Ecolab City of Industry, California, Plant Certified as Water Stewardship Leader

As a global leader in water solutions and services, Ecolab remains dedicated to creating a more water-secure future through smart water management, conservation and stewardship. By 2030 we plan to continue to achieve a Net Positive Water Impact through:

• Reducing, recycling and replenishing water at operational sites. We aim to reduce water impact by 40% per unit production across our enterprise from a 2018 base year.
• Protecting local watersheds by working to restore greater than 50% of our absolute water withdrawal volume at high-risk sites.
• Delivering outcomes through the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) Standard by achieving AWS certification for Ecolab manufacturing sites located in high-risk watersheds.

Ecolab's manufacturing facility located in City of Industry (COI), California, is a key contributor to these goals. The COI plant primarily produces industrial cleaning and sanitizing chemicals. Located in Southern California, in the San Gabriel sub-basin, the COI plant relies on water distributed by water treatment plants that source water from Colorado River aqueduct and California aqueduct. Other water sources include local groundwater from the main San Gabriel basin. Recycled water from COI is discharged from the site to the San Jose Creek Water Reclamation Plant, then to a portion of the San Gabriel River and ultimately into the Pacific Ocean. Non-recycled wastewater is discharged to the Joint Water Pollution Control Plant (JWPCP) in Carson, California. The treated water from the JWPCP is sent to the Pacific Ocean off the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

To contribute to Ecolab's enterprise water goals, the local team's objective is to reduce annual water use per ton of product by 40% from 2018 to 2030.

The following projects help improve the facility's water balance and have been implemented to reduce overall water use:

• Installation of volumetric flow meters on the boiler feedwater tank, reverse osmosis unit, cooling tower and deionized water system to better track on-site water use.
• Installation of Ecolab® Water Track IQ™ and Smart Water Valve to provide greater visibility and insight into water use and improvement opportunities.
• Upgrades to bottle washers to reduce water and optimize wash quality.
• Optimization of production scheduling to minimize washouts and reduce unnecessary washout cycles.
• Installation and improvements in mixing sprayballs with timers to reduce water use.
• Implementation of an idea collection system to gather water-saving ideas from all plant employees. This encourages all associates to view water as a shared resource and drives collective action that feeds into water-savings discussions during monthly business reviews.
• Continuous improvement of the washout water program to capture and reuse the first rinse for manufactured products.
• Reduction of water used for landscaping.
• Review and relaunch of the on-site water safety plan.
• Enactment of a dry floor policy to reduce the amount of washdown that occurs during filling.

As a result of these actions, the COI plant achieved savings in water and energy use. The improvements made at the site have proved to be a helpful step forward for enhancing the site's operations and advancing Ecolab's sustainability goals.