Why ESG is a Priority for Culligan CEO Scott Clawson

Introduce yourself and your business.

My name is Scott Clawson, and I am Chairman and CEO at Culligan International, the global leader in water services. 

Culligan began as a small business in Chicago 90 years ago. Today, we are the global leader in water filtration services with local experts who transform water in 90 countries. 

How do you see sustainability shaping competitive advantage and long-term value creation for Culligan?

Doing what’s right for the planet is good for business at Culligan. Transforming water means transforming the world. When water tastes better, people drink more of it and live better as a result. When we design solutions with the planet in mind, offices and homes run more efficiently. And when our service experts care for those systems, they empower people to make smarter water choices that reduce plastic waste.

The global need for clean, safe water is growing as more than 33% of global drinking water is impure. Our experts provide services that filter more than 28 billion litres of water annually, with 22 million active installations serving more than 170 million people. We’ve grown 500% over the last six years – and we will continue to scale by providing exceptional customer service and cleaner, safer, better water. 

All of this is to say that we have an enormous competitive advantage: we are the only global water services company that can address water needs across needs at work, at home and on the go.

What are Culligan’s sustainability goals? 

Cleaner, safer, better. These words serve as our north star when it comes to transforming water and serving people around the world. They guide how we operate and how we empower customers to have confidence in their water – and they are core to our sustainability goals. 

We are deeply committed to providing filtered water services in the most environmentally responsible ways. Culligan’s sustainability goals focus on expanding access to clean, safe water, reducing single-use plastic through circular solutions, improving operational efficiency, and strengthening transparency — positioning sustainability as a driver of growth, innovation, and long-term resilience. By choosing Culligan’s services and solutions, our customers help avoid 45 billion single-use plastic water bottles every year. 

Decarbonising is a key focus for our global teams, reducing Scope 1 and 2 by 40% intensity by 2035. We invest in vehicle upgrades, solar panels and renewable energy, among other actions. Beyond those impacts within our control, we are expanding to engage our supply chain to reduce its environmental impacts as well. 

As a water company, we are stewards of water. To do this, we’ve partnered with WAVE to identify and prioritise our water impacts globally and set reduction plans for each.  

Beyond these core areas, we have targets across all ESG areas, and it's exciting to see continued progress and ambition in each.

Plastic pollution is a global crisis. With 11 million tons of plastic entering our oceans every year, we are on track to have more tonnage of plastic than fish in our oceans by 2050. Think about that – we can avoid such terrible realities with small, purposeful behaviour shifts. Water is our business and as good stewards of this most precious resource, we are creating meaningful ways for people to protect themselves and our planet. 

How is sustainability influencing product innovation at Culligan, and what role does product design play in enabling customers to reduce their environmental footprint?

That’s a great question. Embedding sustainability into our business strategy allows us to anticipate changes, adapt quickly and continually improve our services and solutions. We always think of new ways to make it easier for people to love their water while doing what’s right for the planet.

Our teams around the world work to ensure innovation never comes at the expense of the environment. We run ESG assessments on every new and updated Culligan product. We assess materials, energy use, circulatory and other aspects, to ensure new and improved products through a sustainability lens. Across markets and teams, sustainability is not an initiative — it’s a mindset that lets us grow responsibly.

This year, we launched our most advanced commercial product globally Culligan Purity. It boasts advanced filtration technology to eliminate 99.9% of contaminants in modern workplace water. And on the sustainability side of things, it eliminates the need for single-use plastic water bottles in offices. 

And beyond those advantages, it houses our new proprietary C Sense Technology, which lets our experts remotely monitor performance to reduce the number of service trips our technicians take - a simple but powerful way to lessen carbon emissions. And when we do make a service visit, 25% of our global car fleet is electric.

Another notable innovation is a Culligan-installed drinking water filtration system, a great residential option that helps protect people from contaminants in their water at home. Not only does it reduce more than 99.9% of contaminants in water, but households that use it also avoid almost 7,000 single-use plastic water bottles a year. 

How can the water industry collaborate?

Improving environmental impact is a pressing global issue that requires leaders to work together, learn together and create positive momentum. It starts by looking inward and setting ambitious goals that align with your business’ core capabilities and value proposition. And from there, partner with others to expand your impact.

Culligan leaders engage with several local and global organisations to help shape the future of sustainable water solutions. For example, the CEO Water Mandate, the United Nations Global Compact and the United Nations Water Resilience Coalition. We’ve also been a member of the Water Quality Association and Water Council, each since 1996. All of these efforts allow for shared insights and purpose-driven work that matter. In each of these settings, we contribute to discussions on critical issues facing our industry, amplifying the voices of the people and communities we serve. We share best practices and emerging needs, nurture relationships, learn from others, access research, and benefit from various training programs. This is how the type of collaboration every leader, no matter the industry, should operate. We can only safeguard our planet’s future if we collaborate and have the courage to do what’s right. 

Culligan is the global leader in water services, but we know that we can’t change the world alone. Purpose-driven work that matters requires everyone to believe in it and support it. 

As expectations for ESG transparency continue to grow, how important is measurement in ensuring sustainability commitments translate into credible, meaningful outcomes?

We achieve ESG success by working together across the organisation. Local teams implement strategy on the ground, with our ESG team, leaders across procurement, human resources and products and all business functions to measure and report against our targets.

Strong governance, systems and oversight empower our teams to deliver on our commitments to customers, employees, communities and the planet. Consistent reporting fuels continuous improvement, so we remain focused on strengthening data quality, assurance and collections processes. Regulations vary across 90 countries, but measurable insights inform our corporate strategy and help us identify where we are winning and where we can improve together.