As a preview to BlueTech Forum, Paul O’Callaghan recently chatted with Emilio Tenuta, Ecolab’s vice president of sustainability, about the issues arising from making large companies treat water and energy sustainability seriously.
Emilio states that, “there has been a shift in the way water is valued and we feel that our customers, especially large multinationals, are not only developing public goals around water, but they are also developing internal metrics around the material risk water poses to their operations. Water is a resource, but it has to be aligned with other business risk factors in order to come together as part of a corporate strategy; it is no longer seen as an isolated aspect of the business”.
Key takeaways from the interview include:
“Water has become increasingly scarce and of variable quality, but our customers still have business growth objectives. We take an approach called ‘license to grow’, where we monetize the risk”.
“Water scarcity forces us to think about the problem differently. For example, in a beverage plant, there are a lot of conveyors moving the product. The lubricants used in that process require a significant amount of water, so we created a product called DryExx, which requires 90 percent less water than traditional wet lubricants”.
“The future really holds an opportunity to reuse and recycle water more efficiently. In the US we are only recycling and reusing 5 to 10 percent of the water we use today”.
On the 1st June at BlueTech Forum, Emilio will join the discussion panel on Corporate Water – Can Innovation mitigate corporate water risk and deliver value?
BlueTech Forum is taking place in San Francisco and the theme is 20:20 Vision – Insights to future-proof your water strategy.
Take a look at the agenda and register today to secure a place.
Early bird rate is available until 18th March.
