Reuters x Ecolab
An interactive microsite for promoting water sustainability in industry.
- Role: Designer & Developer (Lead) — Editorial Design, Data Visualization, Motion Design
- Team: 1 Designer/Developer (Lead) — 1 Designer, 1 Creative Director/3D Animator
- Client: Reuters Plus (Content Partner) Ecolab (Client)
Overview
We partnered with the Reuters Plus team, who wrote the content for Ecolab's [Water for Climate™](https://plus.reuters.com/ecolab-water-for-climate/p/1) campaign, to determine the design direction and create the media assets, interactive microsite, and PDF for their [Better Water, Better Business](https://plus.reuters.com/ecolab-higher-profits-through-better-water-management/p/1) pitch.
I both designed and built the main microsite, for desktop and mobile.
The [Water for Climate™](https://plus.reuters.com/ecolab-water-for-climate/p/1) campaign has gone on to drive measurable results for Ecolab's customers:
- 245B — gallons of water conserved by Water for Climate customers in 2025
- 4.7M — metric tons of emissions those customers avoided that year
- Top 4% — of companies on CDP's 2025 water and climate A-List
Context: Water is a business asset, and most companies are managing it as an afterthought.
Ecolab came to Reuters Plus and Ronik to help pitch their Water for Climate™ campaign to customers, using visual assets and data to show both the need for and the benefits of better water sustainability in business.
The campaign's argument is that water conservation and profitability aren't a trade-off. Mitigating supply chain water risk costs nearly three times less than absorbing its impact, and smarter water management cuts energy use, emissions, and operating costs at the same time.
The microsite makes that case with industry-level data, then shows how the Water for Climate™ program delivers on it: reviewing a company's water and climate targets, auditing sites to find the opportunities, implementing industry-specific solutions, and measuring the outcomes.
The Challenge: How do you promote a campaign when customers first need to be convinced that water sustainability will help their bottom line?
Main Challenge
Why this pitch was hard to land
Static assets weren't holding attention
Pitch decks and flyers had carried the campaign so far, and they weren't compelling enough to hold the audience — particularly for something meant to be read and shared digitally.
Self-promotion is a hard sell
It's difficult to pitch your own water sustainability program without sounding like marketing. Publishing through Reuters Plus let Ecolab make the case backed by third-party statistics under a trusted masthead, rather than asserting it themselves.
Sustainability competes with profitability
Businesses lead with the bottom line, and sustainability tends to become an afterthought. The piece had to argue that the two move together, not against each other — which is why the metrics couldn't be softened to make the story flow.
Solution: A data-backed pitch from the Reuters Plus team, delivered as an interactive microsite.
Our Solution
- A trusted messenger — publishing through Reuters Plus put the argument behind a reputable masthead instead of Ecolab asserting it alone
- Third-party data — the case is built on cited industry statistics, not marketing claims
- An interactive microsite — visuals, animations, and toggles that keep readers moving through the metrics
- Easy to share — a link anyone can send, plus a PDF version for when a document suits better
Story structure: The story moves through five sections, building from risk to opportunity to action.
The hero is literal: one large water drop falling in front of smaller ones, so an abstract resource lands as something physical before a single statistic appears.
- Intro — establishes how essential water is to industry, and how rising demand puts operations and value chains at substantial risk
- A Ripple Effect — cites how much water industry uses and wastes, making the optimization opportunity concrete per industry
- Thirsting for Change — shows that optimizing water usage boosts profitability, growth, and competitive standing with stakeholders, not just environmental performance
- Profits and Water Stewardship — explains how Ecolab's services improve profitability and water sustainability together
- Jump In Today — closes on the slogan “Water will shape the future of business,” with Find Out More and Download PDF calls to action
Presenting the data: Keeping viewers engaged with animations and interactions when presenting the data.
Pie charts and bar graphs animate in on load, and interactive toggles let readers switch between data views — so the statistics arrive a piece at a time instead of all at once.
The microsite was built in Ceros, with the more complex animations produced in Adobe After Effects.
Figures: A bar graph animating in: industrial use as a share of global water withdrawals, and how much of it is recycled. · Toggling between bar graphs showing industries whose direct operations depend on a reliable supply vs. industries who report water scarcity as a significant risk. · Scrolling through several sections, each loading in its statistics and bar graphs.
Mobile: Built for both desktop and mobile.
The designs translate elegantly and consistently across both, so the story reads the same whether it's opened on a laptop in a meeting or on a phone between them.
It was also built with browser compatibility and loading speed in mind — a pitch that stalls on load is a pitch nobody finishes.
Figures: The opening section on desktop and mobile. · A Ripple Effect on desktop and mobile — the side-by-side data blocks restack into a single column. · Thirsting for Change on desktop and mobile — the three-across stat row becomes a stacked list. · Scrolling the microsite on mobile.
Campaign assets: Other visual assets created for the campaign.
Beyond the microsite and its PDF version, we produced additional design assets for Ecolab, including graphics, 3D rendered artwork, and animations.
Figures: Other visual assets created for the campaign. · 3D rendered visual assets produced for the campaign, made with Cinema 4D. · Water droplet renders, including the artwork behind the microsite's hero animation.
Figures: The published microsite on desktop.
Final Designs: Final Design Gallery
Figures: The full walkthrough on desktop. · The full walkthrough on mobile.
BTS: Behind the Scenes
These designs were made in Sketch, then the microsite was built out in Ceros. More complex animations were done in Adobe After Effects, and the 3D renders in Cinema 4D.
Figures: The desktop microsite under construction in Ceros. · The mobile version, under construction in Ceros.
Retrospective
The microsite was published by Reuters Plus in November 2024 as part of Ecolab's Water for Climate™ campaign. It remains the primary pitch deck to share with Water for Climate™ customers and is easily viewable on desktop or mobile. The campaign saw amazing results, including 245 billion gallons of water conserved by Water for Climate customers in 2025.
Lessons learned
Dealing with unsure clients 🤔
The client came in without a visual direction or finalized copy. The creative freedom sounded good, but it made finding a starting point harder — so we put rough visuals and layouts in front of them early and designed from their reactions instead of waiting on a brief.
Balancing visuals with conciseness ⚖️
We carried two directions most of the way: a shorter, data-dense one and a longer, visual-led one. The final design merged them, delivering the persuasive statistics with enough imagery and motion to keep readers moving through the page.