Sustainability Models To Solve Water Challenges — 'That Is The End Game'

By Julie King

The fifth in a series of interviews conducted during the 2015 SIWI World Water Week in Stockholm was with Xylem, Inc.’s Director of Corporate Citizenship, Michael Fields.  Xylem’s approach to sustainability is hands-on engagement and support for select, established not-for-profits and global water non-governmental organizations (NGOs), through its very aggressive corporate sustainability commitment, Xylem Watermark.  

What is your view, from the standpoint of a leading global water technology company, of how the private sector can or should be engaged in solving the challenges associated with World Water Week’s theme of ‘Water for Development’?

“I agree with the concept; I agree that the private sector has a large role to play. Our CEO and executives understand and support this.  Xylem only focuses on water — analytical, transportation, cleaning.  It would be a shame if we didn’t understand that what we have within our four walls could be used to help not-for-profits [NFPs] ... I believe that water is a human right.  But I also believe it is the responsibility of the private sector to leverage its expertise.  We, of course, bring business value.  But we also should bring social value.  I believe it is the responsibility of corporations to do so.”

Xylem chooses to implement its sustainability commitment by supporting the work of NFPs and NGOs.  What exactly does Xylem mean when using the idea of ‘sustainability’?

“I’ll start with Watermark, as this is where we hang our hat for sustainability.  We work with a number of NFPs and have a vetting process when we decide which ones we will work with.  Watermark has been in existence for 8 years.  We started with 2 NFPs – Mercy Corp and Water for People (WFP), and we currently work directly with 6 [total]. 

“In working with NFPs, we define sustainability as solutions that can be easily implemented and monitored for between 7 to 10 years by the NFPs, which give access to water — for example, anything from an installation of an aqua tower to the installation of sanitation blocks.  We look for solutions that can be maintained by the community and we train the community partners to do this — i.e., flushing the filter in an aqua tower or to continue WASH [Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene] education teachers in teaching children why sanitation is important to them staying healthy.”

A key component of Watermark seems to be a major focus by the company on engaging employees in the work Watermark is doing.  How does this work?

“With WFP, we can get our employees involved in the solution, [by] sharing expertise with WFP.  For the projects we invest in, we aren’t looking at it as a way to push our products.  We look at it as a way for WFP to utilize the intellectual capital of Xylem employees — [we also look] as well at the NFP’s willingness to utilize our expertise.  We’ve found that isn’t always the case; some NFPs don’t want that kind of oversight.  They just want to send reports of what they’re doing.  But we wanted to have a heavy say-so in implementing what are sustainable solutions.  This is our way of ensuring, based on our expertise, that the solution actually is sustainable.

“When our employees get involved in a project with our NFP partners, we send them out on a regular basis to the sites to do independent monitoring.  We call this our ‘Field Level Operations Platform’.  It includes a variety of questions that we ask the community that is the beneficiary of the project.  It is a survey tool that we use to ensure that the NFPs and their projects, which we invest in, are actually working.  This gives us a full scope of information on the actual sustainability of the solutions.  WFP has been instrumental on an industry level to push this out.

“We are also working with Planet Water Foundation, and they take this a step further.  They also monitor the structures to make sure they are sound, as well as the education programs that are implemented on site.  They are looking at the health benefits from having access to clean water — looking at children’s dental and health records to see how things like attendance rates at school have improved, etc.  This just started about a year and a half ago. It’s a long-term approach and will be around 3 to 4 years before there will be reports with decisive information.  We think this is a big step because we are then able to show the government — for example, in India — that what we are doing is working.”

Is corporate sustainability really about providing solutions to the water challenges in developing countries?  Or is it about having another way to sell a company’s products?

“Using our own solutions and our relationships, of course we look for opportunities where our own products, such as pumps, can be used.  For example, we recently supplied submersible pumps for a refugee camp in Jordan.  We are a water solution company with pumps and we worked with the NGO on the ground — i.e., Mercy Corp [MC].  It is very difficult for MC in dealing with the camps. The camps are run by UNICEF, and one gets into the battle for procurement and [the] changes needed for products. Our pump solutions are customized, so at this point the politics get involved and it gets very time-consuming for the private sector to engage with the NGO sector because of the red tape.  But we understand this now and have been through it and were successful. So it is easier now.  But we as a corporation owe it to them to work this out.  We are always looking for more opportunities to provide in-house products. And with the NGOs — it’s great to see the lights go on with them when they see what solutions can happen.  They may or may not choose to use our products. If not, we’ve still provided them with good information.”

Xylem Watermark has worked extensively for several years now with NGO and NFP partners.  Have you developed a successful model for how to engage partners like this and other stakeholders?

“We don’t really have a model.  It is probably more of a personal philosophy that we have found that works well.  I look at relationships with the NFP partners as true partners.  It is very important for both to understand how each organization works, to bring leadership and colleagues into the process, using town hall-styled meetings, etc.  In doing this, our employees can understand that we are being responsible with the investments we are making in the NFPs and our projects.  Our employees get this information directly from our NFP partners.  We put them in front of our employees to hear what, how, and why our NFP partners are operating on the ground.

“Building the internal capacity of our NFP partners is important.  It includes marketing, as well.  We help them ensure that the beneficiaries on the ground get access to water, to WASH, and education … and we need the collateral information — the stories.  We help our NFP partners to tell the stories.  In this way, they may be able to help bring other corporations on board with them.  We’re not proprietary about what companies are involved with our NFP partners.  The more corporate support for our NFPs’ efforts, the better.  This helps us solve this water challenge.  That is the end game.”