Corporate water strategy post-Replenish
Article written and contributed by Will Sarni
ONE OF my favorite quotes is from William Gibson, the science fiction writer who created the cyberpunk genre and the author of the classic Neuromancer.
“The future has already arrived. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.”
Gibson’s view of the world is accurate, and it motivates me to do my best to connect the dots about what the future holds.
Now is a time to reflect on how we came to have “replenish” dominate corporate water strategy and what might be next based upon signals that the future is here, “just not evenly distributed yet.”
Let’s start at the beginning with The Coca-Cola Company.
The Coca-Cola Company’s corporate water replenishment strategy began in 2007 when it announced an ambitious goal to replenish 100% of the water used to produce its beverages by 2020. This marked the start of a comprehensive approach to water stewardship that has evolved over the years.
The strategy was developed in response to growing awareness of water as a critical resource and the company’s responsibility as a major water user. Coca-Cola recognized that water was essential to their business operations and vital for the communities where they operate.
Key aspects of how Coca-Cola initiated and developed its replenishment strategy include:
Setting a clear goal: By 2020, the company committed to returning to nature and communities an amount of water equivalent to what it uses to create its finished beverages.
Developing partnerships: Coca-Cola collaborated with governments, NGOs, communities, and other companies to implement water projects. Partners included the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), The Nature Conservancy, USAID, and many others.
Focusing on local projects: The company implemented community water partnership projects in various countries, addressing issues like safe water access, watershed protection, and water for productive use.
Improving operational efficiency: Alongside replenishment efforts, Coca-Cola worked to improve water use efficiency in its own operations.
Creating a holistic strategy: The company developed an integrated approach that included plant performance, watershed protection, sustainable communities, and global awareness.
Implementing tools and training: Coca-Cola developed training modules and tools to help its operations and bottlers manage water risks and improve water stewardship practices.
By 2015, Coca-Cola announced that it had achieved its replenishment goal five years ahead of schedule, becoming the first Fortune 500 company to publicly claim such an achievement. The company has since maintained this commitment and continues to evolve its water strategy, as evidenced by the announcement of its 2030 Water Security Strategy in 2021.
This strategy represented a significant evolution in corporate water stewardship, moving from focusing primarily on replenishment to a more comprehensive approach addressing water security, community resilience, and watershed health.
Now, corporate water strategies are dominated by “replenish” and “net positive” with organizations such as the CEO Water Mandate Water Resilience Coalition.
So what should corporations do next?
Adopt novel ways to achieve 2030 goals.
Corporations such as Microsoft are now working directly with technology companies such as FIDO Tech to help deliver on their replenish and net positive goals. They are launching catalytic communities such as Water United to accelerate impact at scale and build an enduring legacy of solving water scarcity, quality and inequity of access to safe drinking water.
Develop “Handprint” as well as footprint water strategies.
Replenish and net positive strategies are mostly focused on a corporation’s footprint. Corporations now view their water strategy as an opportunity to leverage their scale, size, brand, and investment capability to solve water challenges.
Integrate their water, nature, and climate strategies.
Corporations are moving to quantify the value of integrated water, nature, and climate strategies across economic, business, environmental, and social dimensions.
Solve funding and financing challenges.
Many corporations are using shadow price for water to overcome the low price and business value at risk to justify investing in nature solutions (not just “nature-based solutions). Corporations are also exploring innovative mechanisms to fund and finance their water strategies.
Those are a few of my initial thoughts on where we go from here. I will provide more details on these signals and trends in a longer article.
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Article originally published on Will’s LinkedIn. Go to his LinkedIn here
If you’re at SB’24 this week, join Will and FIDO CEO Victoria Edwards for their breakout session ‘Inside Water United: The brand-led water positive movement using AI to save the Colorado River Basin’ in the Town & Country Ballroom A at 4pm PDT