Emerson Electric

Emerson Electric Co. is an industrial technology manufacturing firm in the United States. It offers automation, measurement, control, software, and engineering solutions to manufacturing and other process sectors.

Its global operations include manufacturing and service centers, laboratories, and offices; a large percentage of its processes involve cooling, machining, testing, cleaning, and wastewater treatment. While the volume and economic significance of water use is minimal, it is part of the organization's resilience and environmental footprint.

Emerson's most notable water achievement was its adoption of closed-loop cooling in manufacturing processes to replace single-pass water use. The company studied how it used water and developed reuse models to guide five projects, including wastewater reuse in a Sensors plant in Beijing to supply a closed-loop electrical discharge machining system. The result was a 99% reduction in freshwater use and annual savings of around 354,000 gallons (1.34 megaliters), while maintaining system reliability.

A similar design was implemented at a second Emerson site in Japan to replace tap-water cooling at a high-volume welding station with a closed-loop cooling medium and electric chiller. This cut the station's water use by nearly 100%. The design was rolled out to other welding stations at the site while minimizing changes to the process, and guided the design of the company's new plant in Saudi Arabia, which now includes a graywater treatment system to meet most of its freshwater needs. In addition, leak detection was reinforced, the plant underwent plumbing upgrades, and an upgrade of stormwater management, combined with employee training and water-data analysis, reduced water consumption by 12% from the 2022 baseline.