Ecolab's Water Recycling Initiatives
NEW YORK – At Axios House during Climate Week and the UN General Assembly, Ecolab chair and CEO Christophe Beck revealed a startling statistic: less than 5% of the water consumed in semiconductor (chip) manufacturing is currently recycled.
Why it matters
Water plays an essential role in chip fabrication. Semiconductor plants — often stretching across a mile or more — require vast amounts of ultrapure water (UPW) to clean and process wafers at every stage of production. Each chip can go through hundreds of rinsing cycles, where even the tiniest impurities can ruin the product. Because of this, the demand for highly purified water is enormous, and the industry’s dependence on freshwater sources is creating both environmental and operational challenges. With water scarcity becoming a pressing global issue, innovations that reduce water usage, increase recycling rates, and improve purity levels are becoming indispensable to the long-term sustainability of the semiconductor industry.
The event and conversations
Axios journalists Amy Harder and Ben Geman hosted a discussion on September 23 featuring Beck alongside Kara Hurst, Amazon’s chief sustainability officer. The session, held as part of Climate Week activities in New York, was sponsored by Salesforce and explored how two of the world’s most influential companies are tackling sustainability in industries with massive environmental footprints — from high-tech manufacturing to global e-commerce and data infrastructure.
What Beck said about water and chipmaking
Beck highlighted the extreme requirements of semiconductor production:
Purity standards: The water used in chip fabrication must be 1,000 times purer than the water used in pharmaceuticals, even stricter than the standards for injectable drugs. Any deviation can compromise the integrity of microchips that power everything from smartphones to medical devices.
Innovation focus: “What we’ve done as a company is to invent technologies where you can reuse water at every step of that process,” Beck explained. Ecolab’s goal is not only to reduce total water withdrawals but also to implement circular water management systems that make the process more sustainable without compromising quality or production speed.
Scaling solutions: He emphasized that solutions for water reuse are now being tested at multiple points in the chipmaking cycle, setting a precedent for how industrial water systems can evolve globally.
Hurst on AI, energy demand, and emissions
The conversation also turned to artificial intelligence (AI) and its dual role in driving both challenges and opportunities for sustainability. Kara Hurst acknowledged the tension: as AI adoption grows, data centers will consume more electricity and water for cooling. However, she argued that the potential of AI to accelerate emissions reductions could ultimately outweigh these concerns.
Emissions reductions: “Right now, people are talking about it as if it won’t happen, and I do think it will happen,” Hurst said. “If we really take the opportunity to think about AI as a tool we can use for good — and apply it across a wide range of sustainability use cases — then its positive impact will surpass the growth in energy demand.”
Practical applications: She pointed to Amazon’s real-world use of AI in packaging and logistics. For example, AI tools have already helped Amazon reduce packaging waste, optimize its “customer fit” clothing size tool to minimize returns, and streamline reverse logistics. “That means less product returned to us, less transportation, less waste, and ultimately a smaller environmental footprint,” she explained. Importantly, these improvements enhance customer experience while simultaneously benefiting the environment.
Mindset shift: Hurst stressed that AI should not just be seen as a consumer-facing technology, but also as a behind-the-scenes enabler of efficiency and emissions reductions.
The bigger sustainability picture
Salesforce executives Sunya Norman (SVP of Impact) and Margaret Taylor (VP and Head of Public Affairs & Strategic Relations) also contributed to the discussion through a View From the Top session. They emphasized that while AI holds immense potential, it also comes with significant environmental requirements.
Sustainable AI imperative: “AI requires energy, water, and natural resources,” Norman noted. “So really, the future of AI is sustainable AI. That’s how we’re going to figure out how to scale AI responsibly.”
A collective challenge: Norman further explained that sustainability in AI cannot be tackled by tech firms alone. It is a full value chain challenge involving data center operators, hardware manufacturers, cloud service providers, and even consumers. The responsibility for creating a sustainable AI ecosystem is distributed across multiple industries and stakeholders.
The takeaway
The discussions underscored two parallel realities:
Semiconductor manufacturing must urgently address its reliance on vast volumes of ultrapure water. Breakthroughs in water recycling technology, like those pioneered by Ecolab, are essential for reducing the industry’s environmental impact.
Artificial intelligence, while increasing energy and water demand, has the potential to drive systemic efficiencies and emissions reductions across industries. Companies like Amazon and Salesforce argue that if deployed thoughtfully, AI could become one of the most powerful sustainability tools of this decade.
As Climate Week highlighted, the future of both chip production and AI hinges not just on technological innovation, but on embedding sustainability into the very core of industrial and digital transformation.