Clean

Chapter 10LOOKING FORWARD TO ECOLAB'S SECOND CENTURY

Every time that wheel turn around, bound to cover just a little more ground.

—Jerry Garcia

By the mid-2010s, Ecolab's value proposition and strategy centered on helping customers achieve all of their 3P goals: a positive impact on people, planet, and profit. As Christophe Beck explained it to me, “The essence of sustainability is the fundamental proposition that you improve business performance and lower cost as you reduce the use of natural resources. It's a win-win-win proposition.”¹ The customer, Ecolab, and the environment would all win through sustainable solutions. The synergies that accompanied the Nalco acquisition earlier that decade led Emilio and the executive team to recast Ecolab's strategy in terms of “four pillars,” an integrated approach that highlighted key challenges that lay at the intersection of its business and sustainability goals. Those four pillars were Clean Water, Safe Food, Abundant Energy, and Healthy Environments. They became, in 2015, the basis for Ecolab's 2020 Sustainability goals and vision:

• Customer impact:
  • Help customers save 300 billion gallons of water annually by 2030.
  • Help customer prevent more than 1 million foodborne illnesses each year.
• Operational goals:
  • Reduce water withdrawals by 25%.
  • Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 10%.

The four pillars anchored Ecolab's strategy and they supported the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) around Gender Equality (SDG ...