Clean

Straightforward strategies for achieving sustainable practices and business success in the modern organization

In Clean: Lessons from Ecolab’s Century of Positive Impact, a team of veteran sustainability experts delivers a practical toolkit for creating a forward-looking and sustainability-focused business. From Ecolab’s origins in sustainability 100 years ago to its ambitious 2030 environment and social impact goals, this book lays out a roadmap for business transformation and continued growth – today and for the next 100 years.

You’ll explore the principles and methods required to build and lead a sustainable company. You’ll discover how to evolve your focus on sustainability over time, as your organization transforms and grows. You’ll learn to:

• Build and maintain momentum for sustainability initiatives and cement your firm’s commitment to new practices through iteration and aligning business units around core, shared sustainability goals.
• Embed new sustainable practices into your organization’s governance and operations DNA
• Identify and leverage specific sustainability levers that impact a wide variety of key performance indicators
• Create a set of business processes that enable sustainable future and engage your employees in a higher purpose

An essential playbook for students of sustainability and business, this book is a must-read for the modern manager, executive, or director seeking to solidify their business strategy and future-proof their company. Clean: Lessons from Ecolab’s Century of Positive Impact describes the holistic and comprehensive approach to responsible business that we’ve all been waiting for.

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xv

Foreword xvii

Chapter 1 The Call for a Sustainable World 1

Chapter 2 Perspective: The Foundation of Sustainability 23

Chapter 3 From Perspective to Purpose: eROI and the Three Phases of Sustainability 43

Chapter 4 The Tone at the Top: Executive Leadership and Management 67

Chapter 5 Leadership Throughout the Organization: 48,000 Strong and Counting 89

Chapter 6 Creating a Sustainable Product Pipeline 111

Chapter 7 Acquisitions: Sustainability Through Addition 135

Chapter 8 Divestiture: Sustainability Through Subtraction 155

Chapter 9 Catalyzing Sustainability Through Multi- Stakeholder Partnerships 175

Chapter 10 Looking Forward to Ecolab’s Second Century 199

Notes 217

About the Authors 231

Index 233

PAUL C. GODFREY, PHD, is the William and Roceil Low Professor of Business Strategy in the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University. He is the author of More Than Money and Strategic Risk Management. He is also the co-author of Ethics and Business and Strategic Management.

EMILIO R. TENUTA is the Chief Sustainability Officer at Ecolab, a global leader in water, hygiene and infection prevention solutions and services that help protect people and the resources vital to life. Over the past decade, Tenuta has led Ecolab’s sustainability journey and has been actively involved in helping customers advance their global sustainability and ESG practices, with a focus on water stewardship and climate action.

Events in the twenty-first century have made it exceedingly clear that many of the business practices relied on by modern companies are unsustainable. Whether they entail economically, environmentally, or socially harmful consequences, these practices endanger the future viability of the market, our society, and the planet at large. The time has come for contemporary business leaders to address and correct these unsustainable habits once and for all.

In Clean: Lessons from Ecolab’s Century of Positive Impact, the authors deliver an insightful and practical sustainability toolkit that can be applied to any organization to embed sustainable business practices into your corporate governance and operations DNA.

From the creation of a company-wide vision that encourages the adoption of sustainable systems to attracting the right people who will enable and improve upon existing sustainability measures, the book provides actionable techniques for business process improvement.

Built on two distinct but related frameworks, the book presents a set of tools that leaders can create and deploy to build a sustainable organization. It also considers the focus of sustainability over time and helps companies begin and maintain their sustainability journeys throughout the cycle. You’ll learn to build momentum for your sustainability initiatives and cement your firm’s commitment to its new practices through continuous iteration and experimentation.

An essential resource for directors, executives, managers, and other business leaders, Clean: Lessons from Ecolab’s Century of Positive Impact will also earn a place on the bookshelves of consultants and other professionals who serve organizations seeking to build and improve sustainable practices that will stand the test of time.

A simple and effective approach to implementing sustainable business practices in your organization

Clean: Lessons from Ecolab’s Century of Positive Impact delivers a holistic and comprehensive sustainability toolkit designed to prepare organizations of all sizes for the twenty-first century and what lies ahead. Distilling key lessons that executives and leaders in any firm can understand and apply immediately, the book offers readers a more economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable way of doing business.

The authors demonstrate two models that frame the story of Ecolab, a leading sustainability organization that helps companies around the world achieve their business goals, while improving their corporate re­sponsibility, environmental stewardship, and social impact. The first model represents the individual levers that executives can pull to improve on relevant sustainability measures and weave sustainability into the strategic and operating fabric of the company. The second model considers the organization’s focus on sustainability over time.

Combined, the models described in Clean: Lessons from Ecolab’s Century of Positive Impact offer business leaders a new and exciting path to revenue and profit growth that doesn’t rely on exploitative or time-limited strategies. It’s an indispensable guide that will earn a place in the libraries of corporate and organizational leaders everywhere.

“In a world struggling to use natural resources wisely, and water in particular, few companies can claim a century of doing exactly that. In Clean, Tenuta and Godfrey tell the story of how Ecolab integrated business and sustainability long before it was popular to do so. And along the way, they demonstrate how the company has aligned environmental stewardship with financial outperformance, an enviable combination of values and value. It is a story that is as inspiring as it is instructional, a case study of what it takes to lead in today's warming and wobbly world.”
--Joel Makower, Chairman and Co-founder, GreenBiz Group

“This book presents a powerful framework and case for a ‘shift in mindset’ when tackling today’s sustainability challenges. Under Emilio’s leadership, Ecolab is addressing the root cause of issues with nature-based interventions and a systems-thinking approach to improve and positively impact people and planet.”
--Mary Jane Melendez, Chief Sustainability and Global Impact Officer, General Mills

“The world is waking up to what Ecolab already knows: that business success and sustainability are two sides of the same coin. As a result of climate change and other threats, sustainability has become essential to the survival of every business. And society depends on the private sector achieving sustainability because of its global reach and scale.
Fortunately, Clean provides concrete strategies for building a sustainable corporation. Offered in the form of hard-fought lessons from a corporate leader, Clean moves beyond simple accounting to address the root cause of problems and build solutions based on solid science.
For those already on the sustainability path and those now turning to it, Clean is a critical resource for corporate change-makers. The health of our planet, the just cause of vulnerable people and places, and the success of the economy turns on their efforts.”
--Dr. Jessica Hellmann, Executive Director & Ecolab Chair for Environmental Leadership, Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota