Commercial Restroom Reflections: Celebrating Sustainability

This Earth Month is a reminder of the importance of sustainable practices in our everyday lives. At Sloan, sustainability is at the core of everything we do, from water conservation and material transparency to carbon neutral initiatives.

We sat down with Paul Sambanis, Sloan Vice President of Sustainability, to discuss Sloan’s current sustainability efforts as well as what it’s doing internally to become an even more sustainable organization.

What have been Sloan’s sustainability priorities so far in 2025?
Sloan has been a sustainability leader since its founding in 1906. And as we have evolved, we’ve transitioned to the next level of our maturity in terms of sustainability. Our first step in that evolution was  setting realistic targets based on our stakeholders and company values, which was completed in October 2023 with the release of our first Environmental Social Governance, or ESG, report. It was important everyone understands our ambitions and how we engage and work with our stakeholders, as well as how we measure up against the competition. 

Now that we understand all this, we have begun taking the next steps towards implementing the global framework laid out in the ESG by developing annual and breakthrough objectives for sustainability-specific targets by each department. 

This will allow us to cascade our ESG targets to internal key performance indicators. We are already seeing promising results from our engineering department, which serves as a beacon of hope and innovation for our future sustainability efforts. I'm working to expand our sustainability committees to continue to work together toward department-specific sustainability targets. 

As a follow-up, what are some of the future sustainability benefits you hope to see as a result of these efforts?
The first initiative centers around material transparency and compliance. We’re working on improving how we provide a transparent account of the materials and substances contained within our products to assess and go beyond voluntary and regulatory standards.. 

The second pertains to chemical use restriction and risk mitigation. We are establishing engineering guidelines to phase out or restrict hazardous substances while focusing on NSF372/61 drinking water compliance and the Living Building Challenge Red List. This involves developing standards for design to reduce the use of restricted substances during new product development projects and reducing environmental impact of our product lifecycles. Sloan’s 3000-gallon patent-pending filter reduces PFAS (PFOA and PFOS), lead, microplastics, cysts, Class 1 particulates, chlorine and other contaminants. It complies NSF-42,53, and 401 standards.

Lastly, we are undergoing a baseline assessment and transition plan, where we conduct an initial evaluation of current “red list” material usage and develop a phased roadmap for adopting safer alternatives in alignment with industry best practices for health and environmental impact. This involves reviewing the new product pipeline against the “red-list” to minimize or eliminate their usage and provide a report by end of year.

How important was it for Sloan to complete WAVE program reverification this year?
Water is part of Sloan’s identity. So, when we talk about water, we need to be thought leaders, because we have always been regarded as a trusted advisor on the front lines of these efforts for 119 years. This is not just a goal, but a commitment.

Sloan was one of the founding members of the WAVE program. We understand the difficulties of trying to develop a water stewardship plan without a formalized process, and that's where WAVE comes in. In terms of reverification in March, it enables us to help other enterprises on their own journeys and allows us to make drastic improvements which will be recognized by CDP, which has three themes—water security, climate change, and biodiversity. 

Another aspect of our Horizon II efforts is aligned with global frameworks, and one of those themes is water security. Companies are given a letter grade, A being the best and F being the worst. We continue to be recognized for managing our environmental impacts positively. A portion of that is thanks to the WAVE program we established, which we are now maintaining and reverifying to ensure our water management is best in class at a global level.

What elements of the reverification process are still underway?
We have completed our reverification process, yet the actions are always ongoing. One action that I am particularly proud of is participating in activities with local stakeholders to preserve and improve water quality in the watersheds we operate. Our work with the Council of the Great Lakes Region and the Water Council’s Great Lakes Water Innovation and Stewardship Exchange (WISE) is a peer-to-peer network of companies and organizations with a common goal of accelerating corporate water stewardship and actioning projects that address water challenges and opportunities in the region where both our headquarters, Chicago showroom, and Flushmate facilities are located.

Earlier this month, we contributed to and helped publish a Regional Gap Analysis report for water stewardship and watershed protection as part of our work with WISE, which will be used as an informative document for WISE in our planning for future projects and research. This is just one example of the many works that we do that benefit not only our organization but also the people in this area.

As we celebrate Earth Month this April, does Sloan have any internal sustainability-focused initiatives?
Sloan is focused this and every month on circularity at its Franklin Park, Ill., headquarters, as our building is entirely plastic-free. We launched our DropSpot™ Bottle Fillers last year, and we’ve installed them throughout the building to promote water conservation and improve recycling efforts.

This is just the latest example of our sustainability initiatives. Recently, we were able to move our Andover, Mass., facility to zero waste to landfill, and we’ve now turned our attention to our facility in Mesa, Ariz., where we aim to do the same by year-end and will contribute to our reduction in Scope 3 emissions. 

We’ve also installed new air compressors in our Arkansas Foundry that are more efficient. At Franklin Park, we expanded our parking lot and have now doubled our amount of electric vehicle charging stations. I think Earth Month and Earth Day are great opportunities to set a precedent for the rest of the year.

What other sustainability initiatives do you have planned for the remainder of the year?
We are revamping our carbon neutral program and making improvements on our website to showcase our sustainability initiatives. We will continue to focus on collecting Scope 3 data, so when we complete our next sustainability report, we will be able to provide transparency to our entire supply chain  and show the full lifecycle impacts of our products. Finally, we’re working to improve our governance and culture to further strengthen our company and make an impact in the communities we serve. 

How has Sloan’s downtown Chicago showroom helped to drive sustainable conversations?
The showroom has been a great space to host conferences, as we’ve already hosted a couple of Illinois Green Alliance events, as well as events with local universities like Northwestern. The showroom is both LEED and WELL certified, so not only does it provide a space where we can gather to discuss sustainability initiatives, but it demonstrates what we can do from a sustainability perspective as well.