“As a global water technology provider, Xylem is uniquely positioned to advance sustainability. We do so across three key fronts: how we serve our customers, how we operate our company and how we empower communities.”

A year ago, we expanded our sustainability strategy and launched our 2025 goals in response to escalating water challenges around the world. We are challenging ourselves to be a company that pushes boundaries and works to promote a sustainable future. As a leading global water technology provider, Xylem is uniquely positioned to solve water challenges and raise awareness of the critical role that water plays in making our planet more sustainable. This gives us a powerful opportunity and responsibility to effect change – a charge that inspires us to action every day.

Our approach builds on the company’s longstanding commitment to sustainability, which was formalized in 2014 when Xylem set our first slate of publicly available five-year sustainability goals. These goals primarily focused on opportunities for the company to improve our business practices and operations, and to deliver broader impact through corporate social responsibility.

Over the past five years, we have made advancing these goals a key focus, and have achieved meaningful progress on a number of critical fronts, including: increasing the energy efficiency of our technologies, reducing our waste to landfill intensity, and significantly expanding employee and stakeholder engagement in our corporate social responsibility programs.

In refreshing our sustainability goals, we knew we wanted to build on this momentum and be more ambitious. Last year, we expanded our sustainability strategy to put a greater focus on advancing sustainability across our products and solutions, and to more closely integrate sustainability into our business strategy.

As a global water and critical infrastructure technology provider, we have a unique opportunity to accelerate innovation and adoption across the water and wastewater cycles. By combining our sharper focus on advancing sustainability for our customers with our work to advance sustainability across our company and in our communities, we knew we could make a significant difference.

Over the past year, we have achieved a number of important milestones, including:

• Building out our platform of decision intelligence digital solutions, which generate major water, energy and cost efficiencies
• Progressing our innovation so that our core products and technologies help our customers decrease their water and energy usage, reducing their environmental impact and costs
• Minimizing the environmental impact of our operations by achieving a 20 percent reduction in water use intensity and a 28 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions
• Executing the first sustainable improvement loan in the general industrial sector in the United States to couple financing with sustainability performance
• Receiving a 100 percent rating in The Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index, up from a 75 percent rating the prior year
• Expanding our corporate social responsibility program to engage our customers and other partners, helping us assist more communities facing urgent water challenges
• Raising global awareness of water issues, with a focus on engaging youth

These advances, while significant, are just the beginning. As we look ahead in 2020 and beyond, we are focused on the areas where we see the greatest need and can realize the biggest impact. These include digital innovation in technologies that solve water challenges and enable essential services, helping utilities navigate the profound financial and staffing resiliency challenges caused by COVID-19, and promoting clean water access and WASH education to help safeguard vulnerable communities from disease.

While challenges like water scarcity, water systems resilience to challenges like climate change and water affordability are growing, so too are the opportunities to address them through innovation and shared purpose. Xylem is committed to doing our part and to leading the way – as we work together with our customers and partners to help create a healthier and more sustainable future.

Claudia Toussaint
Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Chief Sustainability Officer