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Global Water Leadership
Becoming a Global Water Leader
The need for clean water has never been greater. Ninety-nine percent of all the water on the earth is unsafe or unavailable for drinking. Today, 1.1 billion people, including 125 million children, don't have access to safe water supplies.
As the world's largest provider of pumps and equipment to transport and treat water, ITT has a responsibility to address this huge and pressing issue. We are determined to bring our experience, expertise, technology and international presence to bear in finding solutions that will help the world protect this precious resource and use water more wisely.
Our Commitment:
Leverage our unique position as a leader in fluid technology to address global water quality and availability issues through product innovation, industry participation and effective philanthropic and educational activities.
Progress to Date:
Our pumps and treatment systems are now used in more than 140 of the world's nearly 200 countries. We expanded our presence in emerging markets, including China and India, to help serve the critical water needs of customers in these regions. We reached more than 500,000 students through programs aimed at encouraging the study and investigation of water challenges and solutions. We worked with industry to develop the Global Water Tool, a promising means for assessing the impact of industrial water use on the environment. We deployed our technology and committed employees to address water distress in Myanmar, China and Mexico following catastrophic natural disasters in those regions.
Goals for 2008/2009:
We will launch a three-year $3 million global philanthropy initiative to address water quality issues in India, China and Latin America and evolve our crisis response capability. We will introduce a water purification product that meets the water needs — and price points — of people and communities in emerging markets. We will move closer to becoming the company that government agencies, nonprofit organizations, businesses and communities turn to first for solutions and expertise in addressing pressing water issues.
ITT helped raise global awareness of water issues by underwriting Strange Days on Planet Earth, a two-episode television documentary from National Geographic, which was viewed by millions of people worldwide in 2008.
Water Supply and Demand
Safe water is an increasingly scarce commodity and demand is growing rapidly. ITT is working to find sustainable solutions to this worrisome supply and demand equation.
Our pump and treatment systems are designed to enable more efficient irrigation, increased water reuse, cleaner wastewater discharges and desalination.
The durability and reliability of ITT pumps have other benefits, too. In early 2007, when another company's pumps failed, our technicians rushed to a wastewater plant in Scotland to install huge pumps from ITT that could handle the resulting wastewater backup before it could escape into the River Forth — thereby averting an environmental disaster and preserving fresh water supplies.
As a business, we are expanding our presence into emerging markets, where in many cases water shortages are already at a critical stage. Through our new R&D centers in China and India, we are developing technologies and solutions that meet the local requirements from an economic and environmental standpoint. We are currently working to design an affordable, portable "disaster relief" water treatment system, designed specifically for poor communities and villages anywhere in the world dealing with contaminated local water supplies.
In 2007, in a project developed by members of a working group co-chaired by ITT CEO Steve Loranger, the World Business Council on Sustainable Development launched the Global Water Tool. This free online resource helps companies — including ITT — calculate water consumption and efficiency across their facilities around the world, so that they can take actions to manage their water supplies more efficiently and responsibly.
The International Water Management Institute predicts that by 2050, 7 billion of the 9.5 billion people on the planet will face moderate or severe water shortages.
At any one time, the World Health Organization estimates that half of the world's hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from water-related diseases like cholera, typhoid, bacillary dysentery and infectious hepatitis.
Investing in Water Infrastructure
Much of the world's water infrastructure is literally falling apart. Leaking pipes, broken pumps and outdated water delivery and treatment facilities can contribute to environmental contamination and cause serious public health problems. Global upgrades will cost trillions of dollars over the next two decades. ITT is focused on finding ways to fulfill the needed infrastructure improvements.
ITT pumps are designed to be extremely efficient and durable. Their low life-cycle costs mean water and wastewater companies and municipalities can better afford to upgrade their facilities.
Water and Energy
More than 20 percent of all global energy is consumed transporting and treating water. If we don't find ways to create more energy-efficient products and systems, the world's energy security will become destabilized. ITT is addressing this issue through the development of products that use less energy and by raising awareness of this issue.
We are promoting and selling water reuse systems to lower overall energy consumption. In both urban and agricultural settings, reusing water is far less energy intensive than transporting water. Our new Nanjing, China facility, which opened in 2007, features a total water reuse system-designed by ITT and using ITT technologies-that serves as a model for other responsible manufacturers.
ITT also has a number of energy-saving pump products for various applications. Our new generation of vertical turbine pumps provides a 2 percent increase in base efficiency, which translates into a very significant 10 percent reduction in energy costs over the life of the product for the customer. And our new N-pump uses 20 to 30 percent less energy than similar wastewater pumps. In Beijing, China, ITT's energy-efficient products were chosen for many of the new facilities built for the Olympic games-and new downtown sky-scrapers-as the city showcases its own long-term commitment to conservation.
ITT employees, through leadership positions in pump industry associations such as the Hydraulic Institute and Europump, are helping to create more rigorous industry standards for energy efficiency. Our Fluid Technology businesses publish newsletters for contractors, developers and distributors with articles about how they can save energy in the pumping process. And we are looking for opportunities to work more closely with government agencies such as the U.S. Department of Energy to develop additional energy-saving options.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, pumping systems account for nearly 20 percent of the world’s energy demand and in some industrial operations, they account for up to 50 percent of energy costs.
Our N-pump uses 20 to 30 percent less energy than similar wastewater pumps.
Next-Generation Water Leaders
Tackling the water crisis is a global undertaking, and ITT is recruiting future researchers, scientists and engineers to join the mission.
In April 2008, as part of our sponsorship of the National Geographic's television documentary Strange Days on Planet Earth, ITT funded a companion toolkit for middle school students in the United States. Our employees are sharing the toolkit with their local schools and visiting classrooms to help teachers provide detailed instruction and dialogue about this vital issue.
In 2007, for the 11th year in a row, ITT was the lead sponsor of the Stockholm Junior Water Prize, which recognizes outstanding water research by high school students around the world. For the second time, we also presented the ITT Award for Excellence in Student Water Journalism. These awards and activities are helping to cultivate a future generation of researchers and investigative journalists focused on the world's water issues.
Since 1997, the ITT-sponsored Stockholm Junior Water Prize has generated 150,000 water conservation projects involving 500,000 high school students, including the 2007 winners from Mexico (seen here with Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden).
Water Philanthropy: ITT Watermark
Through the years, ITT has worked to reduce waterborne illnesses by donating pumps to at-risk communities, often at the urging of involved or concerned ITT employees. In addition, we have been part of the international response to recent large-scale emergency situations such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2007 floods in Tabasco, Mexico, the 2008 earthquake in central China and the 2008 cyclone in Myanmar. In all cases, we quickly mobilized and donated portable water treatment systems that supply drinking water to people in these disaster areas.
Now, we are taking a more proactive and sustainable approach to our water philanthropy with the launch of ITT Watermark in 2008.
With this program, ITT has committed $3 million over the next three years to provide safe water solutions-new wells, improved sanitation facilities and hygiene education — to 300 schools in water-stressed regions in developing countries in Asia and Latin America. Clean water in schools is an important focal point for transforming a community. Healthy children are absent less and learn more. They bring their water hygiene lessons home, which creates a ripple effect because healthy family members are able to earn income and break the cycle of poverty.
Nick Hill, president of ITT's Motion & Flow Control group, seen here in Pengzhou City near the epicenter of the 2008 China earthquake, leads our new emergency response team, which is positioning ITT to be a water provider and essential first-responder when natural disasters strike.
Calculating Our Water Impact
ITT has taken its first steps in analyzing the local impact of our water use around the world. While ITT is not generally a major water user in the communities where we operate, we have consistently worked to reduce our water footprint with outstanding results, including a 30 percent reduction in water use from 2004 to 2007.
In addition to those accomplishments, we are now using the Global Water Tool, developed by the World Business Council on Sustainable Development, to determine where we currently have operations in water-stressed areas and in planning for future manufacturing locations. Early results appear to indicate that none of our heavier water users are located in water scarce regions, but the analysis continues. Going forward, this tool will provide us with more quantifiable water usage measurements and enable us to better focus our efforts to ensure that we do not exacerbate regional water concerns.
Helping to Raise Water Awareness
- ITT is a major sponsor of World Water Monitoring Day, a global event held each fall to encourage students to measure the quality of their local water supplies. www.worldwatermonitoringday.us
- ITT is a member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, a CEO-led global association of some 200 companies dealing exclusively with sustainable development issues. Our CEO, Steve Loranger, is co-chair of the group's Water Initiative, which launched the Global Water Tool in 2007. www.wbcsd.org
- ITT is a member of the Water Environment Federation (WEF), and an ITT representative is a member of its board of trustees. WEF is the preeminent organization dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of the global water environment through education, training and outreach, and counts 50,000 municipal utilities, consultants and industries as members. www.wef.org
- ITT is a member of the International Water Association (IWA), and an ITT representative has a seat on its strategic council. IWA is dedicated to connecting water professionals worldwide to develop effective and sustainable approaches to water management. We sponsor IWA's seminar programs and are currently funding a specialty group focused on pumping and monitoring. www.iwahq.org
- ITT is a worldwide sponsor of Water for People, and an ITT representative has a seat on its board of directors. This not-for-profit organization helps people in developing countries by establishing locally sustainable drinking water resources, sanitation facilities and health and hygiene programs. To date, ITT has been directly involved in helping Water for People establish healthy water practices in 12 villages in India. www.waterforpeople.org
- ITT is a founding member of World Water Week, the Stockholm Water Prize and the Stockholm Junior Water Prize. These events, organized by the Stockholm International Water Institute, recognize and promote outstanding research, action or education that increases knowledge about our water resources. ITT representatives also serve as judges for the two Water Prize events. www.siwi.org
