Setting Net Zero Goals for Ecolab

Situation

To enhance its leadership position amongst its peers and with its customers, Ecolab wanted to develop a suite of climate commitments that built upon its strong track record of achieving operational emissions reductions alongside its other environmental and customer facing sustainability goals.​

To this end, Anthesis has supported Ecolab’s sustainability team for over a decade and helped them initiate their decarbonisation target setting process in 2019.​

Most recently in 2024, we developed updates to Ecolab’s decarbonisation strategy and targets based on external and internal trends. ​

Solution

For the initial project, we supported Ecolab in setting targets on Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions in alignment with the UN Business Ambition for 1.5°C campaign. To do this, we modelled future business growth alongside existing and planned emissions reduction initiatives to evaluate feasibility and to understand any gaps in planned programs. ​

During the latest target and strategy review, Anthesis analysed external trends, including the “greening of the grid” and recent technological advancements in the transportation industry, to provide additional insights on capturable emission reductions. We also modelled product efficiencies and transportation initiatives to establish the effects of internal trends, and helped build on existing supplier collaboration efforts to develop a strategy for collecting primary data that can be used to capture reductions occurring in the value chain.​

Throughout our work with Ecolab, Anthesis has managed a cross-functional team consisting of fleet, facilities and manufacturing, procurement, and supply chain resources, navigating them through the target evaluation, setting, and feasibility testing processes.​

Impact

Ecolab has announced a commitment to achieving net zero by 2050 and a 1.5°C SBT, along with supporting goals to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2030, to electrify its global vehicle fleet, and to engage suppliers representing 70% of Ecolab’s Scope 3 emissions to set their own SBTs. Early progress was driven by a 100 MW vPPA project completed in 2020 that covered 100% of Ecolab’s North American electricity consumption through 2030.​

In 2024, Anthesis supported Ecolab in updating their scope 3 supplier engagement target to a more ambitious absolute emission reduction scope 3 target, aimed at directly reducing emissions in Ecolab’s value chain. ​

Through our partnership, Ecolab has been able to build upon their current business model, ensuring that the goals and targets were both actionable and achievable.​