Ecolab CEO Christophe Beck doesn't like to call the seemingly endless slew of weather calamities this summer—wildfires in Canada, 120-degree temperatures in Italy, and a tropical storm slamming Los Angeles—an opportunity. But he does concede that these events have added urgency to efforts to contain climate change and are keeping the heat (no pun intended) on his big corporate clients to improve their sustainability records. "It is making climate change more real for people," the Swiss-born CEO says.
The company, which began in 1923 in St. Paul, Minn., as Economics Laboratory, has a client roster chock full of Fortune 500 companies, such as Coca-Cola, Walmart, Dow, McDonald's, PepsiCo, and Microsoft. Ecolab, a $14 billion-a-year company, provides industrial cleaners, wastewater treatment, and cooling water treatment products.
