The Pacific Institute is dedicated to protecting our natural world, encouraging sustainable development and improving global security. Founded in 1987 and based in Oakland, Calif., the institute provides independent research and policy analysis and aims to find real-world solutions to problems such as water shortages, habitat destruction and global warming.
Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) has been a leading provider of innovative business solutions to many of the world's leading companies since 1992. 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 firms around the globe through advisory services, conferences and research.On top of soaring energy prices, the likelihood of expensive antipollution laws and the higher costs of raw goods and materials, you can almost certainly add this: What you pay for water is going to go up -- and in many places, you may not be able to get as much as you want at any price.
"In the next two to five years, companies will need to adapt to availability concerns such as water stress and flooding; quality concerns, including increasingly contaminated surface and groundwater; and access concerns, specifically competition (real or perceived) with other water users," warns At the Crest of a Wave: A Proactive Approach to Corporate Water Strategy, a report by the Pacific Institute and Business for Social Responsibility.
While Crest of a Wave describes a crisis that is still developing and will long be with us, it also lays out a strategy for companies in any industry to cope with water conservation and pollution issues. These three components -- innovation, investment and collaboration -- construct a 21st century corporate water strategy that goes far beyond tracking inputs and outputs, the report says. The following summary focuses on how to implement conservation and recycling efforts by investing in new equipment, training employees and monitoring and evaluating all types of water use.