At Diversey, we believe that leadership in sustainability requires bold action. And delivers bold results. Across the globe, in our own operations and with our customers and partners, we are leading the way to a cleaner, healthier future.

Our commitments to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, our leadership in water management and our partnerships to protect the earth are essential elements of our dedication to environmental stewardship and industry leadership.

Climate Savers: Leadership Commitment to Greenhouse Gas Reductions
We were among the first 20 companies in the world to commit to Climate Savers, the rigorous greenhouse gas reduction program of the esteemed World Wildlife Fund.

To join the elite program, we had to make three commitments to leadership in addressing climate change:

• to make a challenging, measurable reduction in our emissions within a specified time frame;
• to be accountable through a third-party validation process; and,
• to partner with our customers and suppliers to help them reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions.

Just a year later, we upped the ante: we committed to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2013, more than triple what we committed to when we first joined Climate Savers.

That dramatic shift was made possible by a powerful, innovative change in our thinking. We identified greenhouse gas emissions as a measurable indicator of waste. Climate Savers and the scope of our commitment to it are opportunities not only to improve our own operations but to help define sustainability in the minds of our customers, our employees, our suppliers and our communities.

At the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Diversey challenged its fellow business leaders to implement aggressive plans to eliminate the waste GHGs represent, providing the following message:

"Treating greenhouse gas as a form of waste creates a sea change in the perspective of how to address climate change. Once industry begins to treat greenhouse gas emissions as waste, and an indicator of inefficiency in the system, enterprises can factor it into their profit models and calculate a return on investment that spurs the creative private-sector action that will make a huge difference in emissions."

The changes we’ll make to deliver on that promise will reap rewards for our operations as well as contributing to a cleaner, healthier future for the earth and its people. We expect to reap $32 million in operational savings from the $14 million investments we are making in greenhouse gas reduction projects.

To reach our goal, we’re taking several steps that seem simple but deliver powerful results: 

• using more fuel-efficient vehicles in our auto and truck fleet worldwide;
• upgrading the energy efficiency of our buildings and operations through such measures as better lighting;
• installing fuel cells and wind turbines where they can be most effective;
• reducing employee travel by upgrading our video teleconferencing capacity and our Web-based collaboration tools; and
• implementing comprehensive plans to educate employees about the impact of how they use energy at work and at home.

Diversey provides leading innovations and unrivaled consulting services to help our customers use water more efficiently — and use less of it. But we know much more needs to be done to address the world’s most critical conservancy issue. That’s why we made a four-year $1 million grant to the World Wildlife Fund to establish the Global Water Roundtable.

The Global Water Roundtable is taking a pragmatic approach to addressing water stress, river pollution and declines in freshwater wildlife species. The best minds in science, government and industry are establishing rigorous, realistic water stewardship standards — a powerful new tool to improve the way water is managed. Their work will establish a clear set of standards and a certification system that will recognize and reward enterprises and organizations that effectively manage their water use and minimize its impact on people and the environment.

The Global Water Roundtable was organized by the Alliance for Water Stewardship, whose members include the WWF, the Pacific Institute, The Nature Conservancy, Water Witness International, The Water Stewardship Initiative, the Water Environment Federation and the European Water Partnership.

According to the World Wildlife Fund, scientists around the world “know that many of the world’s rivers and lakes are polluted or running dry, resulting in a lack of access to clean water for drinking and sanitation and a serious decline in freshwater species. Current demand for water from cities, agriculture and industry is already unsustainable in many regions and is predicted to increase in coming years. These threats are compounded by climate change, which is profoundly impacting global water resources.”  

As an industry leader committed to a cleaner, healthier future, Diversey has led the way in driving product innovations that eliminate materials that endanger marine wildlife. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has named us “champions” in protecting marine wildlife through the Safer Detergents Stewardship Initiative (SDSI).

SDSI, a part of the EPA’s Design for the Environment program, recognizes companies that voluntarily commit to the use of safer surfactants in cleaning and detergent products. Safer surfactants are those that quickly break down into nonpolluting compounds, helping protect aquatic life.

We led the charge for safer surfactants when we voluntarily discontinued the production and sale of products that contain alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEOs). APEOs, including nonylphenol ethoxylates, are known to be toxic to aquatic life and may disrupt the endocrine system. Use of APEOs is not regulated in the United States, but we opted to take them out of our products worldwide, beginning in 2004, because the evidence is clear that they harm the natural environment. APEOs have since been banned in Japan, and in some countries in Europe, and Canada is strengthening its regulation of products that contain APEOs.

Diversey went further, to drive high standards for our entire industry. We worked with the EPA and other stakeholders in the National Pollution Prevention and Toxics Advisory Council to develop recommendations to the EPA that led to the SDSI program, which encourages manufacturers and users to phase out these dangerous chemicals.