ST. PAUL, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Ecolab Inc., the global leader in water, hygiene and energy technologies
and services, in partnership with the Alliance for Water Stewardship
(AWS), today announced that its manufacturing plant in Taicang, China,
is the first site in the world to be independently certified under the
AWS’s global standard for water stewardship.
The AWS
Standard is an ISEAL-compliant framework developed to promote
sustainable freshwater use and to evaluate water stewardship practices,
developed through a four-year, multi-stakeholder, water roundtable
process that included diverse business, public sector and civil society
interests from around the world. This globally consistent and locally
adaptable standard outlines a set of water stewardship criteria and
indicators for how water should be stewarded at a site and catchment
level in a way that is environmentally, socially and economically
beneficial.
“Water stewardship is vital to both a healthy environment and a healthy
economy,” said Ecolab Chairman and CEO Douglas M. Baker, Jr. “We help
more than one million customers around the world reduce their water
footprints, and believe it’s essential that we also leverage this
expertise to advance water stewardship within our own operations.”
Ecolab is one of nearly 30 leading organizations from across sectors to
advance the efforts of AWS to protect the world’s limited freshwater
resources.
“This first certification is a critical milestone as we pursue our
mission to promote responsible use of freshwater. It is fitting that
Ecolab is the first company to achieve certification, given their
leadership in driving improved water use and their consistent support of
the aims of AWS. We congratulate Ecolab and look forward to the next
steps of our collective journey towards sustainable use of freshwater,”
said Adrian Sym, executive director, Alliance for Water Stewardship.
Ecolab is a founding partner of AWS and was one of the first companies
to pilot the AWS Standard. Ecolab partnered with World Wildlife Fund
(WWF) to field test and implement the framework at its Taicang
manufacturing plant, which is located in a water-sensitive area in the
Taihu basin of the Yangtze region.
This work resulted in a systematic approach to water stewardship that
included implementation of water reduction projects within the facility
as well as initial collective action with other water users and
stakeholders, including local authorities, operating within the same
catchment.
“We’ve seen the AWS Standard help businesses translate global
commitments into on-the-ground action, which includes working with
others in the basin on shared water challenges,” said Karin Krchnak,
director of freshwater programs at WWF. “As the first to become
certified, Ecolab is paving the way for others to use the AWS Standard
as a road map towards water stewardship for people, profits and nature.”
Ecolab’s facility in Taicang opened in August 2012 and is the company’s
largest site in the Asia Pacific region. The facility produces a
complete portfolio of cleaning, sanitizing, food safety and infection
prevention solutions for customers in a wide range of growing
industries, including: food and beverage production, food retail,
hospitality, healthcare and dairy, meat and poultry processing.
Certification of Ecolab’s Taicang site to the AWS Standard was
undertaken by TÜV Rheinland, an independent third-party AWS-accredited
organization responsible for assessment of Ecolab’s compliance with the
AWS Standard. In September 2015, TÜV Rheinland certified the Taicang
manufacturing plant as “AWS Core Certified.” To learn more about
Ecolab’s Taicang facility and the certification process, visit Ecolab.com.
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 2014 sales of $14
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,
Instagram at Ecolab_Inc,
LinkedIn
or Facebook at facebook.com/ecolab.
About the Alliance for Water Stewardship
The Alliance for Water Stewardship is a partnership of global leaders in
sustainable water management who are dedicated to promoting responsible
use of freshwater that is socially, economically and environmentally
beneficial. AWS drives collective responses to shared water challenges
through its stakeholder-endorsed AWS International Water Stewardship
Standard. AWS’s Founding Partners are American Standard, CDP, Centre for
Responsible Business, Centro del Agua para America Latina y el Caribe,
Ecolab, European Water Partnership, Fundacion Chile, Fundacion FEMSA,
Future500, General Mills, The Gold Standard Foundation, Hindustan
Unilever Foundation, Inghams Enterprises, Marks & Spencer, Murray
Darling Basin Authority, Nestle, Pacific Institute, Sealed Air, United
Nations Environment Programme, the UN Global Compact’s CEO Water
Mandate, The Nature Conservancy, The Water Council, Veolia Environment,
Water Environment Foundation, Water Footprint Network, Water Stewardship
Australia, Water Witness International, WaterAid and WWF, info@allianceforwaterstewardship.org.
(ECL-C)
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150930005348/en/
Ecolab Media Relations
Roman Blahoski, 651-250-4724
MediaRelations@Ecolab.com
Source: Ecolab Inc.