Beyond Compliance; Key Drivers for Sustainability Within Water Sector DuPont’s Learnings from 50 Water Leaders
Kimberly Kupiecki, Global Leader, Sustainability, Communications & Advocacy, DuPont Water Solutions
Water and sustainability have always been inextricably linked—for better and for worse. As our planet warms, we are feeling the impact of climate change through changes in water.
Climate change is further adding to the pressure by raising the frequency and severity of droughts, flooding, sea level rise and other phenomena that put freshwater water resources at risk. And with every degree our planet warms, our water sources become more hospitable to bacteria and viruses.
That’s why the role of the water sector is more important than ever—innovating numerous ways to purify, conserve, reuse, transport, store, and analyze this precious resource.
While the process of enabling safe water is vital and good—we also understand the importance of its sustainability. That the carbon cost of clean water shouldn’t do more harm to our climate and thus our current and future water supplies.
For that reason, our team at DuPont Water Solutions is building sustainability into every one of our solutions—finding ways to optimize water more efficiently, use less energy, reduce waste, and reduce the carbon impact of safe water.
To uniquely understand and innovate for our customers’ sustainability goals and drivers, we recently spoke with water sustainability leaders from more than 50 of our customers and partners who have an impact on global water use—ranging from Fortune 500 water users, municipalities, NGOs, and developers of our water infrastructure (OEMS and EPCs).
So today, as we celebrate Earth Day, we wanted to share the top four things we learned from these water leaders—and the role sustainability plays in the decisions being made in the water sector. Here’s what we learned:
1. Across the board, we are ALL still figuring out water. In the sustainability space, measures to lower greenhouse gases (GHG) are mature, while water sustainability measures are still relatively new. Some of our customers struggle with how to show impact of water sustainability programs such as water circularity, water efficiency or impact on the water basin. In some cases, interviewees believed that they had already realized the benefits of the projects that were “low hanging fruit,” and making additional impact is only getting harder. Additionally, customers are starting to think longer-term, incorporating “end of life” into tenders and using long-term climate models to plan capital budgets. Continued collaboration to define sustainability measures and opportunities will benefit everyone.
2. It’s a post-regulation world: Sustainability actions are not primarily driven by regulation. Out of more than 60 people interviewed, only 11 percent agreed that current regulations are the main driver of their sustainability actions. A majority of those interviewed identified sustainability motivators that were non-regulatory. Coming in as a top driver (at 27%) was the focus on sustainability as a way to protect their right to do business and manage risk to business continuation. The next two drivers (tied at 23%) were demand for sustainability from customers or the public, or internal aspirations from leadership or investors. Second to last (at 17%) some interviewees saw sustainability as a driver of business growth and opportunity. And finally, at only 10%, some interviewees were driven by the ROI and cost benefits of a focus on sustainability.
3. Customers are most interested in innovation for sustainability. While customers expect DuPont to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in its own operations and supply chain, meet our water goals, implement circular programs, and life-cycle analysis, what they most want from us is innovation for sustainability to help them reach their sustainability goals. Here’s a recent example. Last year we introduced DuPont™ B-Free™ technology, a solution that prevents the negative effects of biofouling to reverse osmosis (RO) systems, answering one of our customers’ biggest sustainability challenges. For each 10,000 m3/day of water treatment capacity, DuPont™ B-Free™ pretreatment technology will enable yearly savings up to 25,000 kg of CO2 emissions, 10,000 kg of chemicals, and 4,000 m3 of wastewater—as well as keep membranes out of landfills and reduce the cost of water by extending the life of RO membranes by 200 percent.
4. We can all do a better job helping our customers make the case for sustainability: Across the board, we all have an opportunity to support customers as they dedicate more funding to sustainability projects, particularly if we can help reduce capital need through alternative business models. New measures related to the sustainability benefits of carbon/waste/water savings, are beneficial, but also measures related to risk and cost reductions.
So what will DuPont do with this feedback and knowledge? First of all, we will embrace that we are on the right track by continuing to improve the energy efficiency and water recovery of our components. We will also continue to measure and share the life cycle impacts of our solutions and technologies to inform new development. And we will continue to engage with influencers across the value chain to uncover ways to enable a water-optimized world and support our customers.
And what could we do more of? In an effort for less waste, our customers look forward to more options for technology end-of-life, such as second life or recycling opportunities. Customers also value more data and digital tools, including better instrumentation, data for accurate reporting, improved discharge reporting, and ability to model systems.
According the International Water Association, “sustainability issues, which relate to every aspect of water supply, water quality, transmission, use and reuse, resource recovery, and energy use, are pivotal to our water future, and more basically, our future as a thriving species on a healthy planet.”
I couldn’t agree more—and according to this study—so do 50 representative leaders who can make an impact on our global water use and future. And that’s something to celebrate this Earth Day.
Kimberly Kupiecki is the Global Leader for Sustainability for DuPont Water Solutions. DuPont’s solutions, which today help purify more than 50 million gallons of water every minute around the world, enable water reuse and recycling, desalination, and the safe access of both ground and surface water. The company offers solutions to a variety of water and sustainability challenges through a broad portfolio of water purification and separation technologies and solutions including reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, ion exchange resins (IEX), ultrafiltration (UF), electrodeionization (EDI), nanofiltration (NF), membrane bioreactor systems (MBR), membrane aerated biofilm reactors (MABR), membrane degasification, and closed-circuit reverse osmosis (CCRO) systems.
#EarthDay #Sustainability #Water #WaterOptimizedWorld #SDG6
