Award Recognises Bringing Clean Water and Sanitation to the Worlds Most Challenging Areas

Launched in 2011 as a spinoff of the water-related businesses of ITT Corporation, Xylem (USA) is a global specialist in water technology, providing customers in more than 150 countries with tools to transport, treat, test, and efficiently use water in public utility, residential, commercial, agricultural, and industrial settings. Xylem brings a strong focus on finding local solutions to the world’s most challenging water and wastewater problems.

The Watermark program was launched by ITT in 2008 as a $4 million commitment demonstrating a signature approach to philanthropy as a means to achieving social impact. Upon Xylem’s separation from ITT, the program, which aligned most closely with the water business, became part of the new Xylem company. Xylem Watermark is fundamental to Xylem’s business strategy, leveraging the company’s core competencies, assets, and employee expertise to make a mark on one of the world’s most serious and complex development challenges.

Xylem’s President and CEO, Gretchen McClain, has been involved with Xylem Watermark since its inception, spearheading an effort to weave employee engagement opportunities, matching gifts, and paid time off for local volunteerism. McClain works closely with Xylem’s executive team and Board of Directors to align Xylem Watermark with the company’s emerging market strategy, focusing on the business benefits the program can provide.

To achieve sustainable impact, Xylem Watermark partners with Water For People (WFP), Mercy Corps, and China Women’s Development Foundation. Each of these partners provides crucial on-the-ground expertise and offers Xylem Watermark a geographic breadth of social impact. Deeply committed to reaching 1 million more people by the end of 2013, in addition to the 500,000 whose lives have already been improved by Watermark, Xylem is focusing on sustainable, innovative projects to generate long-term impact for the company, and for communities around the world.

Xylem Watermark approaches problems in innovative, sustainable, and flexible ways. In 2010, Watermark and WFP transitioned to FLOW technology, an open-source Android application that enables volunteers in the field to analyse water source functionality and report findings in real time to a public online database. This technology allows Xylem to track the long-term success of completed projects and quickly address non-functional water points. Similarly, Xylem Watermark is working with Mercy Corps to help prevent the consequences of water-related disasters before they occur.

Xylem, driven by McClain’s stewardship and the company’s credo of “Let’s solve water,” is making a measurable, sustainable impact on the global water crisis. In leveraging Xylem Watermark’s capacity to create social impact and to contribute to Xylem’s business objectives, the company is truly becoming a global water leader.