Waters Corporation has officially published a report to highlight the company’s progress on reducing its environmental impact.
The stated report sheds light on Waters’ attempt to preach a healthier planet, and therefore, become more representative of the wider society, as well as to enhance its long-term stakeholder value with good governance and effective oversight in its 2024 report.
Talk about the given report on a slightly deeper level, we begin from how the company was able to cut down on its Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by almost 36% from a 2016 baseline. This exceeded its 35% target almost, two years ahead of schedule.
Next up, we must dig into how Waters achieved a 50% decrease in landfill waste from a 2019 baseline, reaching the 2025 goal early and setting the company on track for zero waste to landfills by 2030. Alongside that, it reduced water use intensity in business operations by 29% from a 2019 baseline. This it markedly did through infrastructure and manufacturing improvements across global facilities.
Waters also took this opportunity to reinforce its commitment towards setting science-based emission reduction targets aligned with the Science Based Targets initiative’s (SBTi) criteria for a 1.5°C future. Moving on, the company reportedly increased candidate diversity in recruitment by 6% over 2022 baseline. Such a move would go on to ensure that 77% of candidate slates had diverse representation in the recruitment pool.
Waters also expanded its Waters Student Academy (WSA) program to reach more students from communities that are historically underrepresented in STEM fields, reaching over 380 students, and doubling the number of WSA summer interns.
In case that wasn’t enough, the company also introduced the University Pathways Program, where students’ career development and education are supported, while simultaneously developing a more diverse talent pipeline.
“At Waters, we are committed to delivering shareholder value while making a positive impact on the world,” said Dr. Udit Batra, President and CEO of Waters Corporation. “We are making strong progress towards reducing our environmental impact and we achieved our greenhouse gas reduction target two years early. Our Waters Student Academy continued to advance STEM education in underserved communities, fostering a more equitable future workforce. Strong governance remains central to our operations, and we were honored to be recognized as the 2024 Public Company Board of the Year by the National Association of Corporate Directors, New England Chapter.”
Another detail worth a mention here is rooted in the fact that Waters was even named, quite recently, 2024 Public Company Board of the Year by the National Association of Corporate Directors, New England Chapter.
Apart from that, we must dig into how it has fostered robust board engagement in enterprise risk management. Not just that, it has also continued its track record of reporting in alignment with industry frameworks, including the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), and United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
Now, we did refer to how Waters was named 2024 Public Company Board of the Year, but what we haven’t mentioned yet is that it has won a grand total of 14 awards and recognitions for its environmental, social, and governance efforts since 2023. The highlights for the same included Barron’s 2024 100 Most Sustainable Companies (U.S.); My Green Lab Accountability, Consistency, and Transparency (ACT) Labels; Dow Jones Sustainability Index; Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2023-2024 Corporate Equality Index; U.S. News & World Report – Best Companies to Work for 2023-2024.
