Xylem: Let´s build a healthier and more water-safe world!
Pioneering water technology solutions from Xylem are tackling the issues of water scarcity, resilience to water challenges and affordability.
When it comes to sustainability, the solutions become even clearer: Build a world with sustainable, clean and affordable water, while creating social and economic value.
In our series on the theme of sustainability, we´re engaging our customers, suppliers and our technical specialists in conversation. When it comes to customers, we definitely want to know more about our inspiring customer Xylem. They are developing highly efficient water technologies, industrial pumps and application solutions for the water cycle. The company also has a very strong culture around sustainability.
We´re curious to know more about the main drivers and points regarding suppliers when it comes sustainability, so we asked Andrea Montuori, Xylem´s Procurement Sustainability Manager, for an interview.
Andrea explains that Xylem’s sustainability work involves the integration of teams ranging from human resources, finance, product development, community impact, operations, communications and procurement, to name a few.
Human health and sustainable development
– As we all know, water is a basic precondition for all living things on earth, and thus also a precondition for human health and sustainable development. Therefore, the importance of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation for All cannot be underestimated. Andrea continues;
– We continue to enable our customers and the communities they serve to respond to the climate crisis, whether in the form of addressing issues of water access and affordability or building more resilient infrastructure for increasingly severe weather. We recognize diversity and equity as critical tools for addressing the climate crisis and believe it is our responsibility to work towards a more equitable future as a core part of our leadership in the water sector.
– Technology solutions from Xylem help customers reduce their carbon footprint through the use of our more energy efficient products. Our dewatering and digital technologies help customers prevent polluted water from flooding communities or entering local waterways. And our treatment solutions help customers reuse water and reduce non-revenue water – or water due to leaking infrastructure, broken meters or unauthorized use, Andrea explains and then continues;
– Xylem also partners with non-profit organizations to provide people living at the bottom of the global economic pyramid with access to clean water and sanitation solutions. We help provide water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) education to communities to improve quality of life and raise awareness. Additionally, we respond to natural disasters through our NGO partnerships, matched funds and volunteering.
Sustainability and suppliers
A key part of Xylem´s sustainability strategy includes working with our suppliers. We assess our suppliers’ performance in the areas of climate and environmental impact, labor and human rights, health and safety, ethics and their own relationship with their supply chains. We measure performance by using metrics and information obtained from a variety of sources, Andrea states and explains;
– Ecovadis and CDP (formerly the Climate Disclosure Project) are two platforms that we found very suitable for our supplier sustainability program. Xylem has also been reporting out to our own customers through these platforms for quite some time.
– We risk profile our supply chain based on the suppliers’ country of operation, industry and ratings received by EcoVadis and the CDP. The higher the risk and the spend, the higher the priority is to get those suppliers on-boarded to our supplier sustainability programmes.
Trends
After outlining how Xylem works with mapping out the impact on sustainability and their associated actions with regards to this, we asked Andrea;
How heavy would you say that sustainability weighs compared to other factors concerning suppliers? Can you see a trend that sustainability is becoming more of a crucial factor in strategic purchasing?
– Sustainability is fully integrated into our procurement strategy, and our suppliers’ commitment to sustainability is accounted for in our supplier evaluation scorecard together with equally important factors such as cost, quality, ease of doing business and innovation, Andrea explains.
– You also asked about the rise of sustainability as a priority. We are looking to increase the weight of sustainability in our supplier evaluation program. By 2025, if a supplier refuses to participate in our supply chain sustainability programmes, they will not be considered as a preferred supplier and thus drastically reduce the possibility of doing business with us in the future.
– By selecting partners and building relationship with suppliers, the Xylem procurement team has a fantastic opportunity to improve sustainability performance for all parties involved. We often hear that climate change will first be felt through the impacts on water. As a leading global water technology company, we recognize that it is incumbent upon us to lead the way for ourselves and for future generations to come, Andrea concludes.
Thank you Xylem for participating in our sustainability series!
At Compotech we are proud and pleased at the confidence Xylem has shown in us over more than a decade in various projects. We believe they will have immense success in the next few years with exciting developments ahead. Do you want to know more about Xylem and their pioneering solutions? Visit www.xylem.com
Or do you want to know more about our Sustainability work at Compotech? Read more here!
