At Ecolab, sustainability is not simply the way we do business — it’s core to our purpose.

Every day, our 40,000 employees worldwide make the world cleaner, safer and healthier, protecting people and vital resources.

We do this by enabling our customers to achieve uncompromising operational standards, while using the least amount of energy and water, and generating less waste. Our 22,500 sales and service professionals deliver innovative products and services at more than 1 million customer locations globally, from hotels and restaurants, to hospitals, to food manufacturing plants, to oil rigs. Because we truly are “Everywhere It Matters,” we have an exponential impact on the sustainability of our planet.

The world’s resources have never been under more pressure. In the pages that follow you’ll see how we’re bringing unlimited resourcefulness to the challenge of limited resources — and delivering positive economic and environmental outcomes. I firmly believe that a focus on achieving both of these outcomes is the best way to ensure ongoing commitment and long-term results.

Within our own operations, we have set measureable goals for ourselves and you’ll read about our progress in this report. Like most companies, we report on how we address the three elements of the “triple bottom line” — economic progress, environmental stewardship and social responsibility. But we have added a fourth element — safety. Building a stronger safety culture, and embedding safety considerations into everything we do, is foundational to our success, and vitally important to our customers.

Through training, we’re reinforcing safe choices in every aspect of our employee’s lives, at home, work and play. Put simply, we’re committed to making sure every employee returns home safely each day. And while that’s obviously good news for our associates, it is also good news to our customers who rely on the creativity and innovation of our workforce to help their businesses succeed.

While our own progress is important, we have an even greater impact through the more than 1 million customer locations we serve. By providing products and services that enable our customers to optimize their water and energy use and reduce waste streams, our impact is multiplied exponentially.

In the past, I’ve reported on Ecolab’s Total Impact approach to our products and services. Total Impact asks that we take a broad view of the impact of our products and services. That means considering how every one of our solutions increases efficiency, minimizes use of natural resources and improves safety — from sourcing and manufacturing, to use, and through disposal.

Through the Total Impact approach, we help customers realize dramatic results and achieve their own sustainability goals. What’s even more meaningful is the ripple effect — how the results we achieve with our customers bring value to communities and the global economy.

Our innovative products and services, and our dedicated people, are moving us closer to our vision of clean water, safe food, abundant energy and healthy environments for all people, everywhere. As we make strides toward that vision, we’re not only reducing the strain on vital resources, we’re improving quality of life. In other words, through our work with customers in a wide range of industries, we’re making a positive impact.

At Ecolab, we have a unique role to play in addressing some of the most challenging issues facing our planet. We have the people, the technology, the capability and the vision to build that positive impact today and far into the future. And we have the determination to make a difference and serve the greater good.

Because what we do, and how we do it, matters everywhere.

Sincerely,

Douglas M. Baker, Jr.

Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer