Ecolab Inc. (ECL) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Greetings, and welcome to Ecolab's ESG discussion. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mike Monahan. Thank you, Mr. Monahan. You may now begin.

Thank you. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Ecolab's 2021 ESG webcast. Leading our call today will be Christophe Beck, Ecolab's CEO. Before we begin, please note that these slides, along with sustainability, diversity and governance information as well as background material on our company are available on Ecolab's website at ecolab.com. We note that this webcast and the associated slides may include estimates of future performance. These would be forward-looking statements, and actual results could differ materially from those projected. Factors that could cause actual results to differ are described under the Risk Factors section in our most recent Form 10-K and in our posted materials. [Operator Instructions] And now here's Christophe.

Thank you, Mike, and good morning, everyone. Great to be together with you again for our second session on ESG and especially why ESG is so core to our success as a company. And part of our success as a company is obviously our team so glad to be surrounded today by great people. Beyond our IR team, obviously always in touch with you, but I'd like to welcome, especially Anne Gotte, who leads our Global Talent for the company for many years; and Emilio Tenuta, our Chief Sustainability Officer; and Mike McCormick, our General Counsel. They'll be heading a section obviously so during this presentation today, and will be here for all the questions and discussions that we will have afterwards. So the agenda that we will have today, it's basically reminding you so how ESG is so core to our growth, to our success and to our future as a company. We will go as well more in details with our colleagues, as mentioned before, in order to click a little bit further and explain how we do that, how we did it and how we see it even more so for the future. And then at close and we'll have an opportunity to get into a Q&A that you will be submitting on the chat as we usually do as well and we'll take them so one by one. Just to remind you, last time, which was a well-attended conference as well, was ultimately so to share with you how ESG was so core to what we're doing for a living as a company, how we're delivering value to our customers and how it aligns with investors' expectations in terms of ESG. And today, we wanted to go one click further, explaining you how we do it, giving you a few examples, sharing with you some of our plans as well. And today, we've also issued our digital sustainability report, which obviously is bringing much more details as well to our progress and to our ambition. So hopefully, you'll see that as a useful add to what we did last time. But before we get more in detail, I'd like to just get grounded that we all remember ultimately so how we work as a company, what's our ambition and why ESG is so core to our growth story, which ultimately starts with what we're doing. We have 45,000 people in the world that help preserve water by managing over 1 trillion gallons for our customers. We have 45,000 people that help protect over 1/3 of the world's food production in order to make sure that food remains safe for people and families to consume. We have 45,000 people that are here to help prevent infections, especially important during a time like COVID-19 by cleaning over 60 billion hands in 2020, which was a very unique opportunity for us obviously to demonstrate our value. But it's also a team that's here to help our customers reduce carbon emissions by managing 20% of the world's power that's been generated as well worldwide. And we have a team that's here to help businesses remain successful at 3 million locations around the world in 170 countries. So what we're doing is ESG-driven, is ESG ambition aligned as well with what our customers are looking for. And to get there, well, we bring together the very best. Our 25,000 field team has to offer to our 3 million customers around the world that are supported by breakthrough technology, that are getting know-how from wherever around the world, it's existing in the most remote places around the world, making sure that best practices that we have from anywhere in the company or with customers brought ultimately where it's most needed as well around the world. And last but not least, and this is something that's getting much more momentum is with all the data we gather, which are over 90 billion data points that we gather continuously, ultimately, we know what that looks like. We can help customers understand what's the gap versus best practice, how much more opportunity do they have, or what could happen as well if trends are continuing or if something is about to fail as well. Bringing all those 4 together ultimately helps us deliver our promise which is best results, the outcome that whatever industry is producing at the lowest total operating cost by reducing the usage of natural resources and the impact on the environment, which is the sustainable promise of doing better while using less natural resources and impacting the environment. The way we measure that is with our standard metric, which is called eROI, which is a combination ultimately of 3 different elements. The first one is the best business outcome. It can be safe food. It can be clean water. It can be a safe hospital, you name it, in each of the 40 industry that we are serving. Second is to drive operational performance. It can be productivity. It can be asset protection. It can be quality of product or it can be pure costs, as well avoidance. And then we add the third one, which is increasingly important for our customers, the environmental impact, how much water they save, how much energy they save, how much greenhouse gases they've reduced and how much waste they reduce as well. You add it all up and you create the total value delivered, which is divided by the investment that they do in our services and we drive a return for our customers that is always aimed to be double digit and ideally over 25%, sometimes up to 100%. So ultimately, for customers, the more they invest in what we do, the more they invest in our services and our value, the higher the return they're getting. And the interesting thing as well is the bigger our impact, the faster we grow, the faster we grow, the bigger our impact as well. So our value is directly related to how much impact we're creating for our customers and the environment. Which is one of the reasons why over 80% of the most trusted brands out there in the world have chosen to work with us in order to drive their own ESG story, or in other words, we are helping companies out there reach their ESG goal and get there as quickly as possible as well. And last but not least, we're also expanding our work outside our 4 walls as well, gaining momentum across industries with institutions like the World Economic Forum to define what are those metrics for ESG that are also critical ultimately that we can all use, all share, all report the same way and learn from each other as well in a way that's very transparent. So for all of you as well. Or a second example with the United Nations where we've initiated over a year ago, it was in January 2020 when we created together with other company, The Water Resilience Coalition, with the objective to bring the largest 150 companies in the world that are using 1/3 of the world water resources in order to learn from each other, reduce our impact collectively, provide access to water for people not having access to it and protecting, as well, watersheds just to cite 2 examples of our ESG leadership in action beyond our 4 walls as well. So with that, I hope I could give you a bit of an overview why ESG is so integral to our story, to our promise and to our success. And for that, I'd like now to pass it to Emilio Tenuta who is going to share with you -- so how we do that from an environmental perspective. And then Anne is going to cover social, and Mike McCormick is going to cover the governance piece as well. And I'm going to get back just after them. So with that, Emilio?

Wonderful. Thanks, Christophe, and good morning to everyone. It is great to be with you. One of the biggest ways our ESG leadership comes to life is through our 2030 impact goals. And I want to highlight our 2020 progress, which is the first year of our long-term corporate responsibility goals that were announced last year. And as Christophe announced, we're thrilled to share that our full 2020 Digital Corporate Sustainability report is released today and is now available on our website at ecolab.com so please check it out. Let's get started. As you heard earlier from Christophe, our solutions and services place us in the middle of some of the world's biggest challenges around water, climate, food and health, and we can help our customers advance their goals in these areas, both in their operations and in their communities. And that also translates to Ecolab's world-class operations and is integral to everything we do. Let me begin by sharing our 2020 progress on our 2030 impact goals. And through our expertise and innovation solutions, our work every day to help our customers conserve 300 billion gallons of water, which is equivalent to the drinking water needs of 1 billion people. We are on track at 69% of our 2030 target. We know that water and energy are linked, and we also are helping our customers get to net zero carbon, on track to deliver 6 million metric tons of greenhouse gas reduction. And thanks to our food safety solutions, we're ahead of pace helping our food and beverage processing and foodservice customers deliver high-quality safe food to 2 billion people. And finally, as Christophe said, Ecolab had a vital role during the pandemic and in recovery by providing hand hygiene solutions all over the world, cleaning more than 66 billion hands on the road to 90 billion by 2030. Now let me move to our bold operational 2030 goals. Our 2020 operational performance includes: a 12% reduction in our overall water impact in 2020 versus a 50% 2030 target, we're well ahead of pace; we're making a significant stride on carbon with a 31% reduction in emissions on the road to a 50% reduction by 2030 and net zero by 2050; and in our DE&I targets, which Anne will cover in more detail in a moment, we're proud of our progress. In a difficult year, we had a 1.2% and 0.6% improvement in management level gender and people of color representation in 2020, targeting 35% and 25% by 2030, with the ultimate goal, of course, of gender and ethnic racial parity. And for safety, we saw dramatic reductions year-over-year in total reportable injury and lost-time injury rates on the way to Goal Zero, which is our safety target. Now let me highlight 2 customer examples, one in the power industry and another in the hospitality space. I will start with Exelon power, who operates the largest U.S. fleet of carbon-free nuclear plants. Exelon partnered with Ecolab to deliver reliable and efficient energy to their customers while conserving 1.5 billion gallons of water per year and saving $5 million in total cost. Now the way we did this is by leveraging our connected chemistries and digital solutions across the power plant that delivers exceptional operational performance, water, energy and total cost savings. It starts with unique technologies such as 3D TRASAR, a smart technology we spoke about in December in our webcast, which continuously monitors operational water quality in real time to optimize performance in critical cooling, steam and pretreatment systems, all of them critical to the reliable operation of a power plant. And with OMNI digital services and the global intelligence center, we can now use predictive analytics and AI to maximize performance of vital assets and anticipate issues for our customers before they happen around the clock. And what truly sets us apart is how our cloud-based global digital platform called ECOLAB3D enables us to connect all these technologies to provide our customers with visibility, insights and real-time dashboards at the unit, site and enterprise level. ECOLAB3D has set the standard that enables us to deliver superior customer outcomes, including water, energy savings at the lowest total cost. As we continue to innovate, our latest connected technology launched earlier this year is also powered by ECOLAB3D called Water Flow Intelligence. It is designed to help our customers like Exelon address the global water crisis. By 2030, we'll need 56% more fresh water than what nature can supply. That's up from 40% just a few years ago. In many cases for industry, water is managed manually at the site level, with very little visibility, impacting water use and the potential for significant operational cost risk to businesses. And that's where Water Flow Intelligence can help, a new digital innovation that enables our customers by combining smart water meters, sensors with advanced water flow measurement and monitoring, Water Flow Intelligence can help customers uncover water savings opportunities 24/7 in real time across a manufacturing plant and the critical water circuits that roll up to an enterprise. And thanks to ECOLAB3D, our customers can now get reports on demand through online dashboards so they can more effectively manage their operational water use in real-time to deliver the best outcomes at the lowest total cost. Now let's move to our second customer example focused on the hospitality industry. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, with more than 8,900 locations globally, partnered with Ecolab to implement clean, safe and resource-efficient solutions to help them save money, energy, water and time while protecting guests and employees during the pandemic as they reopened. Last year, we helped Wyndham conserve 160 million gallons of water while delivering major energy and operational cost savings amounting to $10 million enterprise wide. Here's how we did it. Take an average full-service hotel, a property of 300 rooms. Our innovative Aquanomic on-premise laundry program reduces wash steps and delivers performance at lower temperatures, which leads to an overall water and energy savings of up to 600,000 gallons and 200,000 kilowatt-hours per year for an average full-service hotel. Next, one of the largest water and energy use applications in the kitchen of a full-service restaurant in a hotel is a dish machine. And thanks to Ecolab's SMARTPOWER and low-temperature machines, we can see water and energy savings up to 300,000 gallons and 50,000 kilowatt-hours per year. And of course, during the hot summer days, we know how important it is for hotels to keep their guests cool and comfortable during their stay. Wyndham leveraged our smart technology, 3D TRASAR, to ensure reliable operation of their cooling, chiller and boiler systems while saving up to, get this, 1 million gallons of water and 150,000 kilowatt-hours of energy per year. You're seeing a consistent theme here, saving water reduces energy because they're linked. And together, they can help companies like Wyndham and other brands save water, energy, lowering their greenhouse gas emissions to support their climate goals and best of all, reducing their overall cost without sacrificing performance at a property level and enterprise wide. So in the end, our customers can focus on what they do best, providing their guests with a clean, safe and a comfortable stay. In all these examples I've shared today, our customer impact approach is designed to really deliver the best outcomes and results at the lowest total delivered cost. And that's made possible by having a world-class Ecolab team. And now I'm pleased to introduce Anne Gotte that will take us through our S leadership. Anne?

Thank you, Emilio. Good morning. As mentioned, ESG is integral to our model, our success and our goals. You've heard, and I'll happily repeat it, we're a people company, serving people, our customers who protect people and the resources vital to life. As Emilio shared, none of this is possible without our exceptional global team, and I'm excited to talk with you about that more. Let's first dive into our 2030 DE&I commitments. Emilio shared that by 2030, we commit to 35% women and 25% people of color in our manager and above population. Those are important goals. And they're brought to life when you know that when we achieve those goals, we will increase representation of women and people of color for our manager level and above populations by 50%. And in doing so, we will become 100% representative of the qualified labor markets and applicant pools both in the U.S. and around the world. Second, we will maintain our pay equity in the U.S. and continue to expand this work globally. We also believe that in a fully inclusive workplace, there should be no difference in turnover rates across groups based on gender, race or ethnicity. So as you see, we have a Goal Zero here. The work we do in partnership with others outside of Ecolab is critical to our impact as well. To that end, we've developed sharper and more ambitious supplier diversity goals outlined here. Importantly, we continue to invest heavily in our communities as well, with this last year, by way of example, seeing increased financial support to nonprofits focused on pandemic relief, racial and social justice and the recovery of the hospitality industry. Our goals are ambitious and, of course, driving outcomes for 2030 requires coordinated efforts across our investments, processes and programs today. It's just over 1 year since the murder of George Floyd in our own headquarters community. Our time is now, and we're working to bring our long-standing commitments and our focus on accelerated progress to life. We approach diversity, equity and inclusion as a fully embedded part of who we are and how we grow, with the acknowledgment that our DE&I work affects every facet of our operating model. Our success requires attention on our workforce, our workplaces, our marketplace and our community. As a large employer and a global company, we humbly acknowledge our responsibilities and the opportunity that we have to make an impact both inside and outside the walls of our organization. Each of these areas you see here represents focused bodies of work with KPIs and clear accountability. While we have more to do, I'm honored to take a few moments to share areas of progress in our work to build a more diverse workforce, retain and advance our talent, take care of each other as a team and positively impact our communities. Let's start at the top left. We've seen continued and meaningful progress in our executive representation that we're really proud of. In fact, over the last 5 years, we've seen a 52% increase for women globally and a 30% increase for U.S. people of color. This progress is driven by great strides in hiring and also important progress in our retention and development of talent as you see in the stats in the lower left. In a year where many saw increases in turnover, particularly for women and people of color, we were able to decrease our turnover in important ways. We also saw increases in engagement during that time, something we are confident was driven, at least in part, by the powerful impact and emotional commitment our associates feel about our purpose and their unique and individual contribution to helping our customers and our communities navigate the pandemic. In 2020, protecting our people was a critical priority. We did this in many ways through careful PPE and work protocols and also by protecting jobs, providing pay protection, expanding health care coverage and offering other enhanced benefits when our team needed them most. Finally, as a Twin Cities-based company, we were proud last year to join more than 80 community and corporate leaders comprising the Minnesota Business Coalition for Racial Equity. This coalition is focused primarily on improving equity for Black Minnesotans through progress in policy, allyship, workplace and philanthropy. We're quite proud of these figures but we also know that they're lagging metrics. So I'd like to shift to tell you more about some of our recent work that we believe will drive even more progress going forward. At Ecolab, we believe that building a culture of allyship starts with understanding and with empathy. In 2020, we launched our first Day of Understanding series, leveraging guidance from the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion and other benchmark organizations. As we learned more, we were advised to start small and build slowly. Many organizations start with 1 corporate location and scale over time with these kinds of discussions, or they choose to keep them based in the U.S. for ease of language and other important cultural differences. Of course these approaches have merits, but we thought we needed to do something bolder. Through our town hall discussions, we reached over 13,000 associates and held small group discussions for over 5,300 associates. Importantly, these discussions were led by one of our executive leaders and focused on the experiences of our own associates, what it feels like to be black in America or what it feels like to be a woman at work around the world. These powerful events were completely voluntary and participation was staggering. As another example, EmpowHer, launched in Europe last year with a focus on improving the attraction, retention and advancement of women across the market, with an emphasis on sales frontline and leadership pipeline roles, areas where we frankly had a harder time retaining women as compared to their male counterparts. The team's innovative approach looked holistically at interview practices, mentoring, manager capability and support during transitions, whether those were transitioned to a new role or when beginning or returning from a parental leave. This is a new endeavor for us, but the metrics here show early outreach. We look forward to learning more and scaling this important program as we continue to build our women's leadership and strengths across the enterprise. We believe that an equitable and diverse leadership pipeline requires intentional focus. In 2019, our Black Leaders Forum launched a mentoring program, with the goal of accelerating the development and readiness of emerging Black leaders to take on commercial roles around the company. Our progress to date has been terrific, with 50% of cohort participants in new promoted positions and strong qualitative feedback from both mentors and mentees alike. We will continue to invest in and expand this critical program as a key enabler to achieving our 2030 goals. I hope these examples bring to life a few of the ways we strive to be one of the best places to work for talent around the world. Our progress here is through a shared commitment at every level of our company's leadership including our Board of Directors. I'm happy to introduce Mike McCormick, who will share more about our governance leadership.

Thank you, Anne. So the final element of ESG is, of course, governance. We think we do this very well, too. Strong governance starts with the Board, of course. Our Board is independent, well qualified and engaged. Our Board, as I said, is independent, well qualified and engaged with a diverse Board in terms of background and experience but also in terms of gender and people of color as indicated by the percentages shown on the slide. Importantly, in the ESG context, we also boast a standing health, safety and environmental committee of the Board, a structure we've had for a decade and I'll talk a little bit more about in a minute. Looking at executive comp, we believe our comp programs are well aligned with stockholder interest, with the largest single component tied to long-term incentives, which ties well to our pay-for-performance philosophy. We get good marks for stockholder rights too, and we have made changes such as introducing proxy access based on feedback we've received from stockholders through our extensive stockholder engagement program. All this is further strengthened by transparent disclosure of our practices and our philosophy, including through SEC filings, our sustainability report as well as presentations like these. To bring this all together, in the ESG context, we have KPIs relating to ESG, many of which relate to the WEF Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics. And these KPIs are regularly reviewed by the Board and its committees as identified by the chart showing the ESG topics assigned to each of these Board committees. I mentioned the Safety, Health and Environmental Committee or the SHE Committee as we call it, and you can see the various ESG topics that, that committee regularly reviews. And we do this all to sustain and improve company performance, as Christophe will share with you in his closing slides.

Thank you, Mike, and hopefully, that was helpful for all of you to understand why ESG is so core to what we do and how we deliver as well ESG. And I think when we look at 2020 and the early part of 2021, times that we can qualify like no other, where we've driven long-term business performance while doing what's right for the planet and for society. And all of this governed the right way, knowing that we can do better, we can always do better and we see that as opportunities for us not only to deliver more growth and more earnings but also to do it even better as well so going forward as such. So let me conclude on a few thoughts before we open up for the Q&A. So starting by the clarity of our purpose and especially so in a world where we know that by 2030, we will have a supply gap of 56% in terms of water. It was 40% just a few years ago, so it's showing that the world generally is going the wrong way as such. That's why we've established our ambition to help our customers save enough for 1 billion people in terms of drinking water. And that's why, as well, so we've helped create with the United Nations this Water Resilience Coalition because we know that by bringing companies together, we can make an even bigger difference as such. We know as well that we will need, by 2050, 35% more food. So our ambition of helping produce safe food for 2 billion people well is helping address that trend while capturing as well that growth opportunity. The same in terms of health. We will be 30% more people by 2050, which is a great news, obviously, that's going to create as well more infection risks as we've experienced over the last 18 months, a little bit the hard way. Well, that's why we set our ambition to be in a position to help protect over 90 billion hands by 2030 and protect almost 30 million, as well, infections as well in hospitals where people go and heal. And last but not least, we know that with the current trends, we will need 25% more energy by 2050. And that's why our solutions are aimed ultimately at reducing water usage. We know that when we reduce water usage, we reduce carbon emission as well and we reduce cost, which is good ultimately for the environment, it's good for the bottom line and it's good as well for shareholders. So in terms of purpose, we like where we're going, we like the ambition that we have and most importantly, how we get there as well together with our customers. We're honored to have been recognized in many ways not only for what we do but how we do things, which is almost as important as well and recognized by institutions that you well know, obviously, like the Dow Jones, Barron's as well as the Most Sustainable Company in '21 or the CDP, to cite just a few as well in terms of how we do things as well. We've been proud to be again one of the most ethical companies as well and most admired companies as well out there. And we know that progress is something that is not evolving on a straight line. So sometimes, we’re ahead. You've seen so from Emilio and from Anne and Mike as well, that we feel really good where we are today versus our objectives towards 2030 and what that meant for 2020 and in 2021. But we know that in some moments and in some places, we will have gaps and we’ll report that openly as well. And as you can see, on all the different publications that we have that are either print or digital like the sustainability report, well, you see our progress in a very real-time manner. That's why we wanted to have the sustainability reports published digitally. And that's why the eROI that I've shared as well with you in terms of how much water we save, how much energy we save, how much waste we've reduced and how much cost we've helped reduced as well is reported in real time, not only in the sustainability report but on our web page as well. Our customers can see it for their own operations, and you can see it as well as our teams worldwide as well, how much progress we're making on a daily basis and how does it look like versus our objectives for 2030. And most importantly, in a world that keeps moving pretty fast, to say the least, well, our beacon is ultimately so making sure that we keep living by our values and that we keep strengthening our values as well, which is definitely starting by reaching our goals, the ones that we've shared with you today, the financial performance as well that we define for a long term as well, so for all of you. We do what's right in whatever situation. And if we do mistakes, well, we correct them, we learn from them and we try to do different ones going forward. We challenge ourselves especially in difficult times like we had last year and we deliver during those difficult times as well. We work together with diverse perspectives, which is a journey as such, as you've heard as well so from Anne, really trying to make sure that everywhere around the world, we get diverse teams, that diverse views are respected and leveraged as well. We know it makes our team, our promise and our delivery as well better, and we make a difference for our customers, for the environment and hopefully as well so for our shareholders, which are all ideally strong foundations for the high performance that we've delivered as a company and the performance that we will be delivering as well in the years to come which are aligned, obviously, with our committed ambition to deliver 6% to 8% organic growth in the years to come as well as in the past and 13% to 15% EPS growth as well, which has been as well our commitments for the past decades that we obviously see as a continuation in the future as well. So with all that, I'd like to pass it back to Mike, who is going to help us, as well, see what are the questions that we've gotten as well online. And our team is here to respond and discuss whatever topics might be on your mind. So with that, Mike, back to you.

Thanks, Christophe. So that concludes our formal remarks. We'll now start the question-and-answer period. [Operator Instructions]

So let's begin. Our first question is regarding environment. Post COVID, did you expect to see a change in demand for your ESG solutions?

Mike, I'll take that. So this is Emilio. Yes, and Ecolab is well positioned to take advantage of those opportunities. We need to think beyond how we do more with less, which is more of a mitigation strategy that industry has adopted in terms of how we can adapt and grow in a changing world. And today, we talked about digital technology will be a key, and we’ll need to adapt those strategies to build resilience and get more out of the plant facilities we have in uncertain times. And with digital solutions like ECOLAB3D, we can minimize those challenges caused by water stress, climate, supply chain disruption, which has been like almost every week now. We can gain visibility and control of our operational variability by really leveraging digital systems, connected digital systems that enable us to deliver the best outcomes at the lowest total delivery cost.

Let me add maybe a few points as well on that because it's a great question. We know it's been interesting. So during the pandemic, one might have thought that ESG would have taken the back seat. Well, it's not at all. What happens, if anything, so it gained momentum. And it's been very interesting to see how many companies came to us and said, "Share with us how you did it for yourself and how you can help us as a company get to our own ambition." You've heard many out there making the commitments of getting so to this net zero being water or carbon or both ultimately. And that's where it's given us opportunity ultimately to develop road maps for those customers and help them make progress towards that, which is also driving our performance going forward. So kind of a good alignment between what they need and what we can provide as well as such. Mike, next question.

Do you see any new or emerging ESG standards or metrics that you think investors should be focusing on?

So we see that that's something that's evolving, it's for sure. We're trying to be as well aligned as we can around those World Economic Forum metrics. But I'd like to -- maybe to pass it to Emilio, since you've been part of the discussions with them.

Yes. So you're right, Christophe. In fact, we committed to the World Economic Forum's Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics in January. And with the aim of really, to Christophe's point, there's been such a proliferation of frameworks and standards in the ESG space when it comes to metrics. And what they did is really try to harmonize the ESG metrics to 21 core metrics to start. And we're 1 of 76 companies to adopt that to date as part of their pilot. And I would say to answer the question directly about the emerging standards and metrics, I think that more than ever, we're going to see a future where -- and the World Economic Forum talks about expanded metrics, which focuses on less established metrics like those things related to the value of natural capital and the impact of things like nature-based solutions, to Christophe's point, about how companies are looking at this gap that we're seeing around freshwater and how taking steps around using nature-based solutions to improve the water quality and quantity in that watershed can lead to societal value. These are some of the things that I think the future will hold when it comes to new metrics that we'll be looking at.

Thanks. We have a question for Anne. How is Ecolab thinking about the future of work in a post-pandemic work world?

Great. Yes, happy to take that. As I think all of us can relate, the pandemic has presented many challenges, but also helped us think a little bit differently about how we will both work and do business. We think that there's an opportunity to take those learnings forward and create a new working environment that is even better than before. We'll certainly look carefully at the where and how of work. And certainly, you're reading a lot about that with other companies as well, whether that's hybrid work or other flexibility offerings focused on collaboration, well-being and people's personal needs outside of work. But we're also taking time to think about what work we do and how we articulate that in a post-pandemic world, ensuring that people feel that their work is meaningful, why they do their work and why it's so important, connected to our purpose and seeing their direct impact and contributions to the great purpose that we have and to the impact that we make and importantly, how we start to think about evolving our culture, so with whom we get to work. We want a culture that encourages all of us to give and become our best. We're focused on flexibility, we're focused on choice, but we're also focused on meaning and growth.

Let me add a few things as well on that. So we're going through a phase that nobody has gone through. Hopefully, it's going to be one of the last experiences that we all have so going through a global pandemic like that. And we can see that as a challenge on how the future of work is going to be an opportunity. And I clearly see that as an opportunity. Some are seeing it in very extreme ways of saying, well, everything is going to be remote or others saying everything is going to be in person, ultimately. We believe that 80% is going to come back to where we used to be, but 20% is going to be different. And we want to use those 20% ultimately to make the work environment for people in the field, people in the plant, people in the office, an environment that's even better for them in order for us to get even better talent. And just to share with you the 3 guiding principles that we've set in how we look at future of work for us going forward. As you've heard, while it's around safety, it has to drive performance and it has to be increasing to the place that we are in terms of how good we are as a destination as well so for talent. So see that as a good opportunity. We're going to learn as well over the next few months. So we haven't declared everything. We've said what's the direction we want to go to and trying to see, over the next few weeks, the next few months, how people are reacting as well and making sure that we become a safe place, even higher performing and in a way that's welcoming even better talent as well so for us going forward. So I think a good opportunity for all of us. So back to you, Mike.

Thanks. Another one on ESG and compensation. Ecolab has come a long way in incorporating ESG in its business model. Please share how you think about compensation alignment with your sustainability goals.

That's an interesting question, so for sure. So when we think in terms of compensation, there are 3 things that come to mind. So for us in how we think about compensation and how we shape and drive compensation for our people. The first one is, it has to be performance-driven. So if you deliver what you have promised, you're going to get your bonus. If you deliver ahead of what you had promised, you're going to get this 140% bonus, which is ultimately a stretch, which is the way we think about our company. So when we talk about the 6% to 8% top line growth and 13% to 15% EPS growth, we know those are stretch goals, while our teams get an over-delivery of the bonus, which is this 140% that we've been talking about. The second one is we want to have it as simple as we can. And ultimately, so the vast majority of our leaders are compensated on 4 things: the first one is sales; the second is their own operating income; the earnings per share of the company; and last but not least, their own individual objectives. And we're trying to keep those objectives as simple as we can. So when we think in terms of ESG, it's part of individual objective. But most importantly, as you've heard, ultimately, our business performance is driven by how much impact we create, so with our customers, for our customers for the environment ultimately. There's a direct link between how much we sell and how much water we save or how much we save in terms of water drives how much we sell as well. The more our customers reuse and recycle water, the higher our margins as well as such. So one is leading immediately to the other one. So we have it as individual objective but not as part as roll-up like sales or operating income or EPS or would be. Another example is what we do for safety as well. It's not part of our objective, but this is something that we have targets set for everyone. We expect everyone to get to their own target, and it's worked out so really well for us over the past 10, 12 years that we set as well, that we passed on it.

Well said. Can I just add to that? Because within our world-class operations, I would just build on that to say, some of the functional leaders also have that link to continuous improvement that impacts water, energy, greenhouse gas emissions, [myself], our global supply chain leader. We all have those -- our facility leaders. Those are linked to their performance, so I just wanted to make sure I added that from an operational perspective as well.

Thank you, Emilio.

Thanks, Emilio. Which third-party rating scores make the biggest difference in your business relationships with customers?

Sure. So I would say, foundationally, the very first thing I would highlight is CDP, Carbon Disclosure Project. CDP, we’re -- when it comes to climate and water, we're AA, 1 of 60 companies. We're also on the supplier engagement leadership list, one of the 7% of companies from 9,000 that are -- that have that honor. And the reason I say that's foundational is because everything is built from there in terms of when we look at the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, which is something investors care about. When you look at the most sustainable companies, when you look at even the most ethical companies, there's a wide spectrum that leverage the foundation of these type of disclosure frameworks like CDP. I would say that's where I would start. And that also feeds our rating programs like MSCI, which we've been on that list for 6 years in a row.

Okay. And another one for Anne. What are your LGBTQIA+ goals?

Yes, happy to take that. And first, Happy Pride Month. It's a really timely time for this question and I'm eager to take it. I would say that we have not set explicit goals the same way that you saw our 2030 goals for race and ethnicity, and there are a few reasons for that. But I want to talk a little bit about the work and the commitment we have to driving progress around LGBTQ+ experiences and representation in our company. The first is that we're very thoughtful about offering equitable and inclusive benefits for our LGBTQ+ associates and their families. We also focus very closely on the growth of our employee resource group that's focused on that population. We call that ERG Pride at Ecolab. And that's true about the growth within and outside of the United States, with new chapters launching outside of the U.S. just last week. We also look at the intersectionality between our ERGs. And so as you can all relate, we're not just one thing. There is important connection between people of color and our women's ERGs as well as how people may identify across the LGBTQ+ spectrum. The third thing that we do that I think is really important is we spend the time for people who choose to self-identify as we do our engagement survey work. So with insights about how our LGBTQ+ associates may be feeling vis-à-vis others in different groups. Where do those experiences differ? And what are the insights we need to really address in terms of action and improvement? Related, we have quite a bit of new learning and development work coming out later this month around allyship and education. Those are just a couple of examples I would offer. I think that our impact and our commitment speaks for itself. The Human Rights Campaign has recognized Ecolab with a perfect score on their Corporate Equity Index for 8 years running, and we've earned that designation 10 years overall, something we're very proud of.

Thanks, Anne. I'm going to combine a couple of questions into one here. With the real-time eROI data, do you get a live feed from customers, first. Second, how does this help you develop new products? And third, are you winning new business based on that eROI analysis?

Wow, so getting all one with many questions in here, so maybe if I take them one by one. So whether we get live feeds from our customers, the general answer is yes. 80% to 90% of the information that we're rolling up is real-time, and 10% to 20% are assumed based on other parameters because not everything can be measured in real time. Like waste, for instance, is a little bit -- one that's a little bit more tricky. If you think about the 3D TRASAR technology, well, it helps us measure how much flow is going through a process and the quality of that flow, so which helps us ultimately understand how much has been used and what's the quality of what's being used or what's being discharged or reused as such. And 3D TRASAR ultimately is related to the ECOLAB3D Cloud, which is the largest or one of the largest Internet of Things available in the industry. And as such, we can provide a plant, for instance, with their own progress versus their goal in real time. This is true for the whole company of that customer as well. You were talking about Exelon before, Emilio, well, they can see the whole fleet of their plants, basically, how good they're progressing versus their goals or not. And we can roll up all the companies within an industry and all the industries within our whole company and that’s how you get the overall rollup that you see on the eROI counter. The second question was how we develop new products based on that, I think because Mike has just deleted the questions. So I need to remember the ones that he just asked before, which is challenging my own brain, which is good. Yes, ultimately, so this real feed is helping us for the development of products. And how does that work, is ultimately with this real feed of information, well, we understand where the best practices and best performances are in whatever location there is around the world. So when we know what's the best performance, how it's gotten there ultimately, well, it helps us develop new products for other customers and other industries in order for us to understand what are the true needs and how we can bring them as well so to the market. And the third one, if I remember right, was, does eROI help us get new business? Well, the answer is definitely, yes. That's the way we drive new business for a few reasons. The first one is well, eROI, by definition, is a return calculation, how much value we create and how much investment the customer has made, and we try to get ahead of 25% return on customers' investment in what we do. Well, the more they do -- the more they invest in what we do, well, the more we grow. And at the same time, as mentioned before, when we understand there is a gap or an opportunity between 1 plant and another within that customer fleet, ultimately, well, it's driving more solutions to those plants or those locations that have still opportunities to improve. That's driving new business as well for us. And last but not least, in this ESG world that we're living in now, many companies are willing to set high ambition goals or driven by their own consumers, customers or investors ultimately so to get to a higher level of performance in terms of ESG. Well, those are the companies that are coming to us and telling us, as I was sharing with you before, "Well, help us get to our ambition. Help us develop that road map and help us execute as well that road map to go towards that." That's how we're creating as well new business for our own teams and such. So I think that I've covered all 3 questions as well like that in one go. So Mike, back to you.

Thank you. One more question for Anne. How much of the diversity initiatives are U.S.-specific? What is done outside the U.S., taking into account local diversity expectations?

Yes. It's a great question. To answer the first part, the diversity initiatives that are specific to the U.S. are only those that are relevant within the U.S. Where our initiatives should be global, they are. And where they should be country-specific outside of the U.S., they are. And so in every country where we work and live in doing business around the world, there are specific diversity goals that are relevant and important to those markets. And that's really important because as the question really accounts for, the cultural context, the bias, the historical legacies, the changes, the laws and regulations, cultural norms are all really different. It would be arrogant and ineffective for us to, from St. Paul, decide for the world how we become a more diverse and inclusive organization. So we take a very different approach. Each of our markets around the world have diversity goals from a representation perspective of women, and that was noted earlier. But beyond that, they're asked to figure out as a leadership team and with their communities, how to build specific DE&I goals that are particularly relevant for their markets. Importantly, of the 3 examples I offered, 2 of them were global. Both our Days of Understanding and the EmpowHer program took place within and outside of the U.S. for Days of Understanding. And EmpowHer is actually starting in Europe. We'll learn from our friends there and figure out how to scale that into other markets across the world.

Thanks, Anne. Another question. What is the update on the Impacts That Matter framework that was introduced in 2019 to manage chemicals?

Yes, Mike. Thank you. Yes. So Impacts That Matter is really about product sustainability. It's a key aspect of how we look at our progress that impacts people and the planet in addition to the impacts of climate and waste metrics. And it really is focused on the human health, things like programs and products that require no PPE or simplified product use or fragrance safety. But it's also about environmental safety, biodegradability, aquatic toxicity. These are all things that make up their criteria for Impacts That Matter. And at the end of the day, it's about the outcomes that these programs can deliver. And the update is that we continue to embed this in our phase gate process as a key aspect of how we commercialize products and also develop policies around what people refer to as chemicals of concern. In fact, we're in the third year of being a leader on the Chemical Footprint Project, which is equivalent to the CDP for climate, in this case, for chemical management. So we continue to be a leader there and continue to look at -- to evolve our Impacts That Matter framework.

Thanks, Emilio. One last question before we run out of time here. Can you tell us more about why Ecolab decided to align with the WEF's Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics?

Yes, a thought maybe here, and then Emilio so you’ll build on that. We wanted to make sure that we were using a framework that was broadly used as well across companies and that investors were recognizing as best-in-class as well. There are a few, obviously, out there, that was not the only one, but that was the one we thought was the most comprehensive, the most aligned with the needs from all companies and that we thought was the most aligned with what investors were looking for as well. That's how we ended up ultimately, I think so, on the forum's framework. But Emilio, anything else you'd like to add to that?

Well, just that you're right. I mean, the fact of the matter is that there's been such a proliferation of different standards and frameworks, that harmonizing -- with the aim of harmonizing this with World Economic Forum around 21 core metrics on plant, prosperity, governance, social, made a lot of sense for us. And it also elevates our program because we have an opportunity to look at beyond the 21 core metrics to the next phase, which is the 34 expanded metrics that start to get into more of the value of natural capital work.

Thanks, Emilio. One last question here. Other chemical companies are including explicit ESG targets as KPIs linked to their compensation. I understand you want to keep compensation simple, but are you open to evolving your compensation policies to include ESG targets?

That's a good question. We are always open, obviously so, to learn from others what are the best practices and also to try new things in our own ranks as such. But what's key are 2 things to remember in our own model ultimately here. ESG targets are directly related to our sales and earnings targets as well. So when we set sales and earnings targets, well, they are directly, as well, aligned with how much ESG we've defined as well so for that specific team to deliver. So I believe that those 2 are very much aligned and we don't need to add and complexify as such to the compensations of our teams. And when we look at what you've seen, so from Emilio, Mike and Anne as well so this morning, well, we are ahead of our ESG targets today. So it seems to be working quite well. But yes, we are open as well at the same time. So to think even further if there are ways to get even faster, where we'd like to go and in order to make sure that our teams are compensated as well the right way. So let me close just on a few comments, and then I'll pass it back to Mike, just to make sure that we respect your time as well. So first, a very big thank you for attending today, for the trust in us as well that you all so have been giving us for so many years. And I hope that with this time that we spent together, well, you've really understood that ESG for us is not a sideshow and it's never been a sideshow. Whatever it was called as well in the past because ESG terms didn't exist. And not only what we do but how we do things as well. And the second thing is that well ultimately, going after ESG goals for us, it's aligning with the growth trends. So helping address water scarcity, food safety, infection risk or climate change, well, ultimately, those are growth trends. Helping address them helps us grow faster and make more money as well, which we can reinvest in the business and provide returns as well to you all, investor as well. So it's a good deal. It's ultimately creating incremental value for our customers. That's why they come to us and come even more to us as well going forward, creating more incremental value for shareholder and ultimately, for the environment. So it's a win-win-win, which we believe is an interesting model that we will keep perfecting as well going forward. And ultimately, we like our model that we can do well by doing good, the higher our impact on the environment for our customers ultimately helps our customers' performance, our company's performance and shareholders' performance, which is the virtuous cycle that we'd like to keep and strengthen as well so going forward. So that's who we are, where we're going, how we're trying to get there. Hopefully, this session was helpful to you, to understand how we do it and how it's driving further earnings growth as well for shareholders and nature, I might almost say. And if you have any other question, which you always do, so please reach out to us, to our Investor Relations team as well, and we'll be happy to take any questions you might have and spend any time with you on any topic that you'd like us to cover in more detail. So with that, Mike, I'll let you close.

Thanks, Christophe. That's a great place to end. So thanks for your participation. That wraps up our call. This call and the slides will be available for replay on our website. We hope today has been helpful to you. We look forward to continuing our conversations and to continued progress ahead. Thanks again for your time and participation. Our best wishes for the rest of the day.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. This does conclude today's call. You may now disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day.