Advancing Water Stewardship and Resiliency

Corporate water stewardship is essential for business success. It is also fundamental to creating a positive future for people, planet and business health.

Ecolab helps businesses around the world achieve ambitious sustainability goals by reducing freshwater use and increasing water resiliency which helps safeguard against current and future water stress. We have been helping businesses excel for more than a century and have proven experience helping our customers build water strategies that serve as a roadmap to sustainability and profitability.

Our Water Stewardship PositionOur Climate Leadership Position

Water Stewardship at Ecolab

As a global leader in water solutions and services, we remain dedicated to creating a water resilient future through smart water management, conservation and stewardship.

Through our long history of efficiency improvements and collective action, we continue to demonstrate that companies can accelerate their growth while prioritizing water.

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Supporting Corporate Water Stewardship

Ecolab’s Water Navigator IQ unifies the world’s leading water‑risk frameworks into one AI-powered, end‑to‑end platform to help businesses accelerate resilience, drive strong performance and unlock impact.

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Smart Solutions for Water Resiliency

With unique expertise in water quality and management programs and solutions, we’re driven to help customers advance efficient operations and responsible growth.

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Working Together to Protect our World’s Water Resources

Ecolab believes in the power of partnerships to address global water challenges. That’s why we are a founding member and co-chair of the Water Resilience Coalition, an industry-led initiative of the UN Global Compact’s CEO Water Mandate, and co-founder of the California Water Resilience Initiative, a collaboration that aims to harness public-private sector innovation and leadership to address California's water challenges.

Learn About The CWRI Learn About The WRC

Our Water Goals

Water is a key part of our 2030 Positive Impact, which focuses on the benefits Ecolab can bring to communities and the world by the end of the decade.

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Driving a Net-Positive Water Approach in Our Own Facilities

Our vision of a water-resilient future relies on tangible action.

For Ecolab, that means continuing to drive corporate water management with our customers while identifying opportunities to implement water stewardship projects in our own operations.

To continue to make progress toward our 2030 Positive Impact, Ecolab has prioritized water stewardship projects at our sites with the aim of improving the overall health of the local watersheds. Our projects will use a three-pathway strategy to achieve a net-positive water impact by:

  1. Delivering outcomes through the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) Standard
  2. Increasing water-use efficiency, reuse and recycling via Ecolab solutions and digital technologies
  3. Protecting local watersheds
Our 2030 Positive Impact

Our Three-Pathway Strategy: 

1. Delivering Outcomes Through the Alliance for Water Stewardship Standard

Water challenges are shared, making collective action essential – especially in high-risk basins. As a founding partner of the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS), Ecolab advances sustainable water use within our operations and across the watersheds where we operate. Since 2010, we have helped shape and implement the AWS International Water Stewardship Standard, a globally consistent, locally adaptable framework for responsible freshwater management.

AWS certification combines strong site-level stewardship with collaboration among local stakeholders to address shared water risks. In 2025, Ecolab expanded to 16 AWS-certified sites, adding facilities in Garland, Texas, USA and Istanbul, Turkey, reinforcing our commitment to basin-level collaboration, resilience and shared local impact.

16 Total AWS-Certified Sites 

2. Increasing Water-Use Efficiency, Reuse and Recycling On-site Using Ecolab Solutions and Digital Technologies

We are advancing positive water impact by reducing, reusing and recycling water across our operations, applying the same best-in-class approach, expertise and technologies we deliver to customers globally.

Through Ecolab solutions including Water Flow Intelligence, 3D TRASAR™ and digital tools like the Ecolab® Water Navigator IQ™, we support smart water management practices to reduce demand and improve water quality while optimizing costs at the facility and organizational level.

3. Protecting The Local Watershed

We work with partners to understand the shared water challenges in their local basin and address them with nature-based solutions.

Watersheds face a variety of risks, including water scarcity and water quality, accelerating impacts of climate change and loss of local species.

As a founding member of the Water Resilience Coalition, we work collectively to achieve Net Positive Water Impact through public-private partnerships, policy, technology and a roadmap to reach the WRC’s goals for 100 priority basins by 2030. Through the work of the WRC, we know that 150 companies can directly impact approximately one-third of the world’s water use, which means that industry has a unique responsibility and opportunity to address the global water crisis.

Our corporate water stewardship plans outline the actions we will take within our plants, as well as the communities in which we operate.

Read Case Study

Our Expertise

Ecolab has a unique understanding of the role water plays in running a business. Our holistic water expertise helps customers across nearly every industry use less water and better manage the water they use, from everyday uses to complex process challenges.

Beyond Volumes: Exploring the Societal Value of Corporate Water Stewardship Projects

As water challenges grow more pressing, an increasing number of companies are pursuing corporate water stewardship projects. Traditionally, companies have used volumetric water benefit accounting to estimate volumetric water benefits and identify, select and monitor projects. But these projects impact more than volume, generating many co-benefits that improve conditions for society. This whitepaper, released by Ecolab and other partners, aims to show the link between volumetric water benefits and societal value, helping demonstrate for companies the holistic value of corporate water stewardship projects.

Download the Whitepaper

Water Stewardship Project Highlights

View all Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) case studies showcasing our Ecolab plants that have received AWS certification.

Ecolab AWS Certified Sites

Our Partnerships

Our commitments and partnerships with leading non-governmental organizations (NGOs) strengthen our understanding and ability to impact global challenges facing our business, customers and communities. Our key engagements include:

 

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Growth & Impact Report

Growing Fast, Growing Our Impact, Growing Our Team

Ecolab is growing fast by growing our impact with high-performing teams. Together with our customers and suppliers, we are focused on continuing our positive performance into the future.

Our Growth & Impact Highlights

Get In Touch with Us

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Get in Touch

Ecolab Global Headquarters
Office of Corporate Sustainability 
1 Ecolab Place
St. Paul, MN 55102

Submit your comments and suggestions via the form, and our Corporate Sustainability Team, based in St. Paul, will assist. 

Contact Our Corporate Responsibility Team

Thank you for your interest!