Ecolab is a signatory of the Business Ambition for 1.5 ⁰C, a group of major companies that have committed to doing their part to keep climate change at or below 1.5 ⁰ Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Our aim is to halve our carbon emissions by 2030 and reduce them to net-zero by 2050.
As a member of the Business Ambition, Ecolab joins a growing group of global companies that are taking the next step in tackling climate change. We are doing this at the outset of the 2020s, a crucial decade for climate action.
To meet our 1.5 ⁰ C commitment, we will take the following steps:
- Electrify our fleet of service vehicles
- Move to 100 percent renewable energy in our global operations
- Expand energy efficiency projects at our plants, offices and operations around the world
- Work with our supply chain partners to adopt similarly ambitious climate goals
Our goal: Halve the company's carbon emissions by 2030 and reduce them to net-zero by 2050.
Ecolab supports climate change resilience through our work to help customers in virtually every industry, all around the world, save water. Primarily driven by population and economic growth, water scarcity is exacerbated significantly by climate change. For many companies, the first adverse effects of climate change come in the form of water - through droughts, flooding or larger storm surges for instance.
In 2018, we helped our customers save 188 billion gallons (711 million cubic meters) of water. Companies that reduce, reuse and recycle water boost their resilience to water scarcity, and thus to climate change. And they lower their impact on the communities, agricultural operations and other companies with whom they share water resources.
Since using water takes energy, using less water also means using less energy - and that means reducing greenhouse gas emissions for our customers. Partnering with Ecolab, they avoided 2.4 billion pounds (1.1 million metric tons) of greenhouse emissions in 2018.
Meanwhile, we are making steady progress in our own operations. As of 2018, 99.4% of Ecolab's electricity in Europe came from renewable sources. That same year, we also signed a virtual power purchase agreement that will cover 100% of our electricity needs in North America once the wind farm associated with it comes online in 2020. Energy efficiency projects have made many locations more climate-friendly and the first electric Ecolab vehicles are on the road already. We will now globalize these efforts.
The Business Ambition for 1.5 ⁰ C was launched in 2019, following publication of the U.N Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC)'s 2018 report "Global Warming of 1.5 ⁰C." In that report, based on the best available science, the IPCC stated that a global temperature increase of 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels is no longer deemed safe. To avoid the worst consequences of climate change, global warming must be capped at 1.5 degree Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) or less.
The U.N. Global Compact, a group of more than 9,500 companies that are collaborating to foster more sustainable ways of doing business, formed the Business Ambition in 2019 to spur companies to do their part in achieving that goal.
Companies that join the Business Ambition for 1.5 ⁰C commit to set science-based climate targets through the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and submit these targets to the SBTi for validation. The SBTi is a collaboration between the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), World Resources Institute (WRI), World Wildlife Fun (WWF) and the U.N. Global Compact.
