How Emilio Tenuta Of Ecolab Is Helping to Promote Sustainability and Climate Justice

An Interview With Monica Sanders

You don’t always have to be right. As one quickly learns when collaborating, there are always multiple views and imperatives that need to be balanced. There will be moments when you need to move the agenda along even when it doesn’t include all of your components. And that’s okay. In the business of sustainability, this isn’t a short-term game. It’s a long-term game.

According to the University of Colorado, “Those who are most affected and have the fewest resources to adapt to climate change are also the least responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions — both globally and within the United States.” Promoting climate justice is an incredibly important environmental responsibility that is slowly becoming more and more recognized. In this interview series, we are talking to leaders who are helping to promote sustainability and climate justice. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Emilio Tenuta.

Emilio Tenuta is a Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer at Ecolab. His 39-year tenure at Ecolab includes more than 25 years of technical, marketing and business management experience in various industries including Food and Beverage, Pharmaceutical, Lodging, Healthcare, Primary Metals and Automotive. For the past 12 years, Tenuta has led Ecolab’s strategic sustainability journey focused on corporate responsibility, internal environmental stewardship and helping customers operate more sustainably. He is actively involved in advancing global sustainability practices, with a significant focus on water stewardship and climate action. In partnership with Global S&P Trucost — and a multi-stakeholder advisory group — Tenuta led development of the Water Risk Monetizer, industry’s first financial modeling tool to assess water-related risk, and the Smart Water Navigator, a free online tool to help businesses improve water management and achieve their water reduction targets.

In recent years, he’s become a leader in environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices and reporting and has collaborated with a number of large impact investors. Partnering with investor relations and Ecolab’s Chief Executive Officer, Tenuta has advanced Ecolab’s reputation as an ESG leading company. Tenuta is actively involved in advancing industry sustainability and corporate responsibility practices. He sits on the board of directors of the World Environment Center, a global non-profit, non-advocacy organization and the leadership council of the Corporate Eco Forum.

Tenuta received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry and business from the University of Wisconsin — Eau Claire and earned his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

A trusted partner for millions of customers, Ecolab is a global sustainability leader offering water, hygiene and infection prevention solutions and services that protect people and the resources vital to life. Building on a century of innovation, Ecolab has annual sales of $14 billion, employs more than 47,000 associates and operates in more than 170 countries around the world. The company delivers comprehensive science-based solutions, data-driven insights and world-class service to advance food safety, maintain clean and safe environments, and optimize water and energy use. Ecolab’s innovative solutions improve operational efficiencies and sustainability for customers in the food, healthcare, life sciences, hospitality and industrial markets.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?

I’m first-generation Italian, which has instilled in me a deep value for family, convening and gathering together. I grew up in the Greater Chicago area with my parents and three siblings, where we shared a love for our heritage, cooking great food and ice hockey. I continued on to receive my bachelor’s degree in chemistry and business from the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, and my MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Everyone has a cataclysmic moment or marker in their life which propels them to take certain actions, a “why”. What is your why?

My family migrated to the United States from Southern Italy, and I remember as a young boy visiting my grandparents there. My grandfather owned a small farm there that provided food for their table. I remember watching him create these homemade drip irrigation systems that he was so proud of. Watching him manage the earth’s natural resources I think instilled in me the importance of water conservation. It’s part of what made me want to do work rooted in sustainability. Today, I continue to look to my family for inspiration. My lovely wife, three children and two grandchildren motivate me every day and serves as a reminder that we owe it to the next generation to live sustainably.

Ever since I started my career in 1984 as a newly graduated application engineer for Nalco Water, which today is Ecolab’s water and process management business, I had exposure to core ideas of sustainable business and opportunities to live these values. And what was true then remains true today: We work with our customers to save time, labor, materials and resources to help lower costs while at the same time operate more efficiently and sustainably. I’ve been fortunate to be able to connect my professional career and personal passions so closely throughout these meaningful years.

Can you tell us a bit about what you and your organization are trying to change?

Ecolab is transforming the way the world thinks about water. What people may not realize is that water remains a finite resource. The amount of fresh water from all our lakes and rivers combined would only fill a 35-mile-wide bubble — a bubble that would fit within the Los Angeles metro area. The water we have today is the same water we’re going to have in 2050 and so forth. This is a scary thought that isn’t being talked about. Ecolab’s vision for a water-resilient future relies on immediate and collaborative action, including leadership by the private sector, to address the water crisis.

We hope to accomplish this by helping companies meet their ambitious climate goals without compromising business growth. By better using water in their operations, businesses not only save water, but stand to unlock additional positive benefits as well. Because water and energy are so closely linked, these water savings help simultaneously reduce their energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as increase their bottom lines.

By 2030, Ecolab will help our customers save enough water to meet the drinking water needs of 1 billion people and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 6 million metric tons each year, among other ambitious goals. By meeting these goals, we’ll be able to achieve a net positive water and carbon impact in partnership with our customers and suppliers.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?

One my the most interesting times over my career was also one of the most impactful. Flash back to 2008, during the heart of some particularly turbulent times in our economy. The financial crisis was wreaking havoc, and business leaders were hyper-focused on performance, often just to stay afloat. I had just been named director of sustainability at Nalco Water, which today is Ecolab’s water and process management business, and we had to figure out how to grow sustainability an attractive priority amid all this pressure to deliver business results.

Initially, we ran into roadblock after roadblock. There was this mindset that during dire economic circumstances, sustainability had to take a back seat. In order to break through, we knew we had to change this dynamic and find a language that could convey the broader benefits of embedding sustainability into your business strategy.

We took the impacts typically thought of as environmental — such as water savings — and connected them to specific operational drivers and business outcomes. Gallons of water reduced became energy saved which became costs lowered. The result was that we could now quantify our total value delivered to customers and directly tie sustainability priorities to profitability and business success. We called this methodology eROI, or exponential return on investment, and our commercial teams quickly and fully embraced it, having seen the direct ties to growth.

This was a turning point for how we showed not only the value of sustainability, but also the value of our business. It’s an ethos remains true at Ecolab today, where we continue to demonstrate the business case of sustainability.

Did you have mentors or cheerleaders who helped you to succeed? Can you tell us a story about their influence?

A couple of people come to mind, both inside and outside of Ecolab. First is Christophe Beck, Ecolab’s chairman and CEO, who throughout his career has been a leader on how to achieve sustainable business growth. Even since before Christophe was named Ecolab CEO in 2020, he has been instrumental in building Ecolab into global leader that we are today. I first worked with Christophe when he was overseeing the integration of the Nalco Water acquisition, and he’s been one of my valued examples for effective leadership ever since.

Looking externally, I’ll point to Jason Morrison. Today, Jason serves as the President of the Pacific Institute and Head of UN Global Compact CEO Water Mandate. I first met Jason in 2010 at a water forum in San Fransico hosted by Levi Strauss. He’d just been named the head of the Pacific Institute, and he was asked to be one of the forum’s speakers. I found his perspective and philosophy so invaluable that I had to find an opportunity to partner with him. Since then, we’ve gotten to work together through Ecolab’s role as cofounder of the Water Resilience Coalition — a group born out of the CEO Water Mandate — and Jason has continued to instill in me the value of cross-sectoral partnerships.

What does climate justice mean to you? How do we operationalize it?

To me, climate justice is creating responsibility in the sustainability space. We know and have seen firsthand that climate change is getting worse, and disasters are impacting more populations, costing more, and adversely affecting life and property around the world. Climate justice aims to ensure that whatever solutions we employ, they work to deliver benefits for everyone.

We can operationalize climate justice by finding unique and innovative ways to take action — instead of simply stating climate targets or plans. One example is the Water Resilience Coalition (WRC) — a CEO-led initiative — which launched an investment portfolio and fund earlier this year created by WaterEquity that has raised $150 million from investments from us at Ecolab, Starbucks, Gap Inc., Reckitt, and DuPont, alongside a commitment from the US DFC. The fund is aimed to help 5 million people gain improved access to water, sanitation, and hygiene — a small yet targeted drop in the bucket. The fund also represents an innovative approach to leverage balance sheet capital to deliver societal benefits, while still delivering a return for the investors. This type of investment is a critical new strategy for how private sector investments can address critical global issues.

Science is telling us that we have 7–10 years to make critical decisions about climate change. What are three things you or your organization are doing to help?

First, climate change and water are inherently linked. Each directly impacts the other and vice versa. However, the water crisis is often overlooked in climate conversations, yet a recent World Resources Institute report from August estimates that a quarter of the world’s population currently faces “extremely high-water stress.” This means that the water crisis must be a central part of any climate conversation. At Ecolab, we are prioritizing water as our climate action and helping others do the same through better water management. In 2022, Ecolab managed 1.1 trillion gallons of water and helped our customers conserve 219 billion of gallons, which is equivalent to the annual drinking water needs of nearly 757 million people. In addition, through our water management work, Ecolab helped our customers conserve more than 45 trillion Btu of energy and avoid 3.6 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions. These are significant impacts and well on the way toward our 2030 Goal of saving 300 billion gallons of water and avoiding 6 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year.

Second, according to research by the Pacific Institute, nearly 90% of climate impacts are related to water, but only 3% of climate finance focuses on water systems. As I mentioned earlier, Ecolab joined forces with other top organizations to launch a new water investment portfolio that can deliver societal impacts alongside positive returns. This is a new strategy for the private sector to catalyze co-investment and help address critical global issues in a new lane beyond philanthropy. We hope it’s the first of many.

Third, we’re continuing to drive conversations and action overall in the climate space by creating meaningful partnerships. Our work as a founding member of the Water Resilience Coalition is helping to prove the model for effective collective action. The WRC’s bold 2030 ambition is to protect 100 priority water-stressed basins across the world, contributing to water security for three billion people and enabling equitable access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) for more than 300 million people. These actions accumulate when we take them together and reinforce the valuable lesson that no one organization or company can tackle these challenges alone.

Are there three things the community, society, or politicians can do to help you in your mission?

There are a few areas that are overlooked in the climate space that can have a large impact in pursuing our sustainability targets that stakeholders should pay more attention to:

1. Prioritize water. As our planet warms, water will become more and more scarce impacting everything from agricultural and food systems, to wildlife, and even population growth. This is a tangible crisis — in many ways even more acute than climate change overall — that will directly impact populations around the world. We need to include the water crisis and water solutions in every climate action.
2. Pursue nature-based solutions by regenerating forests, restoring wetlands, and protecting open spaces. As climate disasters become more common, companies may find themselves unable to operate at a full-scale due to disruption or damage to manufacturing sites, infrastructure, or supply chains — all of which impacts the bottom line. Nature-based solutions are an opportunity to protect operations while also preserving ecosystems — it’s a win-win.
3. View enhanced reporting as an opportunity to enable progress, rather than a burden. Reporting mechanisms and frameworks will help keep organizations accountable and encourage meaningful action that must follow from all the ambitious goals we’ve seen to date.

Collectively, if we focus more on those three things, I predict we’ll see greater impact and risk reduction across the board.

How would you articulate how a business can become more profitable by being more sustainable and more environmentally conscious? Can you share a story or example?

There is a common misconception that sustainability and profitability goals can’t co-exist — but that’s not the case. Ecolab works with customers around the world to save water, energy and costs, proving win-win-win scenarios are indeed possible.

Take our recent work with Vail Resorts as an example. A leading global mountain resort operator, the company is committed to achieving a zero net operating footprint by 2030. Leveraging a variety of sustainability-driven solutions, Ecolab has helped Vail Resorts deliver a positive environmental impact while maintaining high standards of guest experience. Together, we’ve been able to deliver annual savings of 5.2 million gallons of water, 4.1 billion BTUs of energy, 225 metric tons of CO2 emissions and $73,000 in maintenance costs. Together, this represents more than $265,000 in total value delivered to Vail Resorts.

Ecolab is continuing to raise the bar to deliver sustainability and profitability goals at the same time, which is why we recently launched our Ecolab Water for Climate program. Ecolab Water for Climate is designed to help companies meet their ambitious climate goals without compromising their business growth by coordinating across an enterprise to implement solutions and services to better manage water throughout business operations. Taking the beverage and brewing manufacturing industry as an example, Ecolab Water for Climate is designed to help those customers reduce water use on average by 25%, energy use by 12% and greenhouse gas emissions by 6%.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started promoting sustainability and climate justice” and why?

Here are five things I wish someone told me when I was starting my career in sustainability:

1. Find the business case. This has been such a profound method for growing the support of sustainability initiatives that I wish I’d have prioritized it since day one. Ecolab’s entire eROI methodology, where we tie environmental impacts to operational drivers and business outcomes to show the total value of our work, is built on this premise and it has been central to our success over the years. Without a strong business case, sustainability initiatives run the risk of falling flat.
2. Understand the importance of being a convener. As the saying goes, we go farther when we go together, and that rings true in sustainability. By committing to be the one who brings people together, you’re able to foster the collaboration required to get the big things done.
3. You don’t always have to be right. As one quickly learns when collaborating, there are always multiple views and imperatives that need to be balanced. There will be moments when you need to move the agenda along even when it doesn’t include all of your components. And that’s okay. In the business of sustainability, this isn’t a short-term game. It’s a long-term game.
4. Realize the full value of water and nature. I wish I’d appreciated earlier not only the role of water in nature, but the role of both in business. There are countless cobenefits of smart water use. The mindset has been around the imperative to simply use less. But in reality, this singlemindedness doesn’t take into account the complex environmental flows of the watershed, the effects on biodiversity and just how reliant we are on the natural world. We are doing so much more when we embrace smart water use, and we need to be cognizant of all that we get back from protecting our earth’s most vital resources.
5. Project management has a big role to play in sustainability. This isn’t a feature often top of mind when it comes to sustainability, but I’d argue it’s one of the most important. Without a healthy dose of shrewd project management acumen, sustainability priorities risk getting stuck in a state of ideals. We need to take a disciplined approach, one rooted in defined deliverables mapped against concrete timelines. The sooner we adopt this mentality, the faster we can move from commitments to action.

Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why?

I have to say Matt Damon because I get to check two boxes at once. Not only would I be dining with a movie star, I’d also be in the company of one of the world’s foremost water and sanitation philanthropists. Matt cofounded Water.Org and WaterEquity, two organizations committed to solving the global water crisis by bringing water and sanitation to the world. Ecolab is allied with both organizations and has done work with them in the past, so who knows — I may have an opportunity yet.

How can our readers continue to follow your work online?

You can easily stay updated on my latest work by following me directly on LinkedIn. You can also stay up to date with Ecolab via LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram as well as our website, which has the latest information related to key initiatives like Ecolab Water for Climate and our newly released Ecolab Watermark Study, which provides additional insights into why we need to take action now.

This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!

About the Interviewer: Monica Sanders JD, LL.M, is the founder of “The Undivide Project”, an organization dedicated to creating climate resilience in underserved communities using good tech and the power of the Internet. She holds faculty roles at the Georgetown University Law Center and the Tulane University Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy. Professor Sanders also serves on several UN agency working groups. As an attorney, Monica has held senior roles in all three branches of government, private industry, and nonprofits. In her previous life, she was a journalist for seven years and the recipient of several awards, including an Emmy. Now the New Orleans native spends her time in solidarity with and championing change for those on the frontlines of climate change and digital divestment. Learn more about how to join her at: www.theundivideproject.org.