Water Stewardship and Circular Models Economy

Both Water Stewardship and Circular Models the Business Model is Clear, but Words Must Become Actions to Prevent Them Living

Circular economies, the theory says, produce virtually no waste, as all raw materials are re-used and recycled continuously to form a closed loop. It's a dramatic shift from our current linear economy, in which we take, make, consume and dispose, drawing regularly on our natural resources to create products that eventually end up as trash.

From a conservation perspective, a closed loop system is obviously better for the environment. But is that it? Does it really have the potential to transform business markets?

It might. When circular economy thinking is applied to business operations, it is surprisingly synergistic to water stewardship.

For both water stewardship and circular models, efficiency isn't the end game. Yes, it's important to reduce the water required to make and dispose of products. Water efficiency also tends to carry additional benefits, such as increased profits and energy savings. But from a natural resources management perspective, there's much more to do.

So you saved water. Where did it go? Is it actually going back to people and nature, or is the factory next door just using more? Both circular models and water stewardship encourage holistic water management.

During the panel, a familiar weakness also emerged. The discussion focused mostly on how businesses can change the things they control: product design, raw materials required for manufacturing, waste treatment options, etc. In the early days of water stewardship, the companies WWF worked with would also fall back on discussing only what they controlled directly.

It's time to move beyond this comfort zone.

And there may be momentum to do just that. Earlier this summer,the European Commission issued proposalsfor legally binding measures that would increase recycling and phase out landfilling, essentially transforming the EU into "a lean circular economy."

We know there is abusiness case for water stewardship. Similarly, the EU commission claims that a circular economy could save EU companies around €600bn annually.

There are lessons from water stewardship that circular economy advocates can learn. There are also lessons water stewardship experts can learn from them. If this trend truly takes hold, tools such as theInternational Water Stewardship Standardcan help companies transition to closed-loop systems.

Applying water stewardship philosophies to circular models - and vice versa - may be the push we all need to get more companies thinking about sustainable resource management, instead of hoping efficiency will save us.

Source: The Guardian

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• Water Utility
• Water Management