How has Ecolab Southeast Asia performed over the past year?

Against a backdrop of continued disruption, Ecolab has worked hard serving our customers this past year and we’re proud to have delivered strong results in Southeast Asia. As ASEAN economies continue to re-open and markets recover, we expect continued optimism. At Ecolab, we’re channeling most of our business into new industrial segments like renewable energy—for example, geothermal energy projects in countries like Indonesia and the Philippines—and we expect these segments to gain significant traction. We believe we’re well positioned to grow our market share in the chemical industry.

How has Ecolab’s digital offering evolved?

A few years ago, we launched ECOLAB3D™™, a cloud-based digital platform that translates operating data from multiple sources into actionable insights and predictive analysis. ECOLAB3D™ provides our customers with water quality intelligence that helps them optimize their use of chemicals and achieve operational savings. ECOLAB3D™ reveals operational problem areas and a data roadmap for how to improve efficiencies. At the forefront of the digital revolution, Singapore is a perfect hub for our digital offerings.

Could you help our audience better understand how Water Flow Intelligence works?

Powered by ECOLAB3D™, our Water Flow Intelligence digital service is based on a simple principle: In layman’s terms, we analyze the incoming water and the outgoing waste, offering customers real-time visibility into their water usage. Our Water Flow Intelligence analyzes incoming water for things like pH levels and the presence of particles, and it can tell, for instance, whether the cooling water is the right temperature. If any of the variables are off, it provides the customer with the information needed to reduce energy consumption. In essence, ECOLAB3D™ works as an alarm system to diagnose issues and therefore reduce overall costs, achieving more sustainable operations at both at the enterprise level and at industrial production sites.

What are some of the challenges of water use in the palm oil industry?

Palm oil plantations are typically located in remote areas, and so are the refineries that must be close to the fruit, because the longer the fruit is transported, the lower the production yields. From washing the fruit to cleaning the pumps, refineries use a lot of water. In the old days, the water management process was done with little understanding of usage. People travelled long distances to run measurements and feed the information back into operations. Through our ECOLAB3D™ models, we allow customers to centralize and compare data from different plantations, assessing individual efficiency rates. Among other advantages, this technology removes the high cost of sending an engineer to remote locations.

How do you see the investment environment in Southeast Asia? What growth sectors do you identify?

Southeast Asia is a key manufacturing hub for different industries, and investment is clearly coming back, not only in the chemical and petrochemical sectors, but also in energy, electronics, and food and beverage. Also, with 70% of the total data center capacity of APAC concentrated in Singapore, data centers are a big sector here. Domestic consumption in countries like Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia, all with growing middle classes, is on the rise. These socio-economic factors, compounded with the region’s political stability, make Southeast Asia an attractive manufacturing hub.

Ecolab was named among the most sustainable companies in the world. What is next in Ecolab’s sustainability journey?

We’re driving progress with our own sustainability results as well as those of our customers. Over the course of this decade, we’re committed to cutting our carbon emissions by 50%, achieving net-positive water use and supporting a diverse and equitable workforce. We’re wholly engaged with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 5, 6 and 13, clean water, climate action and gender equality respectively. These goals are at the heart of everything we do, which means we’re operating with a clear focus on improving our own eROI^SM as well as our customers.

eROI^SM is our approach to how Ecolab together with our customers quantify improved performance, operational efficiency and sustainable impact.