Waters Corporation announces 2025 sustainability goals

Waters Corporation has announced its 2025 sustainability goals and simultaneously announced a commitment to report its sustainability progress annually. These goals were developed following a comprehensive materiality assessment and are published in Waters’ latest sustainability report, which covers activities and progress from 2018 and key highlights from 2019.

“Our focus on sustainability is stronger than ever, and we’re building on that momentum to establish our first-ever set of five-year sustainability goals. Our 2025 goals underscore our commitment to Deliver Benefit to all stakeholders, including our customers, employees, shareholders and society,” commented Chris O’Connell, Chairman and CEO of Waters Corporation. “We have reduced our greenhouse gas footprint by nearly 10%, increased the percentage of women in leadership positions and on our Board of Directors, and developed efforts to address global food and water safety. Through these actions and our new goals, we expect greater value creation for all of our stakeholders.”

A comprehensive stakeholder materiality assessment performed in 2018 identified and prioritized the company’s five 2025 sustainability goals:

• Advance Our Innovation Ecosystem: We will systematically implement measurable, sustainable practices in how we innovate, develop, and deliver our products.
• Reduce Our Environmental Impact: We will improve our operational performance by decreasing environmental impact and increasing natural resource efficiency.
• Enhance Our Sustainable Supply Chain: We will advance an end-to-end product and supply chain sustainability program that identifies opportunities in engineering, procurement and operations to reduce the environmental impact of our products and supply chain.
• Lead by Example in Our Employee Development and Engagement: We continue to focus on the employees we have today – and the employees we will need tomorrow – through programs and initiatives that drive diversity, inclusion, and development.
• Nurture Our Culture of Health, Safety and Well-being: We will foster an attitude of awareness, preparedness, and responsiveness across our workplace and throughout our supply chain.

In addition to detailing the 2025 goals, the sustainability report highlights key advancements the company made in 2018. These include:

• Increased the representation of women on Waters’ Board of Directors to 30% and signed the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™ pledge.
• Achieved global renewable energy use of 9% and a greenhouse gas reduction of approximately 9% since 2016.
• Developed a proprietary employee success model to articulate the behaviors and attributes that will strengthen the values and vision of the company.
• Invested $215 million in a state-of-the-art precision chemistry manufacturing facility that will employ elements of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design™ (LEED^®) building standards.
• Established the International Food and Water Research Centre in Singapore to address the growing global challenges of food and water security and safety.