Integrating Sustainability into Our Strategy, Operations, and Products

When Waters released our 2020 Sustainability Report in December, it represented the culmination of a multi-year effort by a cross-functional team. Starting in 2018, we brought together team members from across the Waters organization to conduct a formal assessment of our company’s short- and long-term opportunities. We considered our customers’ expectations, surveyed the regulatory landscape, considered external standards and frameworks, such as the Paris Agreement, and examined best practices from other companies.

Watch this short video to learn more about what sustainability means at Waters and how our 2025 Goals are accelerating progress on our sustainability journey.

Waters’ commitment to sustainable thinking and practice

Our assessment led us to some encouraging findings about what we were doing well. It also led to some candid conversations about how we, as a company, wanted to improve our performance over time. We realized that we needed to expand the definition of “sustainability” beyond our immediate environmental impact and take a more holistic view of our place in the world.

Our work led us to the five high-level sustainability goals that we first articulated in 2019, and to which we attached more concrete deliverables in 2020:

1. Advance Our Innovation Ecosystem
2. Reduce Our Environmental Impact
3. Enhance Our Sustainable Supply Chain
4. Lead by Example in Our Employee Development and Engagement
5. Nurture Our Culture of Health, Safety, and Well-Being

These are key areas where we can most impactfully Deliver Benefit while also remaining focused on commitments to scientific innovation and customer success.

Supporting customer success and continued innovation with sustainability

As Waters completes one part of our sustainability journey, we are embarking on a much longer one. Simply put, as the world changes, Waters is changing with it – and doing our part to make the world a measurably cleaner, safer, more just place.

Some of our key sustainability initiatives include:

• Systematically implementing measurable, sustainable practices in how we innovate, develop, and deliver our products – with a focus on delivering an end-to-end product sustainability program by 2025
• Reducing our environmental impact and increasing our natural resource efficiency – targeting a 35% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through renewable energy use, achieving zero landfill use, and reducing water usage at our six largest manufacturing sites by 20%
• Leading by example in our employee development and engagement – focusing on the employees we have today, and the employees we will need tomorrow, through programs and initiatives that drive diversity, inclusion, and development

Let’s keep the sustainability conversation going

Watch for future updates as we work to achieve these objectives. In the meantime, please reach out by email with questions or feedback.

Learn more about our commitment to sustainability.