Xylem Watermark: Xylem, Inc.
As a world leader in water technology, Xylem knows how important a cool, fresh, and safe glass of water can be. Xylem Watermark, Xylem’s corporate citizenship and employee engagement program, is dedicated to providing and protecting safe water resources for communities in need around the world and educating people about important water issues.
Launched in 2008 with six global nonprofit partners, this program has provided clean water and sanitation solutions to nearly three million people in 25 countries. In 2016, Xylem began a program to engage its employees in its philanthropic mission, aiming to inspire them to give back in the communities where they work. At the same time, they hoped to recruit and retain top talent, increase awareness of its efforts as a corporate citizen, and strengthen its reputation.
In November 2016, Xylem launched its Month of Service program which allowed employees to participate in water-related activities, and which generated more than 7,000 volunteer hours. In addition to volunteering, Xylem employees selected 18 local organizations to receive $1,000 community grants. Along with six nonprofit partners around the world, employees have built water towers, traveled to India to monitor local water sources, given presentations on water monitoring and taught children about protecting local water sources. The company designed and distributed awards to volunteers for their participation. Simultaneously, Xylem created Waterdrop, a program that alerts customers to the good work the company is doing by tying purchases to donations toward the building of water towers around the world. To sweeten the deal, customers who participate in the Waterdrop program are eligible to win a place as a volunteer on Xylem sponsored tower-building trips.
The results were convincing: 85 percent of employees are familiar with Xylem Watermark. 84 percent are proud to work for the company; 74 percent better understand Xylem Watermark’s commitment to solve water problems; 71 percent are likely to recommend participating in a Watermark activity to a colleague.
In the first years of this program, Xylem exceeded its goal of 20,000 employee volunteer hours; 455 volunteer activities were registered; employees raised $115,535 to support their nonprofit partners (a 69 percent increase over 2015) and nearly 1,000 employees were recognized for contributing five or more volunteer hours in 2016.
