Emilio Tenuta, Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer of Ecolab, discusses global water security and Ecolab’s enabling technologies.
Ecolab is a global leader in water, hygiene, and prevention solutions serving a variety of end markets, including manufacturing, hospitality, and technology. As Chief Sustainability Officer, Emilio Tenuta has been instrumental in driving Ecolab’s sustainability strategy, which focuses on addressing critical global challenges like water scarcity, climate change, and resource efficiency.
In this interview, Emilio shares insights into Ecolab’s pioneering work in water stewardship, the importance of collaboration, and how sustainability can serve as a performance multiplier for businesses navigating today’s complex environmental landscape.
What was your journey that led you to your current role as Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer at Ecolab?
Over the past 40 years, I’ve had the privilege of growing with Ecolab, first starting as an application engineer at Nalco Water. Early on, I saw the incredible potential for our company to address global challenges around water, climate, food, and health. That perspective shaped my career as I moved into technical and business roles across Ecolab’s key industries like food and beverage, automotive, technology, and life sciences, where we help our customers improve performance, reduce cost, and enhance resilience.
For the past 16 years, I’ve been focused on leading Ecolab’s sustainability strategy, helping our company and customers operate more efficiently while using fewer resources, particularly water. A pivotal milestone was the 2011 merger of legacy Ecolab and Nalco Water. At the time, there was no Chief Sustainability Officer role, but the merger presented an opportunity to elevate sustainability as a strategic priority. As part of the integration team, I collaborated with our c-suite and executive leadership to shape the CSO role into what it is today - a position that connects sustainability directly to our business strategy while driving impact across our operations and partnerships.
Ecolab has been a leader in water stewardship. Why is this such a critical focus for the company, and how does it tie into your broader sustainability strategy?
Our approach to water stewardship is twofold: helping our customers optimize water use and embedding these principles into our own operations. For example, in industries like food and beverage, 30-40% of water and energy consumption goes into cleaning and sanitizing. That makes Ecolab’s technologies like 3D TRASAR and Water Quality IQ critical for improving performance and driving key savings. These innovations enable customers to reduce water and energy use, lower costs, and improve productivity while maintaining high standards of safety and efficiency.
Internally, we’ve adopted the same mindset for Ecolab. Across our 100+ manufacturing locations, we focus on sustainable water use and aim to replenish over 50% of our water withdrawal by 2030.
To quantify our impact, we use our eROI framework, which measures the business, operational and environmental benefits—and ultimately Total Value Delivered (TVD) in annual cost savings—that we provide to our customers. Since 2019, this approach has helped us deliver more than $9.1 billion in cumulative value, much of it tied to water stewardship. By monetizing our value in the form of TVD, we can provide customers with the ability to account for the impact and performance value of our work together.
Technology and innovation are central to Ecolab’s approach. Can you share examples of how advanced tools such as artificial intelligence are driving sustainability and operational efficiency?
Innovation is in Ecolab’s DNA, and it’s a critical enabler of our sustainability goals. Artificial intelligence holds immense potential as a performance multiplier, driving performance and value in a resource constrained world. At Ecolab, we’ve explored and commercialized technology in predictive analytics, resource optimization, and operational efficiency for decades, in part designed to address the interconnected challenges of water and climate.
Take 3D TRASAR, for instance - this technology uses sensors and predictive analytics to monitor water systems in real time, optimizing usage and preventing waste by offering critical insights into how water impacts operational productivity and system performance. The latest offering in our 3D TRASAR suite is geared towards data centres, where we’ve introduced a Direct-to-Chip Liquid Cooling solution that specifically addresses the heat loads of high-density racks in data centres. Our technology has been a game changer in protecting the servers, optimizing cooling and reducing water demand, and ensuring the performance and reliability that is demanded from the cloud.
"Our technology has been a game changer in protecting the servers, optimizing cooling and reducing water demand, and ensuring the performance and reliability that is demanded from the cloud"
Emilio Tenuta, Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer, Ecolab
We’ve also pioneered technology such as Water Quality IQ, that helps understand water quality composition so it can be reused in the facility instead of discharged. This is a key aspect of what our customers today are looking for – managing their critical resources and seeing how they can be resilient and grow their business.
Ecolab has set ambitious sustainability goals, including net positive water impact by 2030 and saving 300 billion gallons of water with customers annually. What are the key priorities, and how are you tracking progress?
Our 2030 goals were born out of 3 pillars: 1) How the goals align with Ecolab’s business strategy; 2) How the goals support the impact Ecolab can have on the world and planet; 3) What social benefit do the goals deliver.
When we established these goals in 2019, the world was growing at a pace where we would see 1 billion more people on the planet. We envisioned the greatest impact Ecolab could have would be a scenario where our technology and solutions were leveraged by our customers to conserve 300 billion gallons, equivalent to the drinking water needs of 1 billion people, annually by 2030.
Based on our 2024 metrics, we are on track to meet these goals by 2030; in 2024, we helped customers conserve 226 billion gallons of water, equivalent to the annual drinking needs of 781 million people.
Alongside setting additional goals for climate, food safety, and value creation, we established an operational set of leading-edge goals around net water positive impact. We identified 18 priority basins where we operate and are developing a strategy with the Alliance for Water Stewardship, which we have co-led with Nestle and the UN Global Compact, among others.
In 2024, we helped customers conserve 226 billion gallons of water, equivalent to the annual drinking needs of 781 million people
Emilio Tenuta, Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer, Ecolab
Ecolab is recognized as a convener and is involved in a number of industry initiatives. Can you elaborate on the importance of partnerships in advancing water and climate resilience?
Tackling global challenges like water scarcity and climate change requires a united effort. No single organization can solve these issues alone - that’s why collaboration is at the heart of Ecolab’s strategy.
We’re a founding member of the Water Resilience Coalition, launched in partnership with the United Nations Global Compact. This CEO-led initiative elevates water, climate, and nature to the top of corporate agendas, calling on companies to make a Positive Water Impact pledge. The coalition focuses on water-stressed economies and brings together more than 40 companies with a combined market cap of $5 trillion.
Another impactful initiative is the California Water Resilience Initiative, which Ecolab championed. Through this initiative, we’ve brought together private-sector partners and public stakeholders, including the governor’s office, to address water supply and quality issues in California’s critical watersheds. The goal is to achieve 1 million acre-feet of additional water supply by 2030, supporting both the state’s economy and its communities.
Can you share any lessons learned or advice you have for sustainability leaders in the space?
One key lesson I’ve learned is that sustainability cannot be treated as a "bolt-on" initiative. When it’s not integrated into a company’s core operations, supply chain, culture, and functions, it quickly becomes deprioritized. To have a meaningful impact, sustainability must be embedded into the business strategy. In the case of water, managing it effectively can be a performance multiplier - saving energy, reducing costs, building resilience, and helping businesses achieve critical performance goals. Sustainability isn’t just about responsibility; it’s about creating a recipe for long-term success.
