Proactive Approach to Corporate Water Strategy

At the Crest of a Wave: A Proactive Approach to Corporate Water Strategy

September 2007

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About this Report Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) and the Pacific Institute have partnered to produce this Trends Report for companies which details a proactive approach to corporate water strategy. The report was written by Linda Hwang, Sissel Waage, Ph.D., and Emma Stewart, Ph.D., of BSR’s Research & Development team and Jason Morrison, Peter H. Gleick, Ph.D., and Mari Morikawa of the Pacific Institute. Please direct comments or questions to Linda Hwang at [e-mail] or Jason Morrison at [e-mail]. About the Pacific Institute The Pacific Institute (www.pacinst.org) is dedicated to protecting our natural world, encouraging sustainable development, and improving global security. Founded in 1987 and based in Oakland, California, the Institute provides independent research and policy analysis on issues at the intersection of development, environment, and security and aims to find real-world solutions to problems like water shortages, habitat destruction, global warming, and environmental injustice. The Institute conducts research, publishes reports, recommends solutions, and works with decision makers, advocacy groups, and the public to change policy. About Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) Since 1992, BSR (www.bsr.org) has been a leading provider of innovative business solutions to many of the world’s leading companies. Headquartered in San Francisco and with offices in Paris and Guangzhou, China, BSR is a nonprofit business association that serves its 250 member companies and other Global 1000 enterprises. Through advisory services, conferences and research, BSR works with companies and concerned stakeholders of all types to create a more just and sustainable global economy. Acknowledgements BSR member The Coca-Cola Company generously provided seed capital to support research into this topic. The views and

References: “Making Every Drop Count.” UN-FAO press release, February 14, 2007. Ibid. iii United Nations Development Programme. 2006. Human Development Report 2006. Referenced from http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/report.cfm. iv See, for example J. Morrison and P. Gleick. 2004. Freshwater Resources: Managing the Risks Facing the Private Sector. A Research Paper of the Pacific Institute, Oakland, California. (August 2004). Available at http://www.pacinst.org/reports/business_risks_of_water/business_risks_of_water.pdf v “Making Every Drop Count,” UN-FAO press release, February 14, 2007. vi UNEP Finance Initiative. Challenges of Water Scarcity: A Business Case for Financial Institutions. P. 9. vii Stein, B.A. 2001. A fragile cornucopia assessing the status of U.S. biodiversity. Environment 43: 11-22; Riccardi, A and J. Rasmussen. 1999. Extinction rates of North American freshwater fauna. Conservation Biology 13 (5). viii World Meteorological Organization and Stockholm Environment Institute. 1997. Comprehensive Assessment of the Freshwater Resources of the World. As cited in Earth Trends by the World Resources Institute. 2001. ix Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 2007. Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Available at http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM13apr07.pdf; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 2007. Working Group I: The Physical Basis of Climate Change. Available at http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/wg1report.html; U.S. Global Change Research Program. 2000. Water: The Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change. Available at http://www.gcrio.org/NationalAssessment/water/water.pdf. x “Asia’s Water Security Under Threat.” UNEP press release, September 6, 2005. xi “Water Crisis Looms as Himalayan Glaciers Melt.” Reuters, September 9, 2005. xii The International Conference on Water and Environment, held in Dublin, Ireland in January 1992, included the following principle among the four so-called “Dublin Principles”: “Water has an economic value in all its competing uses and should be recognized as an economic good.” xiii United Nations General Comment 15, Economic and Social Council, Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, E/C.12/2002/11. November 2002. New York. xiv A. Y. Hoekstra · A. K. Chapagain. 2007. Water footprints of nations: Water use by people as a function of their consumption pattern. Water Resource Management 21:35–48; Chapagain, A.K. and Hoekstra, A.Y. 2003. The water needed to have the Dutch drink coffee. Value of Water Research Report Series No. 14, UNESCO-IHE, Delft, the Netherlands. xv Full-cost accounting resources include: GEMI’s Environment: Value to Business (1998) with guidance on identifying and evaluating costs and benefits associated with environmental activities, available at http://www.gemi.org/EVTB_001.pdf; Tellus Institute’s Total Cost Assessment (P2/FINANCE Software) available at http://es.epa.gov/techinfo/finance/finance2.html; EPA. 1995. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Introduction to Environmental Accounting as a Business Management Tool: Key Concepts and Terms. Available at http://www.p2pays.org/ref%5C02/01306.pdf; The American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ Total Cost Assessment Methodology. 2000. Available at http://www.aceepr.com/publications/tca/TotalCostAssessmentMethodology.pdf. xvi U.S. Green Building Council. xvii Gleick et al. 2003. Waste Not, Want Not: The Potential for Urban Water Conservation in California. Pacific Institute, Oakland, California. xviii Zygmunt, J. 2007. Hidden Waters, A Waterwise Briefing on Embedded Water and Water Footprints. xix http://www.retailwire.com/Objects/Object.cfm/674. xx Crawford, Emily. “Water, the Next Clean Tech Darling?” July 18, 2007, available at http://www.americanventuremagazine.com/news.php?newsid=3199. xxi Ibid. xxii Cambridge Systematics. 2005. Draft report: Cool Pavement Report. Prepared for Heat Island Reduction Initiative, U.S. EPA. Available at http://www.epa.gov/heatisland/resources/pdf/CoolPavementReport_Former%20Guide_complete.pdf. xxiii Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. 2005. Available at http://www.maweb.org. xxiv Scherr, Sara, Andy White, and Arvind Khare with contributions from Mira Inbar and Augusta Molar. 2004. For Services Rendered: The Current Status and Future Potential of Markets for the Environmental Services Provided by Tropical Forests. Yokohama, Japan: International Tropical Timber Organization (pages 30-31). xxv Hawn, A. 2005. Watershed Services: The New Carbon. The Ecosystem Marketplace.com. xxvi For more information see: http://www.mitigationbanking.org/ or http://www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/facts/fact16.html. xxvii PhilipMorrisUSA. “Our initiatives and programs – Protecting water resources.” Available at http://www.philipmorrisusa.com/en/our_initiatives/stakeholder_engagement/water_usage.asp ii i Business for Social Responsibility & the Pacific Institute | At the Crest of a Wave: A Proactive Approach to Corporate Water Strategy 40