Earth Day 2023: 5 ways Xylem is reducing our environmental footprint

For Earth Day 2023, we’re spotlighting 5 ways that Xylem is investing in our planet by reducing our environmental impact. We’re committed to being a responsible corporate steward, advancing sustainability across our company footprint, and through our customer solutions and work to serve communities, as we address the world’s water challenges.

1. Net-Zero GHG

To advance our commitment to reach Net-Zero before 2050, we’re helping our customers decarbonize, and we’re leading by example by reducing the carbon footprint across our own operations.

Seventeen of our 22 major manufacturing sites are now using 100 percent renewable energy, and we are expanding our focus on renewable energy to our smaller locations.

Among the steps we’re taking:

• Decreasing the consumption of energy at our sites – One way we’re doing this is by conducting “energy treasure hunts,” where Xylem colleagues work to identify opportunities to find and cut energy waste. We’re also changing equipment to conserve energy. For example, in Chihuahua, Mexico, we replaced the compressors in our factory with energy-saving variable frequency equipment.
  
  
• Generating our own renewable energy – Our location in Dubai generates almost all the energy they use by solar power, and we also leverage solar power in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Nanjing, China; Weilheim, Germany; Sundbyberg, Sweden; and Cheektowaga, New York.
  
  
• Procuring green energy at sites that would otherwise not have access to sources of renewable energy. One example is our manufacturing site in San Diego, which now runs on 100 percent renewable energy and, in 2022, became the first Xylem site to have this goal externally verified.

2. Recycled water

Twelve of our major sites are recycling and reusing 100 percent of process water. In 2022, we launched a new water treatment plant at our location in Emmaboda, Sweden. Designed and supplied by Xylem, the system can recycle 20 million liters of water each year.

3. Waste reduction

Our waste reduction strategy centers around working with our suppliers to reduce packaging, segregating waste streams more comprehensively, and implementing increased or new recycling practices or on-site reuse of certain materials considered wastes in the past.

Twelve of our major sites achieved our goal of zero process waste to landfill in 2022, doubling our total from 2021.

One great example is our site in Slaton, Texas, which has established a sand recycling and reuse program that is recovering sand while streamlining production processes. We’ve also started recycling programs for cardboard and wood in our factories in Morton Grove, Illinois, and Auburn, New York.

4. Fleet electrification

We’ve committed to transitioning 100 percent of our passenger vehicles to electric or hybrid plug-in solutions and 80 percent of our global fleet, which includes service vans and trucks, to electric or hybrid plug-in solutions. In recognition of our progress, in 2022 our Fleet Procurement Category Manager won the prestigious Fleet Europe award for “European Fleet Procurement Manager of the Year.”

5. WASH4Work Pledge

Ensuring safe Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) across our supply chain is not only an integral part of our mission at Xylem, it’s also a key component of business continuity and supply chain resilience. The WASH4Work Pledge initiative, which Xylem joined in 2019, has been a great tool to address WASH standards and action on SDG6, within our Supply Chain. Since January 2020, more than 600 Xylem supply partners have committed to the WASH Pledge for the Workplace.  
 
Stay tuned for Xylem’s 2022 Sustainability Report, due to be released in May. Check out our 2021 Sustainability Report .