As utilities around the world confront rising climate pressures, aging infrastructure, workforce challenges, and growing expectations around sustainability, the water sector is searching for practical ways to turn ambition into action. At WEFTEC 2026, WEF and Xylem are bringing that conversation to life through a year-round sustainability partnership that combines thought leadership, community impact, and measurable action.
As WEF’s Global Sustainability Partner, Xylem is helping elevate conversations around decarbonization, water stewardship, resilience, and access to water, sanitation, and hygiene while spotlighting the innovations, partnerships, and operational strategies shaping a more resilient and water-secure future. One tangible example is the Bring Your Own Bottle Challenge, which reaches its largest stage of the year at WEFTEC 2026 in New Orleans.
Building on years of collaboration with Fill it Forward, the initiative turns attendee action into environmental and social impact.
Before the exhibit hall opens, we’re inviting you to a conversation about what’s driving this work and a few easy ways you can be part of it.
Bring Your Own Bottle Challenge
More than a conference activation, the Bring Your Own Bottle Challenge demonstrates how small actions can scale into measurable environmental impact.
Over the past year, WEF has partnered with Xylem to launch the Bring Your Own Bottle Challenge at WEF events like the Residuals, Biosolids, and Treatment Technology Conference in Oklahoma City, and the Collection Systems and Stormwater Conference in Portland, Oregon, where attendees were encouraged to trade single-use plastic bottles for something reusable and to scan in at water refill stations to track our impact.
“This challenge, and WEF’s broader efforts to drive sustainability and resilience across the water sector, align with Xylem’s own mission,” said Emma Miller, senior director, Sustainability & Social Impact. “Building a more water-secure world starts with practical actions we can take together.”
At WEFTEC 2026, that challenge reaches its biggest stage of the year.
Here’s how to take part:
- Bring a reusable water bottle to WEFTEC.
- Pick up a Fill it Forward sticker at registration or at the Giving Kiosks located in the Exhibit Hall.
- Scan the QR code each time you refill at water stations across the convention center and exhibition floor.
Every scan supports the Water First project, a 15-month paid internship where participants gain expertise in water treatment and environmental monitoring, fostering local capacity and long-term solutions. It’s a small habit that adds up to something the whole sector can stand behind: less single-use plastic, and a measurable contribution to communities that need it most.
Sustainability Runs Deep
The Bring Your Own Bottle Challenge is one piece of a much broader push. Heading into WEFTEC 2026, WEF is:
- Building on Platinum certification. WEFTEC 2025 earned Platinum certification from the Events Industry Council (EIC) — the highest recognition for sustainable event practices — and we’re carrying that standard into 2026.
- Rethinking procurement. We’re replacing plastic bottles with aluminum and working to make all takeaway packaging recyclable or compostable.
- Offsetting our water footprint. 100 percent of WEFTEC’s water usage at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center is offset through Water Restoration Credits purchased from the Bonneville Environmental Foundation.
- Offsetting travel emissions. Attendees can voluntarily offset travel-related greenhouse gas emissions through a partnership with the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District, supporting a verified watershed project in Wisconsin.
- Giving back locally. The WEF Community Service Project, organized by the WEF Students and Young Professionals committee, brings volunteers together to support water, sanitation, and environmental restoration work in the WEFTEC host city, New Orleans.
Small choices attendees make on-site also add up to big impact. For instance, skip the car in favor of taking the WEFTEC shuttle or public transit, go digital using the WEFTEC app, opt into hotel towel and linen reuse programs, power down when you leave your room, and recycle right.
This conversation extends beyond WEFTEC. The September issue of WE&T examines how leading organizations are embedding sustainability into operations at scale across the water sector through decarbonization, corporate water stewardship, and expanding global WASH access — with global case studies from Ontario to East Africa. It’s a great technical companion to what’s happening on the ground at WEFTEC 2026.
Join the Pre-WEFTEC Webinar
Want to hear it discussed live? WEF and Xylem are co-hosting a webinar ahead of WEFTEC:
Advancing Sustainability and Resilience in the Water Sector
📅 September 10, 2026 | 🕓 45 minutes
Join WEF and Xylem for a webinar exploring how water sector leaders are advancing sustainability, resilience, innovation, and workforce development across utilities and communities.
This moderated discussion will examine why sustainability matters now, what it means to be a sustainable utility, and how organizations are putting strategies into action through decarbonization, water stewardship, capacity building, and resilient infrastructure. The conversation will center on what sustainability and resilience look like for utilities right now, and what it takes to build the workforce and capacity to keep advancing it.
Panelists will also touch on WEFTEC with a preview of this year’s sustainability programming, including how to get involved in the Bring Your Own Bottle Challenge and other on-site opportunities.
Webcast registrants will be automatically entered to win two tickets to Jammin’4Water, WEFTEC’s beloved benefit concert that will take place at Generations Hall in New Orleans on Saturday, September 26, ahead of WEFTEC. Every ticket sponsorship dollar supports global water, sanitation, and hygiene charities alongside the WEF Community Service Project.
Bring Your Bottle. Bring Your Questions. Bring Your Colleagues.
Whether it’s scanning a Fill it Forward QR code at a refill station or tuning into the webinar to hear how Xylem and WEF are advancing sustainability across the water sector, WEFTEC 2026 is shaping up to be a chance to turn small, individual actions into collective impact. We’ll see you in New Orleans!