2Sustain

Water concerns are becoming more and more globally integrated and complex, and many corporations are now seeking out cooperative partnerships to help mitigate the increasing threat of water risks.

Here’s an example: Just last week, The Coca-Cola Company and The Nature Conservancy announced the release of a water footprint report, entitled Product Water Footprint Assessments: Practical Application in Corporate Water Stewardship. Released in conjunction with World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden, this report details three pilot studies that were conducted on Coca-Cola products and ingredients.

Water footprint assessments like this one provide valuable insights into water use throughout the supply chain, including both direct and indirect water use and the impacts of use on local watersheds and communities. Those insights can then open new opportunities for companies to enhance their water stewardship, while mitigating the risks associated with water scarcity.

For instance, in this particular study, Coca-Cola and the Conservancy found that the largest portion of the product water footprints assessed in the pilot studies comes from the field –not the factory.

“We see significant opportunity to engage more directly with our agricultural suppliers to advance sustainable water use for the cultivation of ingredients in our supply chain,” Denise Knight, Water and Sustainable Agriculture Director, The Coca-Cola Company, said in a press release. “Our initial efforts will focus on the sustainable sourcing of sugarcane, oranges and corn.”

Water footprints typically identify three types of water: (more…)

Forming a partnership that illustrates the current trend towards non-profit/for-profit sustainability alliances, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has teamed up with The Coca-Cola Company to improve the water quality of the Yangtze River in China.

In many ways, the Yangtze has taken the brunt of China’s colossal economic growth, and even though the river provides China with 35 percent of its fresh water, it now ranks number one on WWF’s list of the ten most-threatened rivers in the world. For Coca-Cola, which operates 39 bottling plants in China, the partnership with WWF represents an opportunity to strengthen its commitment to water stewardship while mitigating its water risks.

A recent post at Knowledge@Wharton explains how non-profit/for-profit partnerships such as this one can be mutually beneficial: (more…)

Yesterday, I wrote about Unilever’s new goals regarding sustainable packaging.  Today, MillerCoors is making headlines with its newly released 2010 Sustainable Development report, which reveals several significant corporate sustainability achievements over the past year.

For instance, looking specifically at environmental stewardship in 2009, MillerCoors: (more…)

Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) recently consolidated three facilities in the Northwest (Tualatin, The Dalles and Woodland, Washington) into a single plant in Wilsonville, Oregon, and the company says this move has helped it maximize efficiencies in its supply chain while minimizing its environmental footprint overall.

How? The company points out that by creating additional storage space for Coca-Cola products in Wilsonville, it can ship Dasani water directly from the bottling facility instead of having it bottled, shipped to other facilities for storage and then shipped to retailers. According to CCE, reconfiguring this part of the production cycle will save an average of 112 truckloads and 79,000 truck miles every year. (more…)

A new report from Lloyd’s and WWF offers a straightforward directive that I believe can no longer be ignored:

Businesses around the world must act now if they are to fend off the threat of a growing water shortage.

After all, all goods require water at some point in their production –but water is a finite resource. According to the report, Global Water Scarcity: Risks and challenges for business,  only 3 percent of water in the world is fresh water, and only 1 percent is readily usable to humans. What’s more, this limited supply is threatened by the increased demand for food and water resulting from population growth,  climate change and higher per capita water requirements resulting from increased living standards.

Unfortunately, though, as I have pointed out before, even companies in water-intensive industries are still struggling with weak management and disclosure of water-related risks and opportunities.

“Water scarcity is already a reality for some businesses and as this trend increases all risk managers will need to consider their organization’s exposure,” says Lloyd’s CEO, Richard Ward. “The most simple risk management response is to reduce your own water use or that of your suppliers. However, businesses cannot manage this risk alone and will need to work with the wider community to improve water management and protect this critical resource.”

Specifically, the report identifies two strategies for companies to manage water risk: (more…)