Aligning corporate sustainability goals with tangible results

Hi, I'm Angela Godwin with Waterworld magazine coming to you from the BlueTech forum here in Vancouver, Canada. Joining me today is my guest, Emilio Tenuta. He is with Ecolab. Emilio, thank you so much for joining me again this year.

Pleasure.

Appreciate it. You are very passionate about sustainability, and in fact, your company was recently recognized for its sustainability efforts. Why don't you tell us a little bit about that?

Sure. So we are so pleased. The World Environment center had recognized Ecolab in 2018 as the Gold medal winner for sustainability leadership. And actually two weeks ago, we attended a ceremony where our CEO, Doug Baker, actually accepted the award. It is a thrill for us because it's a testament to our purpose, which is to protect people and vital resources, making the world cleaner, safer and healthier. And, you know, most of our sustainability passion comes from the work that we do downstream through our customers. So it really is a testament to all that work.

That's wonderful. It's just, it's nice to know that, you know, that your work is being recognized and that it's making a difference. Right.

Thank you.

So one of the themes that you're going to be talking about this year is related to a survey that you did recently in conjunction with Green Biz. Can you tell us a bit about what that survey told you about the water industry today?

Sure. We have been thinking about this for quite some time, and we recently came across a set of data that S and P Trucost, our partner, had pulled together related to. Since 2011, corporate water use has only reduced less than 10%. And so we wondered what was going on, because what we found is that there were a number of really big brands, big companies that were global, that had really big ambitious goals. And so we wondered what was the disconnect? And so the hypothesis of the survey with Green Biz, you know, a leading consultant research firm, was really supporting the fact that, you know, if you have all these goals, was it really translating down to the local level where these facilities are managing water every day? Right. And so what the survey essentially said is, yeah, indeed, water is an increasing priority, but at the same time, 82% of these companies that responded, and by the way, there was 184 responding companies that participated in the survey that 82% of them felt that they didn't have the necessary tools and resources to really execute on some of these goals. And so, you know, what we want to talk about today is really how do we enable them to really be more aware? How do we establish more corporate governance that drives down to the local level? And then how do we look at water management practices within the fences that allow them to really drive and move the needle on water use and then ultimately set the appropriate targets at the local level, because they're different than the targets at the corporate level, because they need to be aligned, but at the same time, they need to be relevant to the local teams that have to implement them. And then finally, this collaboration that we feel is missing, which is water is a shared resource. And so many industry leaders are starting to recognize that water stewardship is also a component of their water management plan. So we're referring to this as being in the blue, which is a concept that we're saying that how do you take from being a untapped water opportunity at a site level to being more circular or being in the blue? By going through this progression of a maturity curve that we're developing. In fact, there'll be a program that will be launched in New York in October of this year where we'll actually release our findings on in the Blue.

Emilio, that's excellent information. We really appreciate all your insights and wish you all the best of luck going forward.

Thank you.

Thanks for being with us. For Waterworld magazine, I'm Angela Godwin.