GE Water Process Technologies: A Sustainability Success Story
Chris Ann Lunghino
GE Water Process Technologies, headquartered in Oakville, is a global
leader in manufacturing and selling technologies for purifying drinking
water, treating wastewater, and water reuse. GE Water’s technology
itself is sustainable. But in addition to developing a revolutionary
sustainable technology, GE Water has incorporated sustainable practices
in its business strategy at multiple levels: locally at its
headquarters, in its production processes, in its supply chain, and
through its corporate goodwill policy.
GE Water’s water treatment technology drastically reduces the amount of chemicals and energy used in water treatment worldwide and the amount of space required for water treatment plants, resulting in a lesser impact on the environment. Its technology increases the amount of available water worldwide.
At GE Water’s Oakville headquarters, they recycle and treat onsite
wastewater and reuse it for landscape irrigation, freshwater ponds, a
fire suppression system, and flush water. They also recycle paper and
plastics and maintain a company carpool.
Using the six-sigma lean manufacturing process, GE Water has
streamlined its production process to reduce waste and improve energy
efficiency.
GE Water requires that every company they do business with conform to
GE Water’s sustainable business practices. GE Water is a single-source
supplier of its technologies, ensuring that best practices are shared
among all stakeholders and that new ideas are quickly implemented.
Social sustainability is also integrated into GE Water’s business
strategy. GE Water works to make sure the world’s resources are more
fairly distributed to meet basic human needs globally through its own
Water for Humanity program and by supporting a variety of local and
global not-for-profit organizations and causes.
Water for Humanity is a non-profit, volunteer based program created by
GE Water. Under this program, employees and equipment and parts
suppliers work together to construct, ship, and install water treatment
systems for communities in need and train local residents to maintain
the systems. Their goal is to improve the quality of life in the
community through a safe water supply. Water for Humanity has completed
plants in Bear Island, Canada, Qhang Dien District, Vietnam, and
Tzaneen, South Africa.
GE Water recently donated a water treatment system to Earth Rangers, a
Woodbridge, Ontario program that connects children with the natural
world. Earth Rangers built a new facility designed to be the most
energy efficient building of its kind in Canada. With GE Water’s
system, the facility’s sanitary wastewater is treated on-site, allowing
the water to be reused within the building.
In the aftermath of the tsunami disaster and later Hurricane Katrina,
GE Water donated water treatment systems to the victims of those
calamities. The company also partners with the United Way.
GE Water’s commitment to continually integrate new sustainable practices into its business strategy achieves positive results for both the company and the communities in which it does business.
