain and expand its position as a leader in smart and sustainable building solutions by offering a full spectrum of products and solutions for customer buildings across the globe. The Company’s core strategy remains focused on creating growth platforms, driving operational improvements and creating a high-performance culture. The Company has strong positions in attractive and growing end-markets across HVAC, controls, fire, security and services, enhanced by its comprehensive product portfolio and substantial installed base. The Company believes that it is well positioned to capitalize on the emerging and prevalent trends in the buildings industry, including sustainability, healthy buildings/indoor environmental quality and smart buildings. To capitalize on these trends, the Company remains focused on maintaining leading positions in delivering building products, systems and solutions, as well as enabling growth through digital, to develop and leverage new digital technologies and capabilities into outcomes powered by its OpenBlue software platform. In furtherance of these goals, the Company has three strategic priorities:

Capitalize on Key Growth Vectors: Sustainability, healthy buildings/indoor environmental quality and smart buildings represent key growth opportunities for the Company. The Company seeks to leverage its existing portfolio breadth and investments in product development, combined with the expansion of its digital products and capabilities powered by OpenBlue, to offer differentiated solutions and innovative deal structures to help customers achieve their objectives. The Company intends to expand its capabilities by investing in products and technologies, as well as expanding its partnerships, to power innovation that will allow it to provide differentiated services that are tailored to its customers’ desired outcomes.

Accelerate in High Growth Digital Services, Regions and Verticals: The Company is focused on transforming its large service business through digital technology, further enabled by the Company’s installed base, domain expertise and global coverage. The Company is focused on developing and deploying connected equipment, systems and controls that will support the provision of digital services and solutions. The Company further intends to expand its presence in high growth regions and

invest in high growth verticals within the markets it serves, including healthcare, commercial offices/campus, education and data centers.

Sustain a High-Performance, Customer-Centric Culture: The Company recognizes that developing talent and creating positive customer experiences is central to accomplishing its business strategies. The Company is investing in its talent to build a diverse workforce that is digital capable, solutions oriented and focused on continuous learning and growth. The Company aims to leverage its talent capabilities and training to create a customer-focused culture to drive customer loyalty and decisions.

To realize these priorities, the Company is leveraging its technology leadership, comprehensive product portfolio, global presence, substantial installed base and strong channels to monetize the lifecycle opportunities of install, service, retrofit and replacement which are established and delivered by the Company’s direct field businesses and third-party channels across the globe. The Company is augmenting its strategic priorities with disciplined execution, productivity enhancements and sustainable cost management to create a path to realize expanded margins and enhanced profitability.

Backlog

The Company’s backlog is applicable to its sales of systems and services. At September 30, 2023, the backlog was $13.6 billion, of which $12.1 billion was attributable to the building solutions (field) business. The backlog amount outstanding at any given time is not necessarily indicative of the amount of revenue to be earned in the upcoming fiscal year.

At September 30, 2023, remaining performance obligations were $19.6 billion, which is $6.0 billion higher than the Company's backlog of $13.6 billion. Differences between the Company’s remaining performance obligations and backlog are primarily due to the following:

• Remaining performance obligations include large, multi-purpose contracts including services to be performed over the initial term of the building contract (typically 25 to 35 years) versus backlog which includes only the lifecycle period of the contract (approximately five years);

• Remaining performance obligations exclude certain customer contracts with a term of one year or less and contracts that are cancellable without substantial penalty versus backlog which includes short-term and cancellable contracts; and

• Remaining performance obligations include the full remaining term of service contracts with substantial termination penalties versus backlog which includes one year for all outstanding service contracts.

The Company believes backlog is a useful measure of evaluating the Company's operational performance and relationship to total orders.

Raw Materials

Raw materials used by the Company’s businesses in connection with their operations include steel, aluminum, brass, copper, polypropylene and certain flurochemicals used in fire suppression agents. The Company also uses semiconductors and other electronic components in the manufacture of its products. During fiscal 2022 and portions of fiscal 2023, the Company experienced material cost increases due to global inflation, supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, increased demand and other regulatory and macroeconomic factors. The collective impact of these trends were favorable to revenue due to increased demand and price increases to offset inflation, while negatively impacting margins due to supply chain disruptions and cost pressures. However, throughout fiscal 2023, the Company experienced improved margins as supply chain disruptions eased and higher priced backlog was converted to sales, as discussed in Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. Although the Company has experienced recent improvement in its supply chain, the Company could experience further disruptions, shortages and price inflation in the future, the effect of which will depend on the Company’s ability to successfully mitigate and offset the impact of these events. In fiscal 2024, commodity prices and availability could fluctuate throughout the year and could significantly affect the Company’s results of operations. For a more detailed description of the risks related to the availability of raw materials, components and commodities, see Item 1A. Risk Factors.

Intellectual Property

Generally, the Company seeks statutory protection for strategic or financially important intellectual property developed in connection with its business. The Company protects its intellectual property investments in a variety of ways. The Company works actively in the U.S. and internationally to ensure the enforcement of copyright, trademark, trade secret, and other

protections that apply to the Company's products, services, software, solutions, and branding. Certain intellectual property, where appropriate, is protected by contracts, licenses, confidentiality or other agreements.

The Company owns numerous U.S. and non-U.S. patents (and their respective counterparts), the more important of which cover those technologies and inventions embodied in current products or which are used in the manufacture of those products. Internal development allows the Company to maintain competitive advantages that come from product differentiation and closer technical control over its products and services. While the Company believes patents are important to its business operations and in the aggregate constitute a valuable asset, no single patent, or group of patents, is critical to the success of the business. The Company, from time to time, grants licenses under its patents and technology and receives licenses under patents and technology of others.

The Company’s trademarks, certain of which are material to its business, are registered or otherwise legally protected in the U.S. and many non-U.S. countries where products and services of the Company are sold. The Company, from time to time, becomes involved in trademark licensing transactions.

Most works of authorship produced for the Company, such as computer programs, catalogs and sales literature, carry appropriate notices indicating the Company’s claim to copyright protection under U.S. law and appropriate international treaties.

Environmental, Health and Safety Matters

Laws addressing the protection of the environment and workers’ safety and health govern the Company’s ongoing global operations. They generally provide for civil and criminal penalties, as well as injunctive and remedial relief, for noncompliance or require remediation of sites where Company-related materials have been released into the environment.

A portion of the Company’s products consume energy and use refrigerants. Increased public awareness and concern regarding global climate change has resulted in more regulations designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These regulations tend to be implemented under global, national and sub-national climate objectives or policies, and target the global warming potential (“GWP”) of refrigerants, equipment energy efficiency, and the combustion of fossil fuels as a heating source. The Company continues to invest in its product portfolio to meet emerging emissions regulations and standards.

The Company has expended substantial resources globally, both financial and managerial, to comply with environmental laws and worker safety laws and maintains procedures designed to foster and ensure compliance. Certain of the Company’s businesses are, or have been, engaged in the handling or use of substances that may impact workplace health and safety or the environment. The Company is committed to protecting its workers and the environment against the risks associated with these substances.

The Company’s operations and facilities have been, and in the future may become, the subject of formal or informal enforcement actions or proceedings for noncompliance with environmental laws and worker safety laws or for the remediation of Company-related substances released into the environment. Such matters typically are resolved with regulatory authorities through commitments to compliance, abatement or remediation programs and, in some cases, payment of penalties. In addition, governments in the United States and internationally have increasingly been regulating perfluorooctane sulfonate ("PFOS"), perfluorooctanoic acid ("PFOA"), and/or other per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances ("PFAS"), which are contained in certain of the Company's firefighting foam products. These regulations include declining emission standards and limits set as to the presence of certain compounds. See Note 21, "Commitments and Contingencies," of the notes to consolidated financial statements for further discussion of environmental matters.

Government Regulation and Supervision

The Company's operations are subject to numerous federal, state and local laws and regulations, both within and outside the United States, in areas such as consumer protection, government contracts, international trade, environmental protection, labor and employment, tax, licensing and others. For example, most U.S. states and non-U.S. jurisdictions in which the Company operates have licensing laws directed specifically toward the alarm and fire suppression industries. The Company's security businesses currently rely extensively upon the use of wireline and wireless telephone service to communicate signals. Wireline and wireless telephone companies in the U.S. are regulated by the federal and state governments. In addition, government regulation of fire safety codes can impact the Company's fire businesses. The Company’s businesses may also be affected by changes in governmental regulation of refrigerants, PFAS, energy efficiency standards, noise regulation and product safety regulations, including changes related to hydro fluorocarbons/emissions reduction efforts, energy conservation standards and the regulation of fluorinated gases. These and other laws and regulations impact the manner in which the Company conducts its

business, and changes in legislation or government policies can affect the Company's worldwide operations, both favorably and unfavorably. For a more detailed description of the various laws and regulations that affect the Company's business, see Item 1A. Risk Factors.

Regulatory Capital Expenditures

The Company’s efforts to comply with numerous federal, state and local laws and regulations applicable to its business and products often results in capital expenditures. The Company makes capital expenditures to design and upgrade its fire and security products to comply with or exceed standards applicable to the alarm, fire suppression and security industries. The Company also makes capital expenditures to meet or exceed energy efficiency standards and comply with applicable regulations, including the regulation of refrigerants, hydro fluorocarbons/emissions reduction efforts and the regulation of fluorinated gasses, particularly with respect to the Company’s HVAC products and solutions. The Company’s ongoing environmental compliance program also results in capital expenditures. Regulatory and environmental considerations are a part of all significant capital expenditure decisions; however, expenditures in fiscal 2023 related solely to regulatory compliance were not material. It is management’s expectation that the amount of any future capital expenditures related to compliance with any individual regulation or grouping of related regulations will not have a material adverse effect on the Company’s financial results or competitive position in any one year. See Note 21, "Commitments and Contingencies," of the notes to consolidated financial statements for further discussion of environmental matters.

Human Capital Management

Overview and Governance

The development of a High-Performance Culture enables the Company to achieve its purpose to build smarter, healthier, and more sustainable tomorrows. The Company’s strategic drivers provide the direction that guides its workforce toward a culture of continuous improvement and innovation to exceed customers’ expectations and provide solutions for global challenges in the building systems industry.

The responsibility to develop and maintain a High-Performance Culture is owned, embedded and executed throughout the Company. The Chief Human Resources Officer ("CHRO") is responsible for establishing the Company’s strategy to drive a High-Performance Culture and ensuring its execution across the Company. The Compensation and Talent Development Committee of the Board of Directors is the primary overseer of the Company’s High-Performance Culture strategy and execution, ensuring that the Company presents an employee value proposition that supports retention and the attraction of external talent. The Governance and Sustainability Committee is the primary overseer of employee health and safety. The Chief Executive Officer ("CEO"), the CHRO, the General Counsel, the Vice President of Global Environment Health & Safety, the Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and other senior leaders within the Company are responsible for the execution of the strategy and engage with the Compensation and Talent Development Committee, the Governance and Sustainability Committee and the full Board of Directors on the critical components driving the Company’s High-Performance Culture, including discussions of future of work, human capital trends, processes and practices, diversity, equity and inclusion, health and safety, talent development, succession planning, and talent and culture best practices. Key components driving the Company’s High-Performance Culture include:

Health and Safety

Health and Wellness, Safety and Environment are the three pillars of the Company’s Zero Harm vision. The Company’s health and safety programs are designed around global standards with appropriate variations addressing multiple jurisdictions and regulations, specific hazards and unique working environments of the Company’s manufacturing, service and install, and headquarter operations.

The Company requires each of its locations to perform regular safety audits to ensure proper safety policies, program procedures, analyses and training are in place. In addition, the Company engages an independent third-party conformity assessment and certification vendor to audit selected operations for adherence to its global health and safety standards. Safety culture and values-based safety initiatives have been deployed within the Company to sustain and further enhance performance.

The Company utilizes a mixture of leading and lagging indicators to assess the health and safety performance of its operations. Lagging indicators include the OSHA Total Recordable Incident Rate ("TRIR") and the Lost Time (or Lost Workday) Incident Rate ("LTIR") based upon the number of incidents per 100 employees (or per 200,000 work hours). In fiscal 2023, the Company had a TRIR of 0.37 and a LTIR of 0.12.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

The Company is dedicated to creating a workplace where diversity is celebrated, where every employee feels included and valued, and where equitable practices are the norm. By prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion, the Company aims to foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, and respect that drives its success in the global marketplace. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (“DEI”) is a core component of the Company’s strategy to drive a High-Performance Culture, recognized as adding value to the Company’s creation and delivery of innovative high performing products and enabling solutions to its customers’ toughest problems. The Company has recently elevated its focus on ‘equity’ to further enable all employees to have access to the opportunities, resources, support and networks they need to develop and succeed. The Company empowers employees to take an active role in creating a culture that values uniqueness, celebrates creativity and drives innovation. The Company encourages employees to enable an inclusive culture through active participation in Business Resource Groups ("BRGs") - employee-led voluntary organizations of people with similar interests, experiences, or demographic characteristics. The Company continues to increase participation in its BRG chapters worldwide across nine categories: African American, Asia Pacific, LGBTQ+, Emerging Leaders, Hispanic, Disabilities, Veterans, Women and Sustainability. In 2023, the Company established BRGs focused on Wellness and Caregiving in response to feedback through its Voice of the Employee events. Each BRG is open to all employees and sponsored and supported by senior leaders across the enterprise. The Company’s BRG structure includes monthly learning series, an active recruitment platform, an innovation hub, community engagement and feedback sessions. The Company also engages BRGs to support the acquisition and development of diverse talent internally and externally.

As a world leader in building technologies, the Company is committed to enabling employees to bring their authentic selves to work each day, which in turn adds value, fosters creativity, and inspires change across the organization. The Company recognizes that it is its people that make the Company exceptional. The Company has developed robust policies and strategies to support this vision in its operations and its communities, including strategies addressing social impact and employee experience. The Company is committed to the implementation of its DEI mission, vision and roadmap including a focus on employee experience, business resource groups, learning and development and external impact.

The Company recognizes that fostering a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment requires ongoing commitment, accountability, and continuous improvement. The Company regularly assesses its progress, recognizes employee contributions, and holds leaders accountable for driving DEI initiatives. The Company also creates mechanisms for open dialogue and feedback from employees to ensure that everyone’s voices are heard.

The Company has implemented several measures that focus on ensuring accountabilities exist for fostering a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment:

• Diversity Objectives:** The CEO and other senior leaders have diversity and inclusion objectives in their annual performance goals.

• Attracting Diverse Talent:** BRGs are instrumental in positively impacting the attraction of diverse talent to the Company. BRGs support these efforts through external engagement and support of talent acquisition sourcing initiatives. The Company’s global flagship Future Leaders Internship Program continues to expand the diversity of its outreach and focus on the skills needed to advance the Company’s growth initiatives.

• Honoring Employee Contributions:** The Company’s Diversity Distinction Awards serve as a recognition and encouragement for workforce contributions to the Company’s DEI efforts. Awarded to eight employees three times per year, the nomination driven Diversity Distinction Awards have become a highly regarded recognition of employee’s contribution to the progress of the Company’s DEI journey.

Talent Development

To maintain a High-Performance Culture, the Company must ensure the continued development and advancement of its employees. The Company has adopted a continual improvement approach to talent development, working to support employees’ growth while defining the skills and capabilities the organization will need in future years. To assess current enterprise capabilities and define future needs, strategic talent reviews and succession planning occur on a planned cadence annually – globally and across all business areas. The Company continues to provide opportunities for its employees to grow their careers, with approximately half of open management positions filled internally during fiscal year 2023.

The Company believes that high performance is an outcome of an employee’s ability to change, adapt, and grow their capabilities throughout their career. This talent development approach includes self and multi-rater assessments, functional and

leadership competency models, providing employees a personalized approach to their development planning and skill acquisition. The Company emphasizes real-life, real-time learning that enables each employee to meet the demands of challenging and changing work and focuses on reinforcing key principles that are designed to support an individual’s effectiveness in his or her current job and in their future development. The Company provides technical and leadership training to employees, customers and suppliers who work for or with the Company’s products and services.

The Company’s focus on employee development has been structured over the last several years through programs designed to imbed essential skills with employees and reinforce strategic goals aligning with the Company’s culture, including:

• Digital Transformation:** In support of Company’s growth strategy, the Company is investing in developing digital leadership with personalized and targeted training programs designed to create digitally capable leaders, salespersons, engineers and technicians.

• Diversity and Inclusion:** The Company has developed a structured diversity and inclusion training curriculum across the levels and stages of individuals' careers to develop and align employees with the Company’s diversity and inclusion strategy and values. In fiscal year 2023, the Company expanded the diversity curriculum, adding new training programs to develop careers of under-represented talent and a toolkit for managers to guide their self-led inclusion efforts.

• Organizational Engagement:** The Company periodically measures the engagement of its employees using a quarterly pulse survey. In fiscal 2023, the survey was launched and conducted three times. The engagement survey provides managers with their own data dashboard to view their own engagement results and can be utilized by managers at all levels to understand how to improve the Company’s culture and employee engagement. Managers are provided with resources to interpret their results and plan their actions following each survey.

In fiscal 2023, the Company offered a robust curriculum of over 197,000 activities that were completed by employees, consisting of videos, courses, e-learning, documentation, articles and books, including over 4,000 active (in person or virtual) learning courses. In fiscal 2023, over 1.26 million learning activities were completed by approximately 86,300 employees. The total learning hours consumed by employees was 1.22 million hours, averaging almost 14 hours per employee including time invested in formal learning and standard time invested in self-paced reading or video consumption.

Employee Population and Demographics

As of September 30, 2023, the Company employed approximately 100,000 people worldwide, of which approximately 37,000 were employed in the United States and approximately 63,000 were outside the United States. Approximately 22,000 employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements or works councils and the Company believes that its relations with its labor unions are generally positive.

(1) Male and female data represents all employees globally. Minority data represents U.S. employees only.

Seasonal Factors

Certain of the Company's sales are seasonal as the demand for residential air conditioning equipment and services generally increases in the summer months. This seasonality is mitigated by the other products and services provided by the Company that have no material seasonal effect.

Research and Development Expenditures

Refer to Note 1, "Summary of Significant Accounting Policies," of the notes to consolidated financial statements for research and development expenditures. The Company has committed to invest a substantial portion of its new product research and development in climate-related innovation to develop sustainable products and services. The Company invests in enhancements to the capabilities of its product lines and services to support its strategy, meet consumer preferences and achieve regulatory compliance. This includes investments in the development of the Company’s OpenBlue platform and related service offerings, digital product capabilities, energy efficient products, and low GWP refrigerants and technology.

Available Information

The Company’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, definitive proxy statements on Schedule 14A, current reports on Form 8-K, and any amendments to those reports filed pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, are made available free of charge through the Investor Relations section of the Company’s Internet website at http://www.johnsoncontrols.com as soon as reasonably practicable after the Company electronically files such material with, or furnishes it to, the SEC. Copies of any materials the Company files with the SEC can also be obtained free of charge through the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov. The Company also makes available, free of charge, its Code of Ethics, Corporate Governance Guidelines, Board of Directors committee charters and other information related to the Company on the Company’s Internet website or in printed form upon request. The Company is not including the information contained on the Company’s website as a part of, or incorporating it by reference into, this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Provided below is a cautionary discussion of what we believe to be the most important risk factors applicable to the Company. Discussion of these factors is incorporated by reference into and considered an integral part of Part II, Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Conditions and Results of Operations.” The disclosure of a risk should not be interpreted to imply that such risk has not already materialized. Additional risks not currently known to the Company or that the Company currently believes are immaterial may also impair the Company’s business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

Risks Related to Our Business Operations

Our future growth is dependent upon our ability to develop or acquire new products and technologies that achieve market acceptance with acceptable margins.

Our future success depends on our ability to develop or acquire, manufacture and bring competitive, and increasingly complex, products and services to market quickly and cost-effectively. Our ability to develop or acquire new products, services and technologies requires the investment of significant resources. These acquisitions and development efforts divert resources from other potential investments in our businesses, and they may not lead to the development of new technologies, products or services on a timely basis. Further, we must continue to effectively adapt our products and services to a changing technological and regulatory environment to drive growth and defend against disruption caused by competitors, regulators or other external forces impacting our business and operations. If we are unable to be agile and responsive to disruption in the development of new products, services and technologies, including technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows could be adversely affected.

Moreover, as we introduce new products, we may be unable to detect and correct defects in the design of a product or in its application to a specified use, which could result in loss of sales or delays in market acceptance. Even after introduction, new or enhanced products may not satisfy customer preferences and product failures may cause customers to reject our products. Further, as we integrate emerging and rapidly evolving technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning into our products and services, we may not be able to anticipate or identify vulnerabilities, design flaws or security threats resulting from the use of such technology and develop adequate protection measures. As a result, these products may not achieve market acceptance and our brand image could suffer. We must also attract, develop and retain individuals with the requisite technical expertise and understanding of customers’ needs to develop new technologies and introduce new products, particularly as we increase investment in our digital services and solutions business and our OpenBlue software platform. The laws and regulations applicable to our products, and our customers’ product and service needs, change from time to time, and regulatory changes may render our products and technologies noncompliant or result in new or enhanced regulatory scrutiny. In addition, the markets for our products, services and technologies may not develop or grow as we anticipate. The failure of our technology, products or services to gain market acceptance due to more attractive offerings by our competitors, the introduction

of new competitors to the market with new or innovative product offerings or the failure to address any of the above factors could significantly reduce our revenues, increase our operating costs or otherwise materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

Failure to achieve and maintain a high level of product and service quality could damage our reputation with customers and negatively impact our results.

Product and service quality issues could harm customer confidence in our company and our brands. If certain of our product and service offerings do not meet applicable safety standards or our customers’ expectations regarding quality, safety or performance, we could experience lost sales and increased costs and we could be exposed to legal, financial and reputational risks. In addition, when our products fail to perform as expected, we are exposed to warranty, product liability, personal injury and other claims. We have experienced such quality issues in the past and may experience such issues in the future.

We cannot be certain that our quality controls and procedures will reveal defects in our products or their raw materials, which may not become apparent until after the products have been placed in use in the market. Accordingly, there is a risk that products will have defects, which could require a product recall or field corrective action. Such remedial actions can be expensive to implement and may damage our reputation, customer relationships and market share. We have conducted product recalls and field corrective actions in the past and may do so again in the future.

In many jurisdictions, product liability claims are not limited to any specified amount of recovery. If any such claims or contribution requests or requirements exceed our available insurance or if there is a product recall, there could be an adverse impact on our results of operations. In addition, a recall or claim could require us to review some or all of our product portfolio to assess whether similar issues are present in other products, which could result in a significant disruption to our business and which could have a further adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. There can be no assurance that we will not experience any material warranty or product liability claims in the future, that we will not incur significant costs to defend such claims or that we will have adequate reserves to cover any recall, repair and replacement costs.

Failure to increase organizational effectiveness through organizational improvements may reduce our profitability or adversely impact our business.

Our results of operations, financial condition and cash flows are dependent upon our ability to drive organizational improvement. We seek to drive improvements through a variety of actions, including restructuring and integration activities, digital transformation, business portfolio reviews, productivity initiatives, functionalization, executive management changes, and business and operating model assessments. Risks associated with these actions include delays in execution, additional unexpected costs, realization of fewer than estimated productivity improvements, increased change fatigue, organizational strain and adverse effects on employee morale. We may not realize the full operational or financial benefits we expect, the recognition of these benefits may be delayed, and these actions may potentially disrupt our operations. In addition, our failure to effectively manage organizational changes may lead to increased attrition and harm our ability to attract and retain key talent.

Cybersecurity incidents impacting our IT systems and digital products could disrupt business operations, result in the loss of critical and confidential information, and materially and adversely affect our reputation and results of operations.

We rely upon the capacity, reliability and security of our IT and data security infrastructure and our ability to expand and continually update this infrastructure in response to the changing needs of our business. As we implement new systems or integrate existing systems, they may not perform as expected. We also face the challenge of supporting our older systems, which are vulnerable to increased risks, including the risk of further security breaches

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The Company has no unresolved written comments regarding its periodic or current reports from the staff of the SEC.

Requirement not yet applicable to the Company.

The Company has properties in over 60 countries throughout the world, with its world headquarters located in Cork, Ireland and its North American operational headquarters located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA. The Company’s wholly- and majority-owned facilities primarily consist of manufacturing, sales and service offices, research and development facilities, monitoring centers, and assembly and/or warehouse centers. At September 30, 2023, these properties totaled approximately 40 million square feet of floor space of which 12 million square feet are owned and 28 million square feet are leased. The Company considers its facilities to be suitable for their current uses and adequate for current needs. The majority of the facilities are operating at normal levels based on capacity. The Company does not anticipate difficulty in renewing existing leases as they expire or in finding alternative facilities.

Gumm v. Molinaroli, et al.

On August 16, 2016, a putative class action lawsuit, Gumm v. Molinaroli, et al., Case No. 16-cv-1093, was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, naming Johnson Controls, Inc., the individual members of its board of directors at the time of the merger with the Company’s merger subsidiary and certain of its officers, the Company and the Company’s merger subsidiary as defendants. The complaint asserted various causes of action under the federal securities laws, state law and the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, including that the individual defendants allegedly breached their fiduciary duties and unjustly enriched themselves by structuring the merger among the Company, Tyco and the merger subsidiary in a manner that would result in a United States federal income tax realization event for the putative class of certain Johnson Controls, Inc. shareholders and allegedly result in certain benefits to the defendants, as well as related claims regarding alleged misstatements in the proxy statement/prospectus distributed to the Johnson Controls, Inc. shareholders, conversion and breach of contract. The complaint also asserted that Johnson Controls, Inc., the Company and the Company’s merger subsidiary aided and abetted the individual defendants in their breach of fiduciary duties and unjust enrichment. The complaint seeks, among other things, disgorgement of profits and damages. On September 30, 2016, approximately one month after the closing of the merger, plaintiffs filed a preliminary injunction motion seeking, among other items, to compel Johnson Controls, Inc. to make certain intercompany payments that plaintiffs contend will impact the United States federal income tax consequences of the merger to the putative class of certain Johnson Controls, Inc. shareholders and to enjoin Johnson Controls, Inc. from reporting to the Internal Revenue Service the capital gains taxes payable by this putative class as a result of the closing of the merger. The court held a hearing on the preliminary injunction motion on January 4, 2017, and on January 25, 2017, the judge denied the plaintiffs' motion. Plaintiffs filed an amended complaint on February 15, 2017, and the Company filed a motion to dismiss on April 3, 2017. On October 17, 2019, the court heard oral arguments on the motion to dismiss and took the matter under advisement. On November 3, 2021, the court granted the Company’s motion to dismiss the amended complaint. Plaintiffs appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. On November 6, 2023, the Seventh Circuit affirmed the decision of the district court.

Refer to Note 21, "Commitments and Contingencies," of the notes to consolidated financial statements for discussion of environmental, asbestos, insurable liabilities and other litigation matters, which is incorporated by reference herein and is considered an integral part of Part I, Item 3, "Legal Proceedings."

Not applicable.

EXECUTIVE OFFICERS OF THE REGISTRANT

Pursuant to General Instruction G(3) of Form 10-K, the following list of executive officers of the Company as of December 14, 2023 is included as an unnumbered Item in Part I of this report in lieu of being included in the Company’s Proxy Statement relating to the annual general meeting of shareholders to be held on March 13, 2024.

Julie Brandt, 49, has served as Vice President and President, Building Solutions, North America since April 2023. Prior to joining Johnson Controls, Ms. Brandt served as Executive Vice President and General Manager, North America Western Region at Otis Worldwide Corp, an elevator and escalator manufacturing, installation and service company, from September 2020 until April 2023. While at Otis, Ms. Brandt also served in roles of increasing responsibility from 2000 until 2020, including Executive Vice President and Chief Transformation Officer, from January 2019 until August 2020 and as Managing Director, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, from January 2016 until December 2018.

John Donofrio, 62, has served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of the Company since November 2017. He previously served as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Mars, Incorporated, a global food manufacturer from October 2013 to November 2017. Before joining Mars in October 2013, Mr. Donofrio was Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary for The Shaw Group Inc., a global engineering and construction company, from October 2009 until February 2013. Prior to joining Shaw, Mr. Donofrio was Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Visteon Corporation, a global automotive supplier, a position he held from 2005 until October 2009. Mr. Donofrio has been a Director of FARO Technologies, Inc., a designer, developer, manufacturer and marketer of software driven, 3D measurement, imaging and realization systems, since 2008.

Olivier Leonetti, 59, has served as Chief Financial Officer since November 2020. Prior to joining Johnson Controls, Mr. Leonetti served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Zebra Technologies, a provider of enterprise-level data capture and automatic identification solutions, a position he had held since November 2016. Prior to joining Zebra, Mr. Leonetti was the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Western Digital, a provider of data infrastructure solutions from 2014 to 2016. Prior to joining Western Digital, Mr. Leonetti served as Vice President of Finance – Global Commercial Organization at Amgen, Inc. from 2011 to 2014. From 1997 to 2011, Mr. Leonetti served in various senior finance positions with increasing responsibility at Dell Inc., including most recently as Vice President of Finance. Prior to joining Dell Inc., Mr. Leonetti served in various worldwide finance capacities with Lex Rac Service plc and the Gillette Company. Mr. Leonetti also serves as a director on the board of Eaton Corporation plc, a provider of power management technologies and services.

Nathan Manning, 47, has served as Vice President and Chief Operations Officer, Global Field Operations, since December 2022. He previously served as Vice President and President, Building Solutions, North America from October 2020 until March 2023. He also served as Vice President and General Manager, Field Operations, from March 2020 to October 2020 and Vice President and General Manager, HVAC and Controls Building Solutions North America, from January 2019 to March 2020. Prior to joining Johnson Controls, he served in various roles at General Electric, a diversified industrial and technology company, where he held the position of General Manager, Operational Excellence for General Electric’s GE Power segment from August 2017 until December 2018 and the position of General Manager, Services of GE Energy Connections, a division of GE Power, from November 2015 until August 2017. Prior to joining General Electric, Mr. Manning served as Vice President, General Manager of Eaton Aerospace, a segment of Eaton Corporation plc, a provider of power management technologies and services, from February 2014 until November 2015. Prior to joining Eaton, Mr. Manning served in a number of roles with increasing responsibility in General Electric from his hire in January 2000, including as President and Chief Executive Officer of Aviage Systems, a joint venture between General Electric and Aviation Industry Corporation of China, from July 2012 until February 2014.

Daniel C. “Skip” McConeghy, 57, has served as Vice President, Chief Accounting and Tax Officer since June 2022. Mr. McConeghy previously served as Vice President, Global Tax since October 2020 and as interim Controller since February 2022. He also served as Vice President, Corporate Tax Planning, from July 2012 through October 2020. Prior to joining Johnson Controls, Mr. McConeghy was a Tax Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, from July 1999 through June 2012.

George R. Oliver, 63, has served as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board since September 2017. He previously served as our President and Chief Operating Officer following the completion of the merger of Johnson Controls and Tyco in September 2016. Prior to that, Mr. Oliver was Tyco's Chief Executive Officer, a position he held since September 2012. He joined Tyco in July 2006, and served as President of a number of operating segments from 2007 through 2011. Before joining Tyco, he served in operational leadership roles of increasing responsibility at several General

Electric divisions. Mr. Oliver also serves as a director on the board of Raytheon Technologies, an aerospace and defense company.

Anu Rathninde, 53, has served as Vice President and President, Building Solutions, Asia Pacific since May 2022. Prior to joining Johnson Controls, Mr. Rathninde served as President, Electrical Distribution Systems and Advanced Safety & User Experience, Asia Pacific at Aptiv plc, and mobility architecture company primarily serving the automotive sector, from November 2021 until May 2022 and as President, Electrical Distribution Systems from May 2016 until November 2021. Prior to joining Aptiv, Mr. Rathninde served as Vice President of the Automotive Products Group at Johnson Electric, manufacturer of electric motors, actuators, motion subsystems and related electro-mechanical components. Earlier in his career, Mr. Rathninde held progressive leadership positions at Aptiv in general management, engineering, business development, strategy and business planning.

Lei Zhang Schlitz, 57, has served as Vice President and President, Global Products, since November 2022. Prior to joining Johnson Controls, Ms. Schlitz served as Executive Vice President, Automotive OEM of Illinois Tool Works Inc. (“ITW”), a global manufacturer of a diversified range of industrial products and equipment, from 2019 until October 2022. Prior to serving as Vice President, Automotive OEM, Ms. Schlitz served in various leadership roles at ITW, including Executive Vice President, ITW Food Equipment Segment, from September 2015 until January 2020, Group President, Global Ware-Wash and Refrigeration Businesses and Food Equipment Asia Pacific, from January 2014 until August 2015, Group President, Worldwide Refrigeration & Weigh Wrap Business, from May 2011 until December 2013 and as Vice President, ITW Technology Center from October 2008 until April 2011. Prior to joining ITW, Ms. Schlitz served in roles of increasing responsibility at Siemens Energy & Automation from September 2001 until September 2008 and General Electric from 1998 until September 2001. Ms. Schlitz serves on the Board of Directors for Archer Daniels Midland Company, a leader in human and animal nutrition and agricultural origination and processing.

Marlon Sullivan, 50, has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer since September 2021. Prior to joining Johnson Controls, he served as the Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Delta Airlines from January 2021 to September 2021. Prior to joining Delta, Mr. Sullivan served in various human resources and talent development leadership roles at Abbott Laboratories from December 2007 through December 2020. Earlier in his career, Mr. Sullivan held a variety of human resources roles at The Home Depot.

Marc Vandiepenbeeck, 45, has served as Vice President and President, Building Solutions, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America since August 2023. From 2005 until 2023, Mr. Vandiepenbeeck served in roles of increasing responsibility at Johnson Controls, including Vice President, Finance in 2023, Vice President of Finance, Building Solutions North America, from 2021 through 2023, Vice President and Treasurer, from 2019 until 2021 and Treasurer, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Hong Kong/Shanghai and China, from 2012 until 2015.

There are no family relationships, as defined by the instructions to this item, among the Company’s executive officers.

PART II

The shares of the Company’s ordinary shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "JCI."

As of September 30, 2023, approximately $3.0 billion remains available under the share repurchase program which was authorized by the Company's Board of Directors in March 2021. The share repurchase authorization does not have an expiration date and may be amended or terminated by the Board of Directors at any time without prior notice. During fiscal 2023, the Company repurchased $625 million of its ordinary shares on the open market.

The following table presents information regarding the repurchase of the Company’s ordinary shares by the Company as part of the publicly announced program during the three months ended September 30, 2023.

During the three months ended September 30, 2023, acquisitions of shares by the Company from certain employees in order to satisfy employee tax withholding requirements in connection with the vesting of restricted shares were not material.

Equity compensation plan information is incorporated by reference from Part III, Item 12, "Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters," of this document and should be considered an integral part of this Item 5.

The following information in Item 5 is not deemed to be "soliciting material" or to be "filed" with the SEC or subject to Regulation 14A or 14C under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ("Exchange Act") or to the liabilities of Section 18 of the Exchange Act, and will not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any filing under the Securities Act of 1933 or the Exchange Act, except to the extent the Company specifically incorporates it by reference into such a filing.

The line graph below compares the cumulative total shareholder return on the Company's ordinary shares with the cumulative total return of companies on the Standard & Poor’s ("S&P’s") 500 Stock Index and the companies on the S&P 500 Industrials Index. This graph assumes the investment of $100 on September 30, 2018 and the reinvestment of all dividends since that date.

General

Johnson Controls International plc, headquartered in Cork, Ireland, is a global leader in smart, healthy and sustainable buildings, serving a wide range of customers in more than 150 countries. The Company’s products, services, systems and solutions advance the safety, comfort and intelligence of spaces to serve people, places and the planet. The Company is committed to helping its customers win and creating greater value for all of its stakeholders through its strategic focus on buildings.

The Company is a global leader in engineering, manufacturing, commissioning and retrofitting building products and systems, including residential and commercial HVAC equipment, industrial refrigeration systems, controls, security systems, fire-detection systems and fire-suppression solutions. The Company further serves customers by providing technical services, including maintenance, management, repair, retrofit and replacement of equipment (in the HVAC, industrial refrigeration, controls, security and fire-protection space), energy-management consulting and data-driven “smart building” services and solutions powered by its OpenBlue software platform and capabilities. The Company partners with customers by leveraging its broad product portfolio and digital capabilities, powered by OpenBlue, together with its direct channel service and solutions capabilities, to deliver outcome-based solutions across the lifecycle of a building that address customers’ needs to improve energy efficiency, enhance security, create healthy environments and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Company's fiscal year ends on September 30. Unless otherwise stated, references to years in this report relate to fiscal years rather than calendar years. This discussion summarizes the significant factors affecting the consolidated operating results, financial condition and liquidity of the Company for the year ended September 30, 2023. This discussion should be read in conjunction with Item 8, the consolidated financial statements and the notes to consolidated financial statements. A detailed discussion of the 2022 to 2021 year-over-year changes are not included herein and can be found in the Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in the Company's 2022 Annual Report on Form 10-K filed November 15, 2022 under the heading "Fiscal year 2022 compared to fiscal year 2021" which is incorporated herein by reference.

Macroeconomic Trends

Much of the demand for the Company’s products and solutions is driven by construction, facility expansion, retrofit and maintenance projects within the commercial, institutional, industrial, data center, governmental and residential sectors. Construction projects are heavily dependent on general economic conditions, localized demand for real estate and the availability of credit, public funding or other financing sources. Positive or negative fluctuations in construction, industrial facility expansion, retrofit activity, maintenance projects and other capital investments in buildings within the sectors that the Company serves, as well as availability of credit, financing or funding for such projects, could have a corresponding impact on the Company’s financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. The economic conditions in China, specifically challenges in real estate, began negatively impacting the Building Solutions Asia Pacific segment in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023. The Company expects continued softening in China in fiscal 2024.

As a result of the Company’s global presence, a significant portion of its revenues and expenses is denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. The Company is therefore subject to non-U.S. currency risks and non-U.S. exchange exposure. While the Company employs financial instruments to hedge some of its transactional foreign exchange exposure, these activities do not insulate it completely from those exposures. In addition, the currency exposure from the translation of non-U.S. dollar functional currency subsidiaries are not able to be hedged. Exchange rates can be volatile and a substantial weakening or strengthening of foreign currencies against the U.S. dollar could increase or reduce the Company’s profit margin, respectively, and impact the comparability of results from period to period. During fiscal 2023, revenue and profits were adversely impacted due to the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against foreign currencies.

The Company continues to observe trends demonstrating increased interest and demand for its products and services that enable smart, safe, efficient and sustainable buildings. This demand is driven in part by government tax incentives, building performance standards and other regulations designed to limit emissions and combat climate change. In particular, legislative and regulatory initiatives such as the U.S. Climate Smart Buildings Initiative, U.S. Inflation Reduction Act and EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive include provisions designed to fund and encourage investment in decarbonization and digital technologies for buildings. This demand is supplemented by an increase in commitments in both the public and private sectors to reduce emissions and/or achieve net zero emissions. The Company seeks to capitalize on these trends to drive growth by developing and delivering technologies and solutions to create smart, sustainable and healthy buildings. The Company is

investing in new digital and product capabilities, including its OpenBlue platform, to enable it to deliver sustainable, high-efficiency products and tailored services to enable customers to achieve their sustainability goals. The Company is leveraging its install base, together with data-driven products and services to offer outcome-based solutions to customers with a focus on generating accelerated growth in services and recurring revenue.

The Company has experienced, and could continue to experience, increased material cost inflation and component shortages, as well as disruptions and delays in its supply chain, as a result of global macroeconomic trends, including increased global demand, geopolitical and economic tensions, including the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Hamas, and labor shortages. Actions taken by the Company to mitigate supply chain disruptions and inflation, including expanding and redistributing its supplier network, supplier financing, price increases and productivity improvements, have generally been successful in offsetting some, but not all, of the impact of these trends. The collective impact of these trends has been favorable to revenue due to increased demand and price increases to offset inflation, while negatively impacting margins due to supply chain disruptions and cost pressures. However, during fiscal 2023, the Company observed improved margins as supply chain disruptions eased and higher priced backlog was converted to sales. Although the Company has experienced recent improvement in its supply chain, it could experience further disruptions, shortages and cost increases in the future, the effect of which will depend on the Company’s ability to successfully mitigate and offset the impact of these events.

The extent to which the Company’s results of operations and financial condition are impacted by these and other factors in the future will depend on developments that are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted. See Part I, Item 1A, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for an additional discussion of risks.

Cybersecurity Incident

During the weekend of September 23, 2023, the Company experienced a cybersecurity incident impacting its internal information technology ("IT") infrastructure and applications. The incident was detected shortly after receiving reports of outages to certain of the Company’s systems. Promptly after detecting the issue, the Company implemented its incident management

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See "Risk Management" included in Item 7 - Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.

Index to Consolidated Financial Statements

Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

To the Board of Directors and Shareholders of Johnson Controls International plc

Opinions on the Financial Statements and Internal Control over Financial Reporting

We have audited the accompanying consolidated statements of financial position of Johnson Controls International plc and its subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of September 30, 2023 and 2022, and the related consolidated statements of income, of comprehensive income, of shareholders' equity and of cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended September 30, 2023, including the related notes (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). We also have audited the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of September 30, 2023, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO).

In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of September 30, 2023 and 2022, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended September 30, 2023 in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. Also in our opinion, the Company did not maintain, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of September 30, 2023, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the COSO because a material weakness in internal control over financial reporting existed as of that date related to

ineffective design and maintenance of information technology controls to prevent or detect, on a timely basis, unauthorized access to certain of the Company's financial reporting systems.

A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. The material weakness referred to above is described in Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting appearing under Item 9A. We considered this material weakness in determining the nature, timing, and extent of audit tests applied in our audit of the 2023 consolidated financial statements, and our opinion regarding the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting does not affect our opinion on those consolidated financial statements.

Basis for Opinions

The Company's management is responsible for these consolidated financial statements, for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting, and for its

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None.

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

The Company’s management, with the participation of the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, has evaluated the effectiveness of the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures (as such term is defined in Rule 13a-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act")) as of September 30, 2023. The Company’s disclosure controls and procedures are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by the Company in the reports it files or submits under the Exchange Act, is recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the Commissions’ rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to the Company’s management, including the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Based on such evaluations, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer have concluded that, as of September 30, 2023, the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures were not effective because of the material weakness in its internal control over financial reporting described below.

Notwithstanding the material weakness in internal control over financial reporting described below, management believes and has concluded that the consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K fairly present, in all material respects, the Company’s financial position, results of operations and cash flows for the periods presented in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.

Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

The Company’s management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting, as such term is defined in Exchange Act Rule 13a-15(f). The Company’s management, with the participation of the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, has evaluated the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on the framework in Internal Control-Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission. Based on this evaluation, due to the material weakness described below, the Company’s management has concluded that, as of September 30, 2023, the Company did not maintain effective internal control over financial reporting. A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of its financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

The Company did not maintain sufficient information technology controls to prevent or detect, on a timely basis, unauthorized access to certain of its financial reporting systems. Specifically, the Company did not design and maintain effective controls related to access monitoring, intrusion detection and response capability, patch management and backup and recovery such that recovery from a cybersecurity incident could be performed in a timely manner. This material weakness could result in a material misstatement to the annual or interim consolidated financial statements that would not be prevented or detected. However, this material weakness did not result in a misstatement to the annual or interim consolidated financial statements previously filed or included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

Management has excluded FM:Systems, which the Company acquired in July 2023, from its assessment of internal control over financial reporting as of September 30, 2023. FM:Systems is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company whose total assets and total revenues excluded from management's assessment represented less than 1% each of the related consolidated financial statement amounts for the Company as of and for the year ended September 30, 2023.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, has audited the effectiveness of the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of September 30, 2023 as stated in its report which is included in Item 8 of this Form 10-K.

Remediation Plan for Material Weakness in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

The Company is committed to remediating the above noted material weakness and has actively implemented measures designed to help ensure the material weakness is remediated as soon as possible. Although some remediation measures have been completed, other actions with respect to the Company’s remediation plan are ongoing and include, among other things, the following:

• engaging security specialists to assist in the review, assessment and remediation of the Company's IT controls;

• additional strengthening of access requirements and unauthorized access detection to the Company's financial reporting systems; and

• implementing additional procedures to facilitate more effective backup and recovery of the Company's financial reporting systems.

Though the remediation plan is subject to continual review and revision, the Company expects the remediation plan described above will address the identified material weakness. The remediation plan is subject to oversight by the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors and the identified material weakness will not be considered remediated until the remediation plan has been fully implemented, the applicable controls operate for a sufficient period of time, and the Company has concluded that newly implemented controls are operating effectively.

Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

There were no changes in the Company’s internal control over financial reporting during the quarter ended September 30, 2023, that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, the Company’s internal control over financial reporting.

Officer Rule 10b5-1 Plans

During the three months ended September 30, 2023, the following officers adopted, amended or terminated a contract, instruction or written plan for the purchase or sale of securities of the Company intended to satisfy the affirmative defense conditions of Rule 10b5–1(c) (a “Rule 10b5–1 trading arrangement”):

On August 8, 2023, Marc Vandiepenbeeck, the Company’s Vice President and President, Building Solutions, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America, entered into a Rule 10b5–1 trading arrangement (the “Vandiepenbeeck 10b5-1 Plan”) during the Company’s third quarter open trading window. The Vandiepenbeeck 10b5-1 Plan contemplates the sale in regular intervals of up to 12,974 ordinary shares of Company stock issued upon the vesting of restricted stock units and performance stock units. The restricted stock units and performance stock units are scheduled to vest in December 2023. The number of shares to be sold under the Vandiepenbeeck 10b5-1 Plan represents the maximum actual number of shares issuable under the applicable restricted stock unit and performance stock unit awards. The actual number of shares to be sold under the Vandiepenbeeck 10b5-1 Plan will depend on the achievement of applicable performance conditions under the performance share units and the number of shares withheld to satisfy tax obligations upon the vesting of the applicable awards. The Vandiepenbeeck 10b5-1 Plan is expected to become effective on or about December 20, 2023 and is scheduled to terminate upon the earlier of the sale of all shares contemplated under the Vandiepenbeeck 10b5-1 Plan or December 26, 2024.

Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement; Creation of a Direct Financial Obligation or an Obligation under an Off-Balance Sheet Arrangement of a Registrant

On December 11, 2023, the Company entered into a credit agreement (the “New 5-Year Credit Agreement”) among the Company, certain of its subsidiaries party thereto from time to time (together with the Company, the “Borrowers”), the lenders party thereto from time to time, and JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., as administrative agent. Under the New 5-Year Credit Agreement, which will mature on December 11, 2028, the Borrowers may obtain revolving loans in an aggregate principal amount of up to $2.5 billion outstanding from time to time, including a $300 million sublimit for the issuance of letters of credit. The New 5-Year Credit Agreement replaces the Prior 5-Year Credit Agreement (as defined below).

Borrowings under the New 5-Year Credit Agreement will bear interest at the Adjusted Term SOFR Rate (as defined in the New 5-Year Credit Agreement) determined for the interest period or, at the Company’s election, the Base Rate (as defined in the New 5-Year Credit Agreement), plus, in each case, an applicable margin based on the credit rating of the Company’s senior unsecured long-term debt. The New 5-Year Credit Agreement will also require the Company to pay a facility fee on the

aggregate amount of the lenders’ commitments, whether or not drawn, at a rate determined by reference to the credit rating of the Company’s senior unsecured long-term debt. Under the New 5-Year Credit Agreement, the interest rate and facility fee rate are subject to upward or downward adjustments if the Company achieves, or fails to achieve, certain specified sustainability targets with respect to greenhouse gas emissions, diverse supplier spend, and water withdrawals in water-stressed locations. Such upward or downward sustainability adjustments may be up to 4.25 basis points per annum in the case of the interest rate and up to 0.75 basis points per annum in the case of the facility fee rate.

The borrowings under the New 5-Year Credit Agreement will be used for general business purposes and will not be secured with liens on any of the Company’s or its subsidiaries’ assets. The Company will guarantee all borrowings by the subsidiary Borrowers under the New 5-Year Credit Agreement.

The New 5-Year Credit Agreement contains various restrictions and covenants applicable to the Company and, with certain exceptions, its subsidiaries. Among other requirements, the Company must maintain consolidated shareholders’ equity of at least $3.5 billion.

The New 5-Year Credit Agreement also contains customary events of default. If an event of default under the New 5-Year Credit Agreement occurs and is continuing, then the administrative agent may terminate the lender commitments under the New 5-Year Credit Agreement and declare any outstanding obligations thereunder to be immediately due and payable. In addition, if the Company or any of its significant subsidiaries becomes the subject of voluntary or involuntary proceedings under any bankruptcy, insolvency or similar law, then any outstanding obligations under the New 5-Year Credit Agreement will automatically become immediately due and payable.

The foregoing description of the New 5-Year Credit Agreement does not purport to be complete and is qualified in its entirety by reference to the full text of the New 5-Year Credit Agreement filed herewith as Exhibit 10.1 and incorporated herein by reference. In the ordinary course of business, certain of the lenders under the New 5-Year Credit Agreement and their affiliates have provided, and may in the future provide, investment banking, commercial banking, cash management, foreign exchange or other financial services to the Company and/or one or more of its subsidiaries for which they have received, and may in the future receive, compensation.

On December 11, 2023, the Company also entered into a 364-day credit agreement (the “364-Day Credit Agreement”) among the Company, the other Borrowers party thereto from time to time, the lenders party thereto from time to time, and JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., as administrative agent. The 364-Day Credit Agreement is being entered into simultaneously with the New 5-Year Credit Agreement, with a collection of parties substantively similar to those party to the New 5-Year Credit Agreement, and on terms substantively similar to those set forth in the New 5-Year Credit Agreement. Accordingly, while the Company does not consider the 364-Day Credit Agreement to be a material agreement, a description of the 364-Day Credit Agreement is being included in this filing as information supplemental to disclosure of the New 5-Year Credit Agreement.

Under the 364-Day Credit Agreement, the Borrowers may obtain revolving loans in an aggregate principal amount of up to $500 million outstanding from time to time prior to December 9, 2024 (the “Commitment Termination Date”). Prior to the Commitment Termination Date, by notice to the administrative agent and subject to certain other conditions set forth in the 364-Day Credit Agreement including the absence of any default thereunder, the Company may elect to convert all or a ratable portion of the outstanding revolving loans under the 364-Day Credit Agreement into term loans (the “Term-Out Option”) that will mature on the first anniversary of the Commitment Termination Date. The Borrowers will pay a fee to the lenders under the 364-Day Credit Agreement equal to 1.00% of the aggregate principal amount of any outstanding revolving loans converted into term loans pursuant to the Term-Out Option.

Termination of a Material Definitive Agreement

On December 11, 2023, the credit agreement, dated as of December 5, 2019, among the Company, certain of its subsidiaries party thereto, the lenders party thereto, and JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., as administrative agent (as amended, supplemented or otherwise modified, the “Prior 5-Year Credit Agreement”), was terminated and replaced by the New 5-Year Credit Agreement. Under the Prior 5-Year Credit Agreement, the borrowers thereunder were able to obtain revolving loans in an aggregate principal amount of up to $2.5 billion outstanding from time to time, including a $300 million sublimit for the issuance of letters of credit. Borrowings under the Prior 5-Year Credit Agreement were not secured with liens on any of the Company’s or its subsidiaries’ assets, and the Prior 5-Year Credit Agreement contained customary events of default and financial and other covenants. On December 11, 2023, there were no loans outstanding under the Prior 5-Year Credit Agreement.

None.

PART III

In response to Part III, Items 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14, parts of the Company’s definitive proxy statement (to be filed pursuant to Regulation 14A within 120 days after Registrant’s fiscal year-end of September 30, 2023) for its annual meeting to be held on March 13, 2024, are incorporated by reference in this Form 10-K.

The information relating to directors and nominees of Johnson Controls is set forth under the caption “Proposal Number One” in Johnson Controls’ proxy statement for its annual meeting of shareholders to be held on March 13, 2024 (the “Johnson Controls Proxy Statement”) and is incorporated by reference herein. Information about executive officers is included in Part I, Item 4 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The information required by Items 405, 407(c)(3), (d)(4) and (d)(5) of Regulation S-K is contained under the captions “Governance of the Company - Nomination of Directors and Board Diversity,” “Governance of the Company - Board Committees”, and “Committees of the Board - Audit Committee” of the Johnson Controls Proxy Statement and such information is incorporated by reference herein.

Code of Ethics

Johnson Controls has adopted a code of ethics for directors, officers (including the Company’s principal executive officer, principal financial officer and principal accounting officer) and employees, known as Values First, The Johnson Controls Code of Ethics. The Code of Ethics is available on the Company’s website at www.valuesfirst.johnsoncontrols.com. The Company posts any amendments to or waivers of its Code of Ethics (to the extent applicable to the Company’s directors or executive officers) at the same location on the Company’s website. In addition, copies of the Code of Ethics may be obtained in print without charge upon written request by any stockholder to the office of the Company at One Albert Quay, Cork, Ireland.

The information required by Item 402 of Regulation S-K is contained under the captions “Compensation Discussion & Analysis” (excluding the information under the caption “Compensation Committee Report on Executive Compensation”), “Executive Compensation Tables” “Compensation of Non-Employee Directors” and “CEO Pay Ratio” of the Johnson Controls Proxy Statement. Such information is incorporated by reference.

The information required by Items 407(e)(4) and (e)(5) of Regulation S-K is contained under the captions “Committees of the Board - Compensation Committee Interlocks and Insider Participation” and “Compensation Discussion & Analysis - Compensation Committee Report on Executive Compensation” of the Johnson Controls Proxy Statement. Such information (other than the Compensation Committee Report on Executive Compensation, which shall not be deemed to be “filed”) is incorporated by reference.

The information in the Johnson Controls Proxy Statement set forth under the caption "Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management" is incorporated herein by reference.

The Johnson Controls International plc 2021 Equity and Incentive Plan authorizes stock options, stock appreciation rights, restricted (non-vested) stock/units, performance shares, performance units and other stock-based awards. The Compensation and Talent Development Committee of the Company's Board of Directors determines the types of awards to be granted to individual participants and the terms and conditions of the awards. Annual awards are typically granted in the first quarter of the fiscal year.

The following table provides information about the Company's equity compensation plans as of September 30, 2023:

The information in the Johnson Controls Proxy Statement set forth under the captions “Committees of the Board,” “Governance of the Company - Director Independence,” and “Governance of the Company - Other Directorships, Conflicts and Related Party Transactions,” is incorporated herein by reference.

The information in the Johnson Controls Proxy Statement set forth under “Proposal Number Two” related to the appointment of auditors is incorporated herein by reference.

PART IV

All Financial Statement Schedules are omitted because they are not applicable, or the required information is shown in the financial statements or notes thereto.

Financial statements of 50% or less-owned companies have been omitted because the proportionate share of their revenue or profit before income taxes is individually less than 20% of the respective consolidated amounts and investments in such companies are less than 20% of consolidated total assets.

Not applicable.

Johnson Controls International plc

Index to Exhibits

(a) (1) and (2) Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - See Item 8

(b) Exhibit Index:

Johnson Controls International plc

Index to Exhibits

Johnson Controls International plc

Index to Exhibits

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this report has been signed below as of December 14, 2023, by the following persons on behalf of the registrant and in the capacities indicated: