Grundfos and Water Resilience Coalition: Strengthening Global Efforts on Water Sustainability

Asian Water: What motivated Grundfos to join the Water Resilience Coalition (WRC), and how does this align with your broader sustainability goals? How can the collaboration help translate your sustainability goals into scalable and measurable impacts?

Koch: At Grundfos, we believe that collaboration and partnership are essential to solving the world’s most pressing sustainability challenges. This belief is deeply embedded in our company culture and has shaped the way we approach water and climate action for decades. We have been working alongside governments, industry peers, NGOs and global platforms like the UN Global Compact (since 2002), UN CEO Water Mandate, C40 Cities and the World Economic Forum to actively advocate for collective action.

In recent years, we have stepped up our efforts to accelerate water action, consistently calling for water to receive the same urgency and global attention as the climate agenda. Our leadership engagement at forums such as the World Economic Forum and the UN Climate Conferences has centred on amplifying the message that water and climate challenges are fundamentally interconnected and must be addressed together.

Joining the Water Resilience Coalition is a natural extension of this commitment. The Coalition’s mission to elevate action on water stress as a global corporate priority and drive measurable collective action aligns perfectly with our own sustainability ambitions. By becoming a member of the WRC, we reinforce our promise to respect, protect and advance the flow of water, and we bring our technical expertise, solutions and advocacy efforts to a global collective platform where we can help achieve greater impact together.

Asian Water: How does WRC membership influence the way Grundfos approaches water stewardship, both internally and across your supply chain?

Koch: Joining the WRC strengthens our longstanding engagement with the UN CEO Water Mandate and provides Grundfos with a valuable new platform for global engagement, collaboration and advocacy, allowing us to work alongside other leading companies to drive collective action on water resilience. It amplifies our voice and strengthens our ability to elevate water stress to the top of the global sustainability agenda, alongside climate. 

Our membership in the WRC aligns closely with our evolving approach to water stewardship. As highlighted in our 2024 Sustainability Report, we are shifting from a primary focus on saving water to a broader, more holistic perspective that encompasses water resilience across our value chain. This means not only optimising our own operations but also assessing water risks across our supply chain, supporting our customers and end users and advancing systemic solutions through innovation and partnership.

Internally, we continue to make solid progress toward our 2025 target of reducing water withdrawal by 50% in our own operations. As of 2024, we’ve already achieved 93% of this goal. Through our solutions, we’ve also enabled our end users to save 1.5 billion m³ of water in 2024 in their operations. At the same time, we have been actively assessing water risks across our value chain and engaging with customers, partners and end users to further explore risks and opportunities in relation to water resilience. 

In Grundfos, we also have a longstanding commitment to help provide access to water for all through innovative pump solutions and partnerships. Since 2020, we have provided access to water for more than 51 million people, and we continue our efforts to accelerate progress towards our goal of reaching 300 million people by 2030. It is a constant source of pride and gratitude to see how our efforts and solutions can transform the lives for millions of people. 

Beyond our own value chain, our water stewardship also extends to areas such as public policy & advocacy, and collective impact programmes, which are key pillars of our new water sustainability framework. The WRC’s focus on driving measurable collective action across industry aligns directly with these efforts, providing additional momentum to our work in strengthening water resilience for communities, ecosystems and economies.

Our membership in the WRC supports this transition by connecting us with like-minded partners, offering tools such as the Water Resilience Assessment Framework, and helping us push forward both our internal ambitions and external influence toward a water-resilient future. 

A key ambition for us is also to join forces with other leading global companies and water sustainability organisations to engage in specific collective action partnerships around the world with an aim to alleviate water challenges and water stress for communities and ecosystems. 

Asian Water: Grundfos has committed to net zero emissions by 2050. What key strategies are in place to ensure progress toward this ambitious goal?

Koch: We are the first water solutions company with a validated science-based net-zero target. Achieving this ambitious goal requires more than just commitments but a credible climate transition action plan with a time-bound actionable roadmap. The plan defines how we will deliver on our climate strategy and outlines how we will pivot existing assets, operations and business models towards a trajectory aligned with our near-term and long-term net-zero commitments.

In line with this approach, we developed our first Climate Transition Action Plan (CTAP) in 2024, a consolidated and transparent decarbonisation roadmap. The CTAP provides a clear pathway toward reaching our near-term 2030 target: a 50% reduction in absolute Scope 1 & 2 GHG emissions and a 25% reduction in absolute Scope 3 GHG emissions. We are preparing the external launch of our extended CTAP in 2025. 

The plan maps key dependencies and opportunities for Grundfos to have a positive impact and is anchored on three strategic pillars:

• Climate mitigation & decarbonisation through energy efficient water & climate solutions in a greener energy grid
• Climate resilience & adaptation by reimagining solutions to address the water energy nexus in a world impacted by climate change
• Climate policy & and partnerships to advance the global transition to a net-zero, just and resilient future for all 

For Scope 1 and 2, covering our own operations, we are focusing on improving energy efficiency, electrification of heating, converting into electric fleet and using renewable energy sources. We have already begun to take action on this through a collaboration with renowned German renewable energy company ABO Wind, which allows us to source 80% of our European power consumption from renewable energy. 

Scope 3’s strategies have been split into two key streams – upstream (supply chain) and downstream (use of our sold products). Our focus areas for upstream will be on establishing a robust supplier engagement program, integrating circular principles in the value chain, using lower carbon raw materials, as well as decarbonising business travel and transport of goods.

As for downstream, where the emissions come from the use of our products and accounts for the largest share of our carbon footprint, our efforts focus on creating an energy efficient product portfolio, providing users with digital and intelligent solutions, customer advisory services, fostering industry partnerships and alliances and advocating for a just and green transition.

In short, we are partnering with our customers and end-users to help them reduce carbon emissions in their operations through intelligent water solutions. For example, in Dubai, a city with year-round high temperatures and heavy reliance on cooling, we enabled commercial buildings to unlock up to 80% of energy savings by simply replacing outdated pumps with intelligent, highly efficient solutions. In London, our solutions enabled Digital Realty’s data centre to reduce energy use by up to 20 times compared to traditional cooling systems, significantly lowering carbon emissions and supporting its 2030 climate neutrality goals. The project was recognised with the 2023 Green Data Centre of the Year Award for its innovative cooling system design and sustainability performance.

Through this comprehensive approach, we are working to accelerate decarbonisation across the entire value chain and beyond to drive real progress toward our net-zero ambition.

Asian Water: As a company with Platinum EcoVadis rating, what best practices can you share about embedding sustainability into core business operations?

Koch: For Grundfos, we believe that strong governance structures and strict alignment with global industry standards are imperative. Our sustainability governance is anchored within the Board of Directors and flows through Group Management and our Sustainability Council into group functions and divisions. Our Sustainability Council members meet six times per year to align and follow up on performance and key initiatives. Since the beginning of 2023, our sustainability KPIs are monitored by the Sustainability Council, Group Management and the Board of Directors in a regular cadence with progress reports shared internally on a quarterly basis.

To build on the existing capacity of the board and to ensure that members are fully up to date with trends and regulatory developments, members of the Grundfos Holding Board of Directors participated in an ESG training sequence tailored for board members in 2024. The training covered a number of topics:

1. Strategy and sustainability topics to consider and integrate
2. Managing sustainability risks and integration into enterprise risk management processes
3. Sustainability reporting and data as well as validation processes and controls
4. Sustainability governance model and the role of the board

Our sustainability ambitions are also fully aligned with the commitments we have made to international standards and regulatory frameworks such as the SBTi, the UN Global Compact and the Paris Agreement. 

Embedding sustainability into core business operations goes beyond internal programmes. As such, we also strongly encourage building up a sustainable supply chain to ensure an inside-out transformation. We set high expectations for our suppliers, and our ambition is to build a procurement process where sustainability is integrated as a core element in all our sourcing activities. 

We not only use EcoVadis to validate our own sustainability performance towards our customers and stakeholders. We also apply it as a tool for supplier engagement and development. By the end of 2024, we onboarded 495 suppliers to the EcoVadis platform for sustainability performance monitoring, and saw a 91% compliance rate on supplier audits. In 2024, we launched our Sustainable Purchasing Policy, harmonised with our Direct and Indirect Purchasing Policies, ensuring coherence and consistency throughout our operations. Looking ahead, we will extend our sustainable supplier management programme and introduce a sustainable supplier scorecard to intensify the integration of sustainability as a core business element into the sourcing processes. 

Asian Water: What have been the biggest challenges Grundfos has faced in driving systemic sustainability change, and how have you addressed them?

Koch: At Grundfos, we recognise that the urgency and scale of the global climate and water challenges demand not only action, but faster, more systemic change. The biggest challenge we face is that true sustainability transformation cannot happen in silos; it requires the alignment and collaboration of multiple elements across the entire ecosystem, from internal operations to the full value chain, and through to the broader industry and policy landscape. Driving change at this scale and complexity means we must coordinate efforts across all these fronts, while also advocating for collective action beyond our direct operations.

To address this challenge, we have adopted a holistic approach that combines robust internal governance, operational leadership, and external partnerships. Our sustainability governance framework plays a central role in ensuring that our ambitions translate into real action. Through the work of our Sustainability Council, collaboration with the Board and across group functions, regular Board training and sustainability-linked remuneration, we embed accountability and ensure we stay focused on delivering against our commitments. 

At the operational level, we are accelerating emission reductions across our own activities. Thanks to the renewable power purchase agreement signed in 2023, we are now on track to achieving 50% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions in 2025 itself – 5 years ahead of our initial plan. At the same time, we are advancing circularity across our business through four action areas: designing products for reuse, using non-virgin and renewable materials, developing a circular business model and creating value for next-life offerings. Notably, we surpassed our 2025 target for reducing waste to landfill as early as 2023, and we are expanding our take-back programmes to more customer segments and geographies. 

Beyond our own operations, we recognise that the largest share of our carbon footprint lies within Scope 3 emissions, particularly during the use phase of our products. Compared to the baseline numbers in 2020, we have already reduced Scope 3 emissions by 23.6% by focusing on the innovation of smart, energy-efficient products and solutions. We continue to work closely with customers and partners to support the broader transition to a green grid and the decarbonisation of the value chain.

As mentioned earlier, greening our supply chain is another key pillar of our systemic approach. To accelerate progress in this area, we are focusing on three main pillars: measuring the suppliers’ own emissions reduction performance through a sustainable supplier scorecard, using low-carbon raw materials in manufacturing and working with key suppliers who are able to support us in reducing our own carbon footprint.

While we are proud of the progress made across our own business and value chain, we know that the scale of the challenge requires collaboration at a much broader level. That is why we actively embrace our role as an industry leader to advocate for collective action and foster partnerships with international organisations, governments, and NGOs. These external efforts work hand in hand with our internal initiatives, ensuring that Grundfos contributes meaningfully to accelerating the global sustainability agenda holistically, effectively and efficiently.

Asian Water: Innovation and accountability are central to overcoming sustainability barriers. Can you share examples of how Grundfos has leveraged both?

Koch: Innovation has always been a key driver of our business growth. Under our newly launched 2025–2027 Group Strategy, Ignite’27, its importance has been elevated even further. In today’s fast-changing world, innovation has never been more vital, not only as a growth driver, but also as a critical lever for addressing the world’s most pressing water and climate challenges. 

A key element in the new strategy is an increased focus on strengthening technology development and the commercialisation of the innovation pipeline. Innovation leadership is identified as a must-win battle, essential to delivering the energy efficient and smart water solutions the world needs. Each year, Grundfos will invest approximately 5% of our revenue into research and development, with the clear objective of ensuring a steady stream of new technologies and solutions that directly respond to customer needs and market demands. To ensure that the newest and most energy-efficient technology is being deployed, we will also closely monitor the sales performance of our new products. Only by scaling our newest innovations can we build an industry that operates on only the best options available in the market.

Understanding local market challenges and customer needs deeply is fundamental to how we innovate. For example, in 2023, we established an Innovation Hub in Singapore to drive the development of innovative, energy-efficient systems and solutions for commercial buildings, an area of growing importance across Asia. Our active engagement with customers and participation in industry forums across the region ensure that our innovations are grounded in local realities and designed to solve actual problems faced in the local landscapes 

We recognise that sustaining innovation requires continuous investment in people. We are committed to nurturing the next generation of water professionals. These efforts include partnering with educational institutions such as Singapore’s Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) in 2022 through mentorship programmes, student projects, internships and sponsorship of academic prizes. In the same year, Grundfos also collaborated with the International Water Association (IWA) to initiate the Youth Action for SDG 6 Fellowship, empowering young water professionals with leadership skills, global exposure and the opportunity to contribute to SDG 6 through hands-on projects and collaboration. The first cohort (2023–2024) concluded with a joint publication and the co-creation of the Youth Accountability Framework for the Water Action Agenda. The second cohort (2025–2026) is now underway, focusing on locally-led solutions for water resilience and adaptation.

In terms of accountability, we believe that setting clear, well-defined and measurable goals is fundamental to driving meaningful progress. Our approach to achieving net-zero by 2050 exemplifies this – with science-based targets, time-bound commitments, and a structured governance framework in place to ensure progress is tracked and measured transparently. Embedding accountability into our operations also means fostering a strong internal culture of responsibility, where continuous employee training and leadership engagement reinforce our sustainability commitments at every level of the organisation.

Asian Water: Looking ahead, how does Grundfos envision its role in shaping a more resilient and sustainable water future globally?

Koch: Thanks to the progress we have made in 2024, Grundfos is now shifting to a water sustainability framework for our value chain, with a broadened focus from purely saving water to a more holistic focus on water resilience. 

With that in mind, Grundfos will aim to play a galvanising role, bringing together industry experts and players to collectively make a difference. This approach will address six main pillars, namely: 

• Supply chain – Reducing water impact and increasing resilience in our supply chain
• Operations – Increasing resilience through operational water management and mitigation actions
• End user solutions – Increasing the uptake of water sustainability solutions with our end users as well as innovating and piloting new solutions
• Water access – Providing access to safe water for 300 million people in need through water solutions and partnerships
• Public policy, partnerships and advocacy – Encouraging action to strengthen water resilience and adopt water sustainability solutions
• Collective impact programmes – Improve water availability, quality and resilience for communities in priority areas

On these fronts, Grundfos looks forward to forging new collaborations and partnerships, building on this momentum with like-minded players across the industry towards a sustainable future.