Sustainability In Your Ear Transcript: Culligan CEO Scott Clawson Maps The Path To Clean, Healthy Drinking Water

Mitch Ratcliffe 0:00

Hello, good morning, good afternoon or good evening, wherever you are in this beautiful planet of ours. Welcome to Sustainability In Your Ear. This is the podcast conversation about accelerating the transition to a sustainable, carbon neutral society, and I'm your host, Mitch Ratcliffe. Thanks for joining the conversation. Today, we're going to be talking water. Turn on any faucet in America, and chances are that the water that comes out meets federal safety standards. Yet, we buy 50 billion plastic water bottles, single use water bottles, every year—enough to circle the Earth 200 times, if they were laid end to end.

The convenience is undeniable, but the environmental cost is staggering. Those bottles take 450 years to decompose and even then, leave toxic residues in the soil. And recent research found that a single liter of bottled water can shed up to 240,000 tiny pieces of microplastic that we end up consuming. Our guest today is Scott Clawson, Chairman and CEO of Culligan International, the nearly 90 year old company that's now the global leader in water services. Under Scott's leadership, Culligan serves 170 million people worldwide with cleaner, safer water through everything from home filtration systems to commercial water coolers.

The company says its water solutions have helped avoid the use and disposal of 45 billion single use plastic bottles each year. Culligan has set ambitious sustainability goals, achieving net positive water impacts by 2050 and cutting scopes one and two emissions intensity by 40% before 2035. They've electrified 25% of their vehicle fleet and recently achieved WAVE water stewardship verification from the industry organization, the Water Council. The company also operates major water bottling facilities and has completed over 200 acquisitions since 2017 in a fragmented industry that's moving center stage as the climate crisis continues. Consolidation is going to be an important story in the water world.

You can learn more about Culligan and its services at CulliganInternational.com—Culligan International is all one word, no space, no dash. CulliganInternational.com. We'll dive into the water story right after this quick commercial break.

Mitch Ratcliffe 2:27

Welcome to the show, Scott. How you doing today?

Scott Clawson 2:29

Doing well, great to be with you today.

Mitch Ratcliffe 2:31

Well, thank you for joining me. You know, Culligan—90 years of water filtration services, providing water delivery services. How has the company's mission evolved and changed to set you apart from the rest of the water treatment industry.

Scott Clawson 2:46

The Culligan mission really has always been pretty simple: help people love their water. And that's solving for healthy, safe, clean water, whether it's reducing hardness or getting out contamination. And the company, like you said, it's 90 years old, and dates back to when it was invented by Emmett Culligan, who discovered how to take hardness from water, and then we evolved to also take all types of contaminants out of drinking water. And that's been our story—to really lead the industry in water filtration service and technology. We hold more patents than any other company out there. 170 million people rely on our systems each year for better, cleaner, safe water, and we really help our consumers reduce their reliance on plastic, and that's a huge benefit, because we all know the issues with that. And we do this through local water experts that help people enjoy their water.

Mitch Ratcliffe 3:52

Well, that's really been the key to Culligan's success for many years. I remember the Culligan man from when I was younger. Do you see the water filtration and delivery industry expanding, particularly in terms of its employment footprint, as water scarcity becomes a greater issue?

Scott Clawson 4:10

Yes, absolutely. This is a growing industry, and there'll be more and more people working in it to deliver the services and help it grow. And that's driven really by a couple things. First, the consumer is evolving. Their mindset's evolving. Whereas 20 years ago, people weren't carrying around all these personal water bottles and refilling and so on, there's much more awareness about drinking water and hydrating yourself, such as eight glasses of water per day, right? And people also are more concerned about what's in their water. You know, 37% of global drinking water really is not pure. And there's tons of headlines around contaminants and so on, and even microplastics and forever chemicals showing up in breast milk and newborns and so on. So it's a really concerning thing. And so that's the first thing—consumers are really becoming more aware and really interested in this.

And the second main evolution is water is becoming more local. You know, two homes on the same street may have a different quality of water, and we once were testing water on a street. One family with kids, another grandparents down the road who didn't have kids. One family's water was fine, the other one had elevated levels of lead. So this will cause more service people, more technologists working in this field. I'm not sure—where do you live, Mitch, and how is the water in your area? Do you know?

Mitch Ratcliffe 5:52

I am on a well way up in the Cascade Mountains, so, but I have had a water test. I have a full home filter because we have higher arsenic.

Scott Clawson 6:04

Oh, yeah. That's—I mean, you have to, you have to reduce arsenic because it's really bad for you, as you know.

Mitch Ratcliffe 6:10

It's been an interesting experience for me. I moved into the wilderness-urban interface in order to take care of some land. But there's a river running through the backyard too. And this is interesting to me. The change in my perception of the water cycle is striking. I used to think of the water cycle as turning on the faucet. As you think about how Culligan grows and changes, it almost sounds like you need to be consultative first and foremost, in order to find out what the local water problem is and address it.

Scott Clawson 6:42

Exactly. It really is a local issue where you partake of your water because of the infrastructure out there. You know, this goes back to the Roman aqueducts. Some of the piping and infrastructure is so old by the time it gets to your house, your office, you're not sure what's in it. Or as in your case, you're on a well. And I grew up in a rural area on a well, and I remember my dad doing a ton of work all the time on what's coming out of the well, what filters we had, because there was a lot of contaminants coming out of that and a ton of environmental, you know, impact of chemicals—they're all around us. So that's why we really pride ourselves in having the best technology, but testing water and then providing the solution, whatever it may be in that area.

Mitch Ratcliffe 7:39

Let's talk a little about the impact that you've had. You've apparently avoided the use of 45 billion single use plastic bottles just in the last year. Can you walk through how you calculated that impact, and is there independent verification of that?

Scott Clawson 7:55

Yes, there is, and we calculate that 45 billion bottles avoided by taking a metric that says, let me say you have a Culligan solution in an office. There's an average number of employees that drink an average number of liters of water, and then that avoids up to about 4,398—that is the exact amount—of single use plastic. We just multiply that out for the number of machines we have out there all over the world. So it is independently verified and validated by third party experts.

We share this calculation and tools with our consumers as well. We let them know that if they have one of our water filtration devices, that it is saving on average 2,900 kilometers driven or eight hours flown. And this helps get the consumers more excited about refilling and using filtered water versus plastic, because everyone knows that saving plastic helps the planet, but it helps when the consumer really understands how much it's helping. And these 45 billion is a real number, and it's really been important for us and our consumers to help drive our sustainability program.

Mitch Ratcliffe 9:24

Well, you're hitting on something we've talked with many leaders about, which is the importance of communicating that impact to the consumer who's making the decision that ultimately displaces those water bottles. How are you thinking about innovating in order to make it less convenient to use a single use bottle? And you have to get people thinking about their impact, to recognize how inconvenient it is in the long term. Is that a story you're telling?

Scott Clawson 9:50

It is, and one of the ways we're innovating is to make the solution simpler, more understood, educated around the contaminants that are taken out of the water, so that they can quickly get a reverse osmosis machine or a whole house filtration like you may have, test their water and see the advantage. Another way we're doing this is through highlighting better in public places where people can use refilling stations versus plastic.

Recently, we have a partnership with the United Center here in Chicago, where the Bulls and the Blackhawks and lots of concerts are. And we've replaced all the plastic in the arena. It's now more sustainable with refilling stations all throughout the arena and in the suites, and then use aluminum recyclable bottles that they can then refill. And in the first year, it avoided 600,000 single use plastic bottles. The amount of texts I get from people seeing that and saying thank you for helping us get rid of plastic and all the waste in public places is another way for consumers to get excited about this. It's really important, but you've done some other things too.

Mitch Ratcliffe 11:16

Let's talk about the goals you've set for your reduction in environmental impact. One is that you're trying to achieve net positive water impact by 2050. Can you characterize what net positive water impact means in practice?

Scott Clawson 11:30

Sure, net positive water means that we're giving back more water to the watersheds and communities than we take or use. So last June, we completed this WAVE water stewardship verification with the Water Council, and that really is a certification that we've assessed our water use at our high impact sites. For us, we've focused on 23 of the main sites—that's 80% of our consumption. We've put in place plans to reduce water consumption in those areas, and then plans to donate and provide water to communities and other efforts to help water scarcity.

So last year, in 2024, we donated almost 9 million liters of water to people in need. And that helps—it's a certified way, independently verified that you're working on reducing the water you need in your facilities and so on. That can really help. And I think more companies should do this, whether it's carbon, water or other. They should be evaluating what their net usage is to give back more than they use to this wonderful planet we live on.

Mitch Ratcliffe 12:51

You mentioned the WAVE water stewardship verification. What did that audit reveal about your water usage that surprised you? And did you identify new areas for improvement through the process as well?

Scott Clawson 13:04

It did. One of the main areas that it highlighted for us is that we could do—we test all of our equipment and look, our equipment is used to filter water, right? So you generally test it by running water through. It sounds obvious, right? But then, if you do that, you're using water, right? And then that water is less productive. So what we did is came up with ways to dry test our dispensers so that we're not using and wasting water to test how they are operating before we send them to our consumers. And that's interesting. That's a kind of efficiency I hadn't really thought about—the test itself would be wasteful.

Mitch Ratcliffe 13:54

Exactly. That's why it was one of our main learnings from this assessment. And we probably, you know, would have, might have, you know, skirted over that. But it was very helpful for our teams, and therefore, you know, that helped. And there's a lot of ways that made each of our locations be more aware. Of course, we've taken plastic out of all of our locations and things like that, but it's very helpful to our team, and they're passionate about it.

Mitch Ratcliffe 14:27

The other goals that you've set are in your scope one and two emissions intensity. You want to cut them by about 40% before 2035, and you've got 25% of your fleet electrified. How are you going to get that last 75% off fossil fuels, and what's the timeline for that?

Scott Clawson 14:45

We're going to do that over the next five to 10 years, and a lot of it just depends on each country we're in. We're in over 90 countries. Each of them have some limitations on infrastructure and electric vehicle, you know, charging and so on, but it's a methodical plan to roll that out around the world. And the other thing we're really doing in terms of our goals is making sure that our carbon footprint and scope one and two continues to go down in LED lighting and water usage and so on. That will help really improve our usage in that. Another area is our life cycle assessment tool, which helps consumers understand when they use a water softener or they use a filtration device of ours, how much they're saving in carbon footprint or energy or plastic. And those are key parts of our ESG program.

Mitch Ratcliffe 15:49

You mentioned the infrastructure challenges in some of the countries you're in. Do you see yourself having to build the infrastructure to charge the fleet? Or is that something you think countries are on track to deliver?

Scott Clawson 16:02

I can't speak to every country, but most countries are making progress in this area, Mitch. Not all, but most are making progress in this area. You get the bigger issue in some countries is where there's big fleets, and do they have the ability to recharge those well? But I see this as a positive momentum moving ahead.

Mitch Ratcliffe 16:18

There's a lot of good news here. I want to dig into it further, but we're going to take a quick commercial break. Folks, stay tuned. We'll be right back.

Mitch Ratcliffe 16:34

Welcome back to Sustainability In Your Ear. Now, let's return to the conversation with Scott Clawson. He's CEO of water services leader, Culligan, which provides water to more than 170 million people globally. Scott, how does Culligan encourage and develop a culture of sustainability inside your organization? Do you adopt ideas that internal teams are coming up with, or do you deploy ideas that they have to implement?

Scott Clawson 16:58

As a water service company, sustainability and the passion for healthy, safe water is really in every aspect of our business. It's what we do, what we offer. So we attract people who generally really love this passion to improve water quality and improve the environment. And we actively have teams around the world that are active in ESG—an employee-led group. We call them ESG champions.

Our Community Impact Fund spurs local action to improve operations and communities all over the world. So as an example, recently in Plastic Free July, which is a worldwide initiative, 40 of our business units with people on our teams went out to help clean up plastic at the beach, at the parks and the environment. And I think the number was over 42,000 kilograms was brought in. So that really gets everyone active in this effort. And it's great to see.

Mitch Ratcliffe 18:12

Do you have incentives in place for leadership and for members of the team who achieve goals that are related to ESG?

Scott Clawson 18:19

We have it as part of—everyone in key leadership positions—of their performance management. Our ESG targets are driven down as part of their performance and how they're leading the business.

Mitch Ratcliffe 18:33

You've already mentioned the fact that we're going to see less water available in many places. Is there an emerging movement in towns and cities that you're talking with about providing clean water through refill stations, public refill stations? You mentioned the United Center. But is that something that communities generally are coming to Culligan with?

Scott Clawson 18:51

We work with communities around refill stations all over the world, and it is an emerging positive momentum. And each government and community may handle it a little differently, but the consumer is really driving this, Mitch, in terms of—like my daughter, who happens to be in the university, 24 years old—she will only use a refillable. And anybody that goes and buys plastic around them, she looks at them like, "What are you doing?" So the need for having more refill stations in public places and offices and gyms is out there, and I see that adoption increasing through time, and we have all the solutions for that. But what's more important is that the consumers are driving this, and communities need to provide them that access.

Mitch Ratcliffe 19:46

Are there regions in which you think that retaining access to water for Culligan's business is at risk, and I'm wondering if that's an ongoing business challenge in the future?

Scott Clawson 19:58

There is water stress in the world. It's a growing reality. That's why our mission is so important. And Culligan participates in some global initiatives, like the United Nations CEO Water Mandate, where they have a water resilience coalition. And this is to help protect those scarce water resources. There are 100 targeted water basins around the world where water scarcity is a real issue. One of those is in California, for example. And together, CEOs come together with governments and communities to work on ways that they can improve water scarcity in those areas. And innovation and technology development will help this as well.

Mitch Ratcliffe 20:48

What do you project in terms of the price of water changing over the course of the next decade or two as we head into this climate crisis? You know, Michael Burry, one of the "Big Short" investors who made the big money, has gone all in on water, in expectation of the price changing. What's your projection?

Scott Clawson 21:07

It's hard for me to comment on exactly where the price of water will go at the municipal levels around the world. However, I can comment on everything about water and its scarcity—the consumer's attitude toward it is changing to be more important, and the cost of providing water generally are going up. Why is that? Labor cost, transportation cost, our infrastructures are so old, right?

There's an estimate that it's over 600 billion just to get the infrastructure for water in the US up to par, and probably many other estimates above that. So this is an important issue for our planet going forward and for consumers. And where we've tried to focus is if you can give the consumer safe water at the point of use and work on safe, healthy, free of contaminated water there, it's a lower cost way of doing it than trying to do it across all the water usage, because, as you know, most of the water you use you don't drink or put in your body, right?

Mitch Ratcliffe 22:26

One of the areas that I think consumers are really tuned into is microplastics, but PFAS, the "forever chemicals," are increasingly a recognized issue in a lot of different water supplies. How's Culligan innovating in filtration to focus on that problem?

Scott Clawson 22:46

Innovation is core to everything we do, and with our huge R&D team, we are really innovating around taking out PFAS in the water we drink, and that takes a higher level of filtration, right? Then someone may have if they just have a whole home filter. Our teams really work to stay ahead of that and meet not only the regulations, but more. Testing is the first step for consumers, because they need to know what's in their water, and then deliver a certified solution, certified by either NSF or ANSI or others, so that you know it's taking out PFAS, because these forever chemicals are everywhere. Our solutions are certified to take out over 99.9% of them. But you really have to put the right solution in to do that.

Mitch Ratcliffe 23:44

Are there other emerging technologies, like using condensation systems to extract water from the atmosphere that are intriguing? What's Culligan looking into? What's the future of water?

Scott Clawson 23:54

Well, I am fascinated by the emerging tech in our industry, and it gives me a lot of confidence that we will continue to stay ahead of the issues presented in the world with contamination. One of those is, as you mentioned, this condensation using hydro panels. And as an example, we are doing this in Australia, where you use hydro panels for electricity, to chill and filter water at very remote places in Australia—schools and small communities—where you don't have access to energy. That's a really good way to do it.

Nano filtration is increasing all the time—that's using smaller filtration at point of impact, that's less expensive. All of these new ideas are balanced with scalability, cost and environmental impact. So it's exciting where the industry's going. It will continue to grow. There'll be more technology invested in it, which is a great thing.

Mitch Ratcliffe 25:03

You're following on the comment you made about the infrastructure needing a massive upgrade. It sounds like what you're describing is not a centralized infrastructure, but an increasingly distributed infrastructure for water production and filtration, like the Internet has pushed everything to the edge of the network. Do you see water systems being installed all over, like in remote Australian communities, as really the right way for us to think about solving some of these problems?

Scott Clawson 25:34

It's one of the best ways to solve it in particular situations where construction projects and municipalities are difficult to reach—developing areas, right? So we have seen and worked on projects where you can take pretty normal, dirty water from a river or a borehole and with smaller containerized systems, you can filter that and provide healthy water to communities where they could be not having it, or people are walking, you know, miles a day to refill big plastic containers of water that's not even filtered.

So those are examples where we can really make a difference in the world and help communities. And then right here in developed countries, just that point about water is local—fix it closest to where you drink it is usually less expensive and more safe than trying to fix it as it goes through pipes and everything else of infrastructure in the world that's been, you know, centuries old, right? We do take our time upgrading. That's certainly the case.

Mitch Ratcliffe 26:55

You've been very vocal about the role that CEOs play in awareness about water and the climate in general. You're involved with Climate Week at the United Nations, for instance. What role do you think CEOs should be playing, particularly in this vexing political environment that we live in right now?

Scott Clawson 27:15

In this campaign, I believe that CEOs have the responsibility to join initiatives that really focus on broad industry solutions, collaborate and not just do what's right for business, but do what's right for our planet and all those who live on the planet, right? And if you just take some of the issues the planet has, we can make a difference if every business CEO put more time into being engaged to shape the future of sustainability, whether that's water stewardship, like I'm very involved in, or it's carbon footprint, or whatever it may be. Driving better business practices that are sustainable will pay off a lot better anyway, because consumers want that, right? So I'm fully engaged in this, in my role.

This came hit home for me, Mitch, when I was on vacation with my family. This was about 10 years ago, and we were in the Bahamas. It was an outer island, so we'd rented this place with other families—no resorts, no nothing on the beach. It was a really long barrier island. And when we went out to the beach the first day, no one's setting up chairs or things like that. There was plastic all over the place—plastic bottles, other stuff. And I'm like, this stuff is coming from all over, right? You've heard of the plastic island in the ocean. And that's when my inner balance was sparked to make sure we do more than just use our planet to make money, but let's use our planet to help it be a better place to live.

Mitch Ratcliffe 29:17

Well, and I think you're hitting on a role that CEOs increasingly seem to be playing, because people vote with their wallet for different initiatives, and to a degree, you represent a group of people who want filtration and clean water, wherever they might be. We're on the verge of changing everything and the way we do everything. What's your vision for a clean, easily accessible water supply for not just America, but for the entire world?

Scott Clawson 29:36

It's that consumers are educated and the technology exists where they can then have the confidence that the water they're putting in their bodies is healthy and safe and not contaminated. And we have a long way to go on this when 37% of the people in the world don't have water free from contamination, but yet, we have plenty of technology and opportunity to improve this.

So my vision would be that the technology and investments in it continue to advance, education of consumers get better and better, and then we have more cost effective ways without wasting water for primarily drinking water that's used. And then that the businesses and governments work together to reuse water better for water that doesn't go in our body, right? Because most of the water used is not being put in our bodies, right? Although that's super important. And my vision would be those things come together so that in the next 20 years, we don't have 37% of the planet not having safe drinking water. That goes way down, and the cost of it, whether you're on a well like you are, or in the middle of the city, it's more simple, cost effective to do that at the point of use, wherever you are, whether you're at home, in an airport or at the office.

Mitch Ratcliffe 31:16

I hope that we see that happen. Scott, how can our listeners follow your work and find out more about Culligan services?

Scott Clawson 31:24

They can visit Culligan.com for our solutions and services and resources. They can follow Culligan International on LinkedIn and hey Culligan on other social channels for updates as well. They can check out our annual report, our ESG report on CulliganInternational.com, and this is a really excellent report that is very transparent on the progress we're making on our ESG goals.

Mitch Ratcliffe 31:52

Well, Scott, thank you very much for your time and all the insights you shared. It's been fascinating.

Scott Clawson 31:56

Thank you.

Mitch Ratcliffe 32:03

Welcome back to Sustainability In Your Ear. You've been listening to my conversation with Scott Clawson, CEO of the water services giant, Culligan International. You can learn more about the company, its water services and sustainability goals at CulliganInternational.com—that's all one word, no space, no dash. CulliganInternational.com.

Mitch Ratcliffe 32:23

Investment in US public infrastructure has increased in real dollar terms over the past 50 years. In other words, inflation means we're spending more money, but it has actually declined as a share of gross domestic product. According to 2025 research from the Brookings Institution and recent cuts by the Trump administration, point to continued shortfalls in public investment that would make our drinking water—and well, everything else that we depend on for a healthy life and efficient economy—less valuable, less reliable and less advanced.

Compounding the problem of that aging infrastructure, about one-third of the nation's water and wastewater workforce will be eligible to retire in the next 10 years, with employment in the sector falling by 6% by 2032 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics projections. Scott pointed to the need for more than $600 billion in public investment to bring the nation's water infrastructure up to date, and that investment needs to be a blend of public and private money, not just private investment. If we were to reallocate the $5 trillion in tax cuts granted to the top tier of earners to infrastructure improvement, the United States would be prepared for economic and climate challenges we're going to face during the remainder of the 21st century.

As Scott said, each of us needs to educate ourselves, especially about where our water comes from, how it is cleaned and delivered, as well as what impurities it contains. Were we to do that, a different water policy debate would emerge, and perhaps, instead of turning backward to the so-called common sense of the 1950s, we could begin an economic renaissance that delivers a world-leading infrastructure on which private companies like Culligan could build and extend their innovation. In the meantime, take the time to test your water, read your local water utility's annual Drinking Water Quality Report, and write letters to your representatives asking for a wide-ranging policy debate about our nation's water supply in an era of rising temperatures and growing water scarcity.

These small steps will make a big difference, and I hope you'll take a look at any of the more than 500 episodes of Sustainability In Your Ear that we've produced and share them with your community. Writing a review on your favorite podcast platform will help your neighbors find us. Folks, you're the amplifier who can spread more ideas to create less waste. So please tell your friends, family and co-workers, they can find Sustainability In Your Ear on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Audible, or whatever purveyor of podcast goodness they prefer. Thank you for your support.

I'm Mitch Ratcliffe. This is Sustainability In Your Ear, and we'll be back with another innovator interview soon. In the meantime, folks, take care of yourself. Take care of one another, and let's all take care of this beautiful planet of ours. Have a green day.