The Book
Recommended by the Financial Times…
Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive AdvantageGo beneath the surface of the Green Wave sweeping the business world.
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Issues
Water
Summary
An excerpt from Green to Gold (pages 42-44):
"Water is the essence of life. It’s also a critical input to agriculture and many industrial processes. Companies around the world now face real limits on access to water. A rising population and growing economies are putting substantial stress on resources in drier regions. Even where water is relatively plentiful, water pollution is increasingly a concern. For business, these multiple, complementary factors create both water quality and water quantity challenges...The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment estimates that as many as two billion people live with water scarcity...The problem boils down to simple supply and demand. The Earth is a closed system, so freshwater supply is basically fixed. But rising populations and an increase in irrigated crops continue to drive up water demand."
The Science
Unlike more controversial issues like climate change and biodiversity loss, water shortages or quality problems are hard to debate -- when the well runs dry or people get very sick, the problem is obvious. But also unlike these other big issues, water concerns are local and regional issues; some parts of the world are inherently drier. For some resources on the nature of the problem, we suggest the following sites:
- USGS (US Geological Survey)
- Environmental Protection Agency
- UNESCO, Water Portal
- The World’s Water, (water expert Peter H. Gleick)
- Universities Council on Water Resources
- US Department of Agriculture, Water Quality Information Center
- Environmental Literacy Council Center
- National Defenses Resources Council, Water and Oceans
Business response and resources
The industries that rely directly on water, most specifically agriculture, are all too aware of the threat to their business. Most of the world's largest food firms have initiatives in the realm of "sustainable agriculture," which have water as central elements. Water use concerns also plague businesses such as Coca-Cola which faces pressure about water us in its facilities in India. A few examples:
- Sustainable Agriculture Initiative, founded by Danone, Nestle, and Unilever
- Coca-Cola water initiatives
- Unilever statement on water (PDF: 275k)
- Alcan statement on water (PDF: 1.8MB)
- GE Water, GE sees a business opportunity in trying to "solve the world’s most pressing water reuse, industrial, irrigation, municipal, and drinking water needs."
Industry organizations have banded together in a number of cases to focus on water issues. For example: