By Tatiana Walk-Morris
As companies devise plans to optimize their water use, one key goal they should consider is preserving their local watersheds.
Any piece of land where water flows toward a stream, lake, river or bay is considered a watershed. Also known as basins, these geographically defined regions provide habitat to wildlife, space for our neighborhoods and vital water sources for industry.
Watershed preservation should be part of companies’ broader efforts to reach a net-positive water impact, or NPWI, meaning reducing water stress in terms of availability, quality and access, according to the Water Resilience Coalition.
Given the importance of watersheds, “companies should aim to design their water efforts to go beyond meeting minimum compliance requirements to ultimately have a net-positive water impact,” said Emilio Tenuta, senior vice-president and chief sustainability officer of Ecolab, a global sustainability leader offering water, hygiene and infection prevention solutions and services.
Net-positive water impact is achieved when the company’s water contributions exceed its water withdrawals in the same region. This way, companies can meet their operational needs—and the expectations of surrounding communities.
Companies that don’t update their water use practices to preserve one of the planet’s most precious resources will fall behind many of their peers. Well-known enterprises across manufacturing, technology and food service, among other industries, are participating with Ecolab in the Water Resilience Coalition to create a water-resilient future.
But as more companies join the effort to preserve water in the communities where they operate, many aren’t quite sure where to start. A recent Forbes Insights and Ecolab survey of 308 U.S. and European executives suggests that business leaders recognize the need for better water management, but they also acknowledge a need to strengthen their practices.
Devising A Water Stewardship Plan
To ensure that companies are properly using nearby water sources, leaders must tie water use to broader company sustainability goals, said Tenuta.
“There is a common misconception that sustainability and profitability goals can’t coexist. But that’s not the case,” said Tenuta. “Since businesses rely on water in their operations and supply chains, it is critical for businesses to effort water resilience as a matter of mitigating business risk, in addition to making positive impacts in the communities where they operate.”
So what are the most critical factors for improving organizational water use? Executives surveyed by Forbes and Ecolab cited a need for:
- Creating a rigorous company-wide water use program (31%)
- Using a data-driven approach for water use (31%)
Ecolab is among the numerous corporations advancing water stewardship. The company has outlined its own goals, which it hopes to reach by 2030. To achieve this, the company has been focusing on restoring water withdrawal and safeguarding vulnerable watersheds where it operates, said Tenuta.
Its efforts have begun to show results. In 2021, the company cut its water impact by 25% per unit of production compared with 2018. It also achieved Alliance for Water Stewardship certification at four facilities, Tenuta added.
Tapping Technology For Water Preservation
Though some businesses have the technological capabilities to understand their water management, others haven’t made that investment yet.
According to the survey, less than half (43%) of respondents said their organizations were “extremely mature” in leveraging solutions to assess water safety, quality and efficiency in real time. Meanwhile, even fewer said that their organization was extremely mature in setting meaningful targets (42%), understanding how water use impacts energy use (41%) and meeting wastewater compliance standards and protocols (41%).
Before businesses can understand where they can reduce their water use, they must have the tools to spot areas where they can reduce costs, greenhouse gas emissions, energy use and water use.
To help businesses develop a comprehensive water management plan, Ecolab Water for Climate equips them with consulting, engineering, advanced chemistry, digital technologies and other resources to bring smart water use strategies across the company, said Tenuta.
Beyond the positive impact on watersheds and the nearby communities, some companies have already begun seeing a positive change in their bottom lines. For Ecolab clients in the beverage and brew manufacturing industries, for example, Ecolab Water for Climate is designed to cut energy use by 12%, greenhouse emissions by 6% and water use by 25% on average.
“Adopting strategies to pursue a net-positive water impact can not only have positive effects on local basins but also help promote operational efficiency and business resiliency,” said Tenuta. “It’s a win-win-win.”
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