Ecolab Releases 2015 Corporate Sustainability Report

June 20, 2016 | By Business Wire News

ST. PAUL, Minn.

Ecolab Inc., the global leader in water, hygiene and energy technologies and services, today released its 2015 Corporate Sustainability Report. This detailed report profiles the company’s commitment to sustainability, including the significant sustainability accomplishments achieved for customers through Ecolab’s science and service expertise.

“Many companies throughout the world are redesigning their operations and business models to do more with less,” said Emilio Tenuta, Ecolab vice president of Corporate Sustainability. “This is increasingly important as global macro trends clearly show that the fast-growing, increasingly urban, increasingly affluent global population is putting more pressure on our world’s limited resources. Ecolab is helping to reduce this pressure by improving sustainability within our own operations and at more than one million customer locations around the world.”

Ecolab’s 2015 Corporate Sustainability Report highlights examples of how the company is helping businesses across industries re-imagine how they operate to be successful – and sustainable – in a future with greater demand on the world’s finite resources. In 2015, Ecolab solutions helped customers collectively conserve 142 billion gallons of water, eliminate 26.4 million pounds of waste and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 10.5 trillion BTU’s of energy. By 2030, Ecolab aims to conserve 300 billion gallons of water annually by reducing water consumption in both the company’s and its customers’ operations.

Ecolab also announced bolder environmental performance goals. Ecolab has set a goal to reduce water usage by 25 percent and GHG emissions by 10 percent across all manufacturing plants, by 2020, against a 2015 baseline. To achieve these goals, Ecolab has expanded its Create & Maintain Value (CMV) program, a continuous improvement process to reduce water and energy use, throughout its manufacturing facilities. Ecolab will leverage its in-house water management expertise, its unique auditing and monitoring capabilities, and customized solutions to deliver substantial reductions in water and energy consumption.

For companies around the world, water scarcity is becoming more than a hypothetical risk – it is a constraint to growth. In 2014, Ecolab partnered with Trucost, the natural capital experts, to launch the Water Risk Monetizer, a first-of-its-kind tool to help all water users more clearly understand and quantify water-related business risks. In 2015, the tool was enhanced to enable businesses to evaluate potential revenue at risk due to water scarcity. More than 2,000 unique users have tapped into this free tool to assess their water risks. The report provides more background on this tool.

The report highlights several sustainability achievements within Ecolab’s operations. Ecolab’s manufacturing plant in Taicang, China, became the first site in the world to receive the International Water Stewardship Standard certification from the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS). The plant, which operates in the water-sensitive Yangtze River region outside Shanghai, the largest city in China, was recognized for its adoption of conservation methods which reduced both incoming and outgoing water by 2,315 cubic meters in one year.

In 2015, Ecolab was recognized numerous times for its sustainability leadership. The company was named to CR Magazine’s 100 Best Corporate Citizens, Newsweek’s Green Rankings and Ethisphere Institute’s list of the World’s Most Ethical Companies. In addition, the Human Rights Campaign named Ecolab one of the “Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality” and the Military Times named Ecolab a “Best for Vets Employer.”

Ecolab’s 2015 Corporate Sustainability Report was developed in alignment with the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) G4 guidelines. The report summary and complete GRI G4 Index are available at http://www.Ecolab.com/Sustainability.

About Ecolab
A trusted partner at more than one million customer locations, Ecolab (ECL) is the global leader in water, hygiene and energy technologies and services that protect people and vital resources. With 2015 sales of $13.5 billion and 47,000 associates, Ecolab delivers comprehensive solutions and on-site service to promote safe food, maintain clean environments, optimize water and energy use, and improve operational efficiencies for customers in the food, healthcare, energy, hospitality and industrial markets in more than 170 countries around the world.

For more Ecolab news and information, visit www.ecolab.com. Follow us on Twitter @ecolab or Facebook at facebook.com/ecolab.

(ECL-C)