Global water technology company, Xylem, and Manchester City Football Club manager, Pep Guardiola, today announced they are joining forces to promote public engagement on the world’s water challenges. The partners will campaign for awareness and education, and will support community initiatives through The Guardiola Sala Foundation. Together, they aim to reach hundreds of millions of people, and to motivate young people to address water challenges in their own communities.
Guardiola established his philanthropic foundation earlier in 2021. This new alliance builds on Xylem’s existing partnership with Manchester City Football Club and City Football Group.
“Our work with Manchester City has already reached over a billion people to raise awareness about pressing water challenges around the world,” said Joseph Vesey, Xylem’s Chief Marketing Officer. “Now, working with a legendary leader like Pep, we aim to unite the public, students, community leaders and NGOs, to take action to solve the water challenges in their communities.”
“Where I’m from, in Catalonia, drought is always a risk,” said Guardiola. “The issue of community access to affordable water is very important to me personally. Our Foundation’s first activities, this summer, were working with children in Barcelona to help educate them on the importance of preserving water, and I’m so pleased to be partnering with a water leader like Xylem to help address water issues in communities everywhere.”
The first Xylem campaign to feature Pep Guardiola will be the upcoming “Water Heroes FC,” in which Guardiola encourages people everywhere to take action and solve water challenges in their “extra time.” In July, Guardiola joined Xylem and EarthEcho International in the first in a series of water education events, at Casal dels Infants, in Barcelona, to encourage students to realize a more sustainable future for Spain’s water resources. Spain’s water resources are predicted to decline by up to 40% by the end of the century.
Xylem’s mission – to solve the world’s greatest water challenges – motivated its purpose-driven partnership with the team Guardiola coaches, Premier League Champions Manchester City Football Club. Since 2018, the partnership has produced award-winning content with over 35 million views, and built a network of over 500 young water ambassadors that have delivered life-saving water education to over 20,000 individuals.
