Corporate water sustainability goals are mostly just talk
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Business
Corporations in many sectors of industry use a lot of water. In general, industry uses around 20% of the world’s freshwater withdrawals, while in the wealthiest nations, corporate water consumption can be as much as 40% of the total. And according to one March 2019 survey, 64 of 86 (or 75% of) large, multinational companies polled have goals in place to use less.
Yet, when it comes to actually doing something to meet those goals, many companies have thrown up their hands. Almost half of the companies surveyed, or 44%, had no plan in place for how to reach water-savings goals.
The survey was conducted by Ecolab, a US-based water-and-energy technology firm, and the US-based GreenBiz group, which develops reports on sustainable business practices. All of the 86 companies surveyed had 2018 revenues of at least $1 billion, and spanned the tech, consumer goods, healthcare, and hospitality sectors. Almost 60% of those companies agreed that global water scarcity was becoming a business risk. But that didn’t mean they were doing anything about it.
Freshwater around the world is running out, due to a mix of climate change, population growth, and the resulting over-pumping of groundwater. By 2050, about 5 billion people globally are expected to suffer from water shortages, according to a recent UN report—that’s the equivalent of two-thirds of all people alive on Earth now.
In general, agriculture is a much bigger water user than industry—with use ranging from 40 to 80% of water withdrawals depending on the country. But in a world where freshwater is increasingly a limited resource, and the availability of drinking water for towns and cities is threatened, the industrial sector will have a major role to play in staving off shortages.
Media
Taxonomy
- Sustainability
- Corporate Sustainability
- Sustainable Development Goals
2 Comments
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Глобальный дефицит воды можно погасить, если начать управлять движеннием воды в реках. Существующий способ сохранения воды в больших водоемах перед гидроэлектростанциями разрушает биоту. Дальнейшее движение по рекам в половодье проходит на высоких скоростях и вся вода уходит в моря и океаны. Мое предложение сохранять воды в малых объемах по всей длине реки позволит пополнять подземные запасы и удерживать воду в поймах самой реки. См. на моей странице. Основным элементом этих работ является патентованное устройство для профилирования дна и русла рек. Приглашаю к сотрудничеству по разработке нового устройства для углубления дна рек.
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The industrial water could mostly be categorized by three purposes; cooling, process and consuming water. Cooling and consuming water could be obained by seawater that doesn't need recovery, while process water should be by fresh water that can be reusable with treatment. It depends on water availability and cost/performance how much you have to recover from the used fresh water.