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A Corporate Water Strategy Reveals The True Strength Of A Company

By Daniel Stouffer

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 06Aug2010 Word count: 629 Viewed: 288 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

Within an overall goal of sustainability, the management of water often falls far down the pecking order. Simply, companies can often not see past the need to constrain their carbon emissions. There is little wonder, as so much emphasis has been placed on the establishment of a carbon footprint that this term is very much a household word these days. Smart companies are coming to understand that they cannot be sustainable until and unless they pay attention to the management of all their resources.

Companies may not be able to understand the risks they face, nor the opportunities that are available to them, associated with your consumption of water unless they create a footprint to cover this issue as well. A water footprint will investigate how the company uses water currently and how it discharges wastewater as a consequence of doing business. There are many risks associated with the use or discharge of water and the company must be able to assess these risks as part of its total strategy.

Within an overall goal of sustainability, the management of water often falls far down the pecking order. Simply, companies can often not see past the need to constrain their carbon emissions. There is little wonder, as so much emphasis has been placed on the establishment of a carbon footprint that this term is very much a household word these days. Smart companies are coming to understand that they cannot be sustainable until and unless they pay attention to the management of all their resources.

As we have come to understand that carbon emissions can be generated throughout a product lifecycle, so we need to understand that our water usage liabilities extend beyond the "four walls" of the business. A corporate water strategy must investigate supply chains downstream and disposal upstream. Management may find that, because they have a lot of water embedded within their product, or a considerable amount of wastewater, that they have a much more complex analysis to perform than they might initially have thought.

Because water is such a finite resource and because we are all entirely dependent on its sustainability, a company faces particular threats and challenges over and above strict financial ones. In this process of discovery, the company will need to assess how others, corporate and individual, may rely on the same sources for their water and how they are currently, or could be in future, impacted by the decisions made in the boardroom.

It is far better for a company to develop its corporate water strategy to exceed those of any regional or national legislative body. Once again, the forward thinking organization will seek to develop its water strategy to enhance its reputation, in the same way that it approaches carbon mitigation.

As we have seen during recent pronouncements from Wal-Mart and others, the operations of a supplier are becoming increasingly important and under scrutiny from the buying company. Packaging materials are a particular focus of concern and the company must clearly assess any water related impacts associated with the packaging used to deliver raw materials and work in progress to the production line.

In corporate terms, it is still difficult for many organizations to understand that they must be responsible for the sustainability efforts of their suppliers. This is probably the area that represents the greatest potential for savings, in all energy, emissions and water resource usage.

If a company uses a large amount of water during the production of its goods, the size of its water footprint could be of cause for major concern. In short order, executives must initiate a procedure to investigate any and all ways of mitigating water usage on a daily basis and ensure that the corporate water strategy is as strong as its emissions strategy.

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